Removing obstacles to learning focus

DO you have that awful sense of “Where did the time go?” in the middle of a semester? Organising your time is important but before you get there, it’s worth checking out if you are unintentionally sabotaging your productivity.

Here are some common ways we can become distracted from study goals.

Being too concerned about small matters

It’s nice to do well in everything, but if you are limited in time, it makes sense to put the most effort into the assignments that carry the most weight in terms of marks.

Work out at the beginning of the semester what you need to do and how much each piece of work counts towards your end grade. Focus your best energy on the things that really matter.

Taking on extra curricular activities that don’t count towards the bottom line

While it’s important to have fun and to learn soft skills from activities like the debating team, it’s not so good if you’re so overloaded with commitments that you’re impinging on your study time.

Take a look at your non-essential activities and be ruthless about cutting out time eaters that don’t contribute to your learning goals. You can pick up the fun stuff later when you get the dream job.

Not setting your study scene

To get good work done you need to have a quiet space with all the resources you need and enough time to really get into what you’re doing.

If you’re trying to get things done in the coffee shop, you’ll be distracted by friends, noise, that book you don’t have and more.

So create your workspace, gather the tools you need, switch off your phone and make studying a naturally productive activity.