Hot answers tagged distraction
8
There is no quick solution to this.
Okay, there is. Read the other comments for some good tips. However, the problem is deeper than that, and if you won't fix it, the problem will keep returning to you later.
Pushing yourself, threatening yourself, punishing yourself, etc. those are all short-term solutions which may save the day, but will leave you more ...
5
I am so sorry for the emotional pain you are going through. It is difficult to get up and face the world after it has come crashing down on you. From what you said in a comment you are going through a period of grief which is hard to handle. Believe me I know, as I lost my beloved 5 years ago and of course I had to continue to work since it was now my only ...
5
Much along the same lines as the fitness trick of going for a 5 minute jog (where once you're out there, you end up doing a lot more), do the same with work. The night before plan an easy, enjoyable task related to work to start with. The sense of quick accomplishment can be alluring. You may find it's simply from being anxious, bored or overwhelmed that ...
5
The consequences of your (in)action won't be real until you actually suffer from it.
If you want to go that negative route, visualize that suffering: the embarrassment, the realization that you lost that time and cannot retrieve it, whatever motivates you to do something with a longer-term payoff than the fleeting "thrill" a few hours of video games.
Or, ...
4
Make your studying a game (gamification).
If you like games have you considered trying to create one?
This also many be an indication that you don't like what you are studying.
Your question is an example of instant gratification versus deferred gratification. For example, you are given 20 bucks. There are two choices: either spend it now (instant) or ...
3
What can I do to make the consequences of my action seem more real? I mean, come on, I wouldn't be homeless if I don't study for my exam tomorrow, right?
Get a part time job.
Move in a separate house and pay its rent from the money earned by your part time job.
Pay for your studies from the money earned by your part time job.
It seems to me that ...
3
I used to have that problem and found a few tricks to help:
Do as much as you can before bed to smooth the morning routine, e.g. load up the coffee maker, lay out your clothes, pack your work/school bag, etc. The less you have to think first thing and the more you can autopilot, the better.
Keep your phone/table/computer in a location that is moderately ...
3
I would choose either
google alerts
or
yahoo pipes
and then just set up the kind of news you are searching for via keywords and search operators. In your case you should use the minus operator a lot to rule out commentarys, yellow press etc.
Take a look at other possible operators http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
Yahoo ...
2
Thanks, Anisha. I have a huge problem with this too, only because it makes me seem ridiculous to my co-workers. So i have an Outlook reminder now, to keep me aware of not doing it, because otherwise i absolutely have no idea i'm doing it. And on bad days, i also just put scotch tape over my lips. It sounds weird, and it's a pain, but it works.
I also ...
2
For me, music did it while in grad school. Use it as a trigger, not just to block noise out (but that's also good with some nice headphones). In my case, I played "Moon Safari" by Air, all the way through, and I found that my productivity increased substantially. The choice of music matters: You want something that's not strident, with a predictable soft ...
2
I would suggest reading How to stop worrying and start living before going for something as heavy as a full blown therapy. It helped me worry less about a lot of things. It may not be the magic bullet that will makes you confront everything (procrastination will always come into play, even though what you are talking about is already a form of ...
2
Get up earlier. Yeah, it's hard to start but you can make two simple changes to make it easier: 1) If you like coffee, set up the coffee maker the night before and wake up to a nice hot cup of coffee. 2) Go to bed earlier. Really, this will make a huge change in your productivity in the morning. Here's a study which has some hard data to back up getting up ...
2
Your key problem here is that you are starting off badly by going to bed late!
It is always tempting to party all the time as a junior/trainee, but realise that your career may depend on your behaviour in your first job.
Go to bed early. Aim for 10pm - this will give you easily 8 hours sleep (generally considered the usual 'right' amount, and a good start ...
2
Well, since you run out of time you should focus on getting the most oout of your working time. Schedule clear, simple, achievable and short deadline (1 day for example). For this you have to work in a quiet place to avoid being disturbed. As you start getting something done, you will fill more confident and motivate.
Hope it helps!
2
I can empathise with you in your current situation. I'm a part-time student studying for a Masters degree in Systems Engineering. I also have a full-time job and lots of other interests, amongst them software development, coding paradigms, game design, etc. The first thing I can say is that you must learn to prioritise, if you haven't already. Work out ...
1
You really, really want to beemind your studying! Here's a guest post on the Beeminder blog by a student who did so: http://blog.beeminder.com/gandalf
Beeminder is all about setting up very real consequences, as well as visualizing your progress, which serves as the positive reinforcement.
It's super great, says the co-founder of Beeminder. (Sorry for my ...
1
There's a classic article from Harvard Business Review that talks about tasks as monkeys. They're kind of cute and cuddly, and you feel kind of lonely if you don't have enough of them around. But if you have too many of them at feeding time and don't have enough bananas to go around, watch out, you're in trouble! See ...
1
To me, it's just a matter of priority and practice. No, you will not be homeless if you don't study for the exam, but then why are you going to school in the first place?
So, after you've realized that you indeed HAVE to study to pass the exam, graduate, get a decent job etc, it only takes practice. Focus is just a matter of practice. No, you will not be ...
1
My co-founder wrote up a brief essay on the topic of time management for college students a few months ago. These are his main points, but I won't copy the whole thing here:
Be organized
Focus on purpose, not procedure
Don’t just read, think
Understand the basic things
Prioritizing your coursework
Work on things that are important
During tests, work on the ...
1
Sounds like you wake up but you aren't ready to face the day, so you do easy tasks like checking email, twitter, facebook, etc. The root of this is simply procrastination. You know you need to work, but you feel like you can kill some time before getting to it.
One way to stop this would be to write down on paper a list of important things you want to get ...
1
Your question is the first step to get rid of your problem. However you need motivation (that maybe needs to be built up) and a good technique to
There is no silver bullet (I think) but a lot of good techniques to work better.
"mood" and "posponing" bullets
I have successfully adopted Pomodoro Technique, this is a good time & task management ...
1
bad news seems to impact me more negatively than other people -- I
seem to have a harder time shaking it, and it seems to impact my
productivity more drastically than I see in other people, once you
control for how bad the news is.
This is, almost literally, the definition of a person of the introverted type. I recommend you take the Myers-Briggs ...
1
The workplace is not quiet either in most places. It is worth it to learn to concentrate when others are making noise. The younger you learn this the better.
Check with your frat brothers, some of the others may also want a better place for studying. You might be able to set up a better place within the frat house or at least some quiet hours. Certainly we ...
1
You need to evaluate the higher purpose of why the small things are entering your consciousnesses. Ask yourself. "What is this really and why did this capture my attention."
Whats the successful outcome of me having handled this small thing? Is that important?
It could be that you are giving yourself too many options. If you start to think about the higher ...
1
You can try this:
Put a rubber band on your wrist. Snap it hard (and mentally yell STOP) every time you find yourself talking to yourself out loud.
I used this technique to get myself to stop mentally talking down to myself and it works quite well at getting your attention when you are doing something you don't want to be doing.
1
Analyze what waste your time
Keep disconnecting from Internet. Whether you are reading online journals, news, study materials, or anything else, download their offline copy. And read from them.
Make a rule to be away from social sites like facebook, google+, twitter. Access them once in a week or on weekend only.
Use Google calendar like utility which can ...
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