well people the time of the year that we all have been dreading is here finals. for some reason the minute i sit down to study i have THE hardest time concentrating. i find myself going through the regimen you know the one i check my Facebook, email, twitter, instagram (on my phone), blogs, and then check Facebook, email, and twitter on my phone. then i start studying and that lasts for about 8 minutes tops, and then it starts again.
so this finals i'm going to try something different. usually i check myself out of Facebook for finals week and go on a fast. but this time i think i'll stay connected and give myself short breaks to keep myself sane. instead of trying to kill myself by studying for long periods of time (slowly dying inside) and then hitting a wall. i'm going to try to do short, really productive study sessions that will make me feel motivated and excited about doing well on all my finals.
here are 5 tips to improve your concentration :)
1. use the 5 more rule:
this means that when you are approaching the wall that everyone hits when they are studying give yourself the goal to just do five more, read five more pages, memorize 5 more vocab words, hold it for just 5 more minutes and then take a bathroom break. it is comparable to when you are running and to improve your endurance you have to push yourself farther than you have before.
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| gabby during last semester's finals |
2. one thing at a time:
this is something that always kills me because i want to give somethings more priority than others, but i obviously want to do well on everything, so not concentrating on those things are less priority is making me think about how i won't do well on them and then i'm not concentrating on what i really should be focusing on
so this is what you do. make a list, break things down into manageable goals, and then give yourself time limits on each goal. then you have a plan to concentrate on those less important things and you are able to dedicate yourself to the real important stuff.
3. conquer procrastination
is putting this off going to make it better in the end? or are you going to hate life more by not doing some of it now? this is what happened with my 12 page paper. instead of doing a little bit of it at a time throughout the semester i had to do a whole bunch all at once during a 10 day span. it sucked. take it from me people follow that list do things in little steps, everything will come together smoothly and you won't be hating your life. make sure you also put yourself in the right environment not to procrastinate. for example i can get nothing done in my apartment so when i need to focus i HAVE to banish myself to the library.
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| just do it |
4. use your hands as blinders
picture your mind as a camera, most of the time you are taking a panoramic picture, taking everything in and we can operate quite efficiently this way. but when you are concentrating you need to give yourself tunnel vision. block out external distractions... this could be the sunshiny day outside, or the cute boy at the table across from you, or your room mate sitting next to you, or in the case of BYU the guy in the gorilla suite chasing the other guy in the banana suit through the periodicals. by doing this you are making a habit and when you give yourself tunnel vision your mind automatically switches to study mode.
5. see everything as if for the first or last time
don't be mindlessly thinking about what you are going to eat for lunch after you are done studying, or that boy who is across the ocean from you. look at this material as if you are only ever going to get to see it once and your life depends on learning it.
I can do this i have been working all semester for this. and just think once it's all over how happy i will be :) but don't forget to love this moment right now because in 5 years we will look back and say that was a great time we all had. love y'all just keep moving forward baby steps!
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