My top five distractions and how I deal with it

By: Qingyi Zeng

1. Messages

When you are working on your homework or reading you might receive a message. I will think to myself “I can reply and put it back down.” We all know that that’s not true. Once I have picked my phone up I won’t be putting it down any time soon.

What I do to prevent that from happening is put my phone on mute beforehand, that way I can prevent myself from picking my phone up at all during my study hours. Or you can also put airplane mode on or just shut your phone off completely. Also, make sure to do that with your laptop too because iMessages and other messaging apps can also come through on the laptop.

1. Social media and TikTok

This comes right after messages because that’s what I usually go on after picking my phone up to reply to a text or message. After replying to the messages I would go to TikTok or Instagram and I can stay on there for hours if I don’t stop myself.

First of all, don’t even pick your phone up. You can use the things I have mentioned above such as turning on airplane mode or shutting your phone off completely. If you don’t want to turn off your phone then what you can do is go into your setting and go to screentime and set a time limit for your app or just lock all of them until your study hours are over.

1. Just staring into space

I often find myself just staring into space while watching lecture videos or doing a reading for my class. I’ll zone out for a few moments before I even realized that I did that.

Most of the time I would go straight back to work but if I am zoning out because I am too tired I would give myself a 30 minute nap time (make sure you set a timer so you don’t sleep too much). If I zoned out not because I got too tired then I would simply go back to work or if whatever I am working on isn’t urgent and doesn't require immediate attention then I would give myself 15 minutes to relax and go watch a short video on Youtube or go on social media. However, do proceed with caution about the 15 minutes break as it requires a lot of self-will to make sure you do return back to work after that 15 minutes had gone by.

1. Talking to other people

While working I often find myself getting up and walking around. What happens next is I find myself talking with my roommates. I live in a suite with 5 other people. So there is always someone in the suite with me. So I always ended up talking to someone and not doing my work.

When I started realizing that’s what I am doing I will tell my roommates that I am doing work so if you see me walking around and not doing work make sure to remind me that I should go back to my room and finish what I am doing. You can do this before you start your work or if you realize you are in the middle of doing it. Another thing is refraining from getting up unless you are using the bathroom or stretching.

1. Music

Sure, music can keep you awake but sometimes it can be distracting too. I always listen to music when doing work and I find myself singing along with the song and not focusing on my work. I would be reading the text for my class but with the music playing and me singing along with the music I did not take in whatever I was reading.

I would say stop listening to music while working or listening to music without lyrics. I always search for “music for focusing” on Youtube and there are many playlists that I find useful when it comes to helping me stay focused.