Bust a Big Study Time Waster: Turn Off!

That’s right – your computer, your email, the IM, your cellphone, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, landline (if you even know what one looks like). Silence equals focus and the few hours per day you create it, the more of your study goals you will achieve.

We can hear the shrieking now. Most of you have not been untethered since your parents bought you your first cell phone. But, when you are trying to master the depth and intricacies of medicine or veterinary medicine, like the students at St. George’s University, in Grenada, we know the best gift you can give yourself is give yourself is a daily dose of uninterrupted concentration time.

Here’s a simple, but practical process:

1. Every night, make a list of priority study goals and the order in which they must be accomplished the next day. Don’t overestimate the list of possible assignments you give yourself.

2. Determine the time you will need for each item on your list and slot it into your day, outside of class, lecture and laboratory time, leaving time for meals, exercise, sleep and recreation.

3. At the beginning of each of the assigned study times – unplug. Everything. Your focus will increase exponentially.

It’s not just the education support specialists at St. George’s who lobby for renewed study discipline. The problem is even being investigated by the news media. The web is a wealth of information on the subject and many “how-to’s” advise students and businesspeople on the best ways to enhance their workflow. But, a picture tells a thousand words and the hilarious “Hierarchy of Digital Distractions,” from Information is Beautiful, says it all. Keep yourselves out of that bottommost layer and study for success.