In yesterday’s blog, I wrote how difficult it was for me to focus when I was at home all day long. When I first decided to stay home and study full-time so I could graduate and get a job as a medical transcriptionist (MT) I thought I was studying incredibly long hours. It was only after a couple of months of making very little progress in my studies that I realized that I was wiling away most of my day in forums or e-mailing people or cleaning the house or whatever else sidetracked me that day.
I did several things to combat this tendency, and I thought in case there were others out there who were just as easily sidetracked as me, it might be helpful to share these ideas.
1. First, figure out where your “time sinks” are at. A time sink is anything that sucks your time away without you realizing it. I have a lot of time sinks, but I realized that my worst ones are responding to e-mails, reading posts on forums, and putting up posts myself on the forums. I can do these sorts of things for hours and not realize that time has passed.
2. Once you’ve figured out what the problem is, you have to control it. Just like with dieting, you can’t cut something out entirely or you will quickly go crazy. You need your chocolate! What I found worked for me was a simple kitchen timer. I found a kitchen timer that allowed me to set two different times on it. I would set Timer 1 to 45 minutes, and Timer 2 to 15 minutes. Then I would sit down to my desk, hit start for Timer 1, and study until the timer went off. When it was on, I would force myself not to take any breaks for ANYthing. I couldn’t get up to go use the bathroom. I couldn’t change the laundry. I couldn’t answer the phone (yes, I turned the phone off. I have no children, and my life is boring, so I figured I could get away with that.)
3. When Timer 1 went off, I then got to eat chocolate, i.e., I finally got to stand up and take a 15 minute break (Timer 2.) No breaks for hours on end would hurt my brain and make me irritable, difficult to be around, and completely ineffective at what I was trying to do. Taking breaks is just as important as working, in moderation of course.
4. What you do when you take the break is also very important. You can’t do something on the computer, because then your body hasn’t changed positions at all, which is a big part of the break time. You need to do something that has you get up and move around, like change the laundry, pick up around the house, check the mail, make your bed, etc. This gets your blood pumping and your mind thinking more clearly, so you can go at it again.
But all of this is for naught if you don’t set a schedule for yourself. Please see my next blog on how to set a schedule, so you don’t burn yourself out.