Should students have homework? This is a controversial issue. We won’t try to find the answer to it now. Instead, we’ll discuss the ways of doing homework quickly. Sometimes when doing homework, it’s easy to get distracted all the time. You probably check your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or something of this nature every five minutes. It’s hard to concentrate on your tasks, but you have to. Therefore, the issue on how to focus on homework perturbs many students. If you are one of them, you should read this article, in which we will give you some precious and practical tips on how to stay focused when dealing with assignments.
Crucial Tips on How to Focus on Homework
We have prepared some tips that will really help you to concentrate. Try to follow them to improve your ability to focus!
Tip #1: Contemplate a schedule.
The key factor that will force you to stay focused is having awareness of what the next task to work on is. This means that you should divide your tasks into stages. If you have a lot of assignments to do, you should write down your plan. You can do this even when you are coming home after classes, of course, if you are not walking. When you have the plan, you won’t spend time on doubting what to do next – you’ll just do it! Also, when you cross off the items from the list, you will feel more relieved and have more energy to complete the rest of your papers.
Tip #2: Think of your clothes.
This piece of advice doesn’t seem to be the most important on how to focus on homework but you should also take it into consideration. The way you look might seem an unimportant factor when you are doing homework. However, it actually matters, and here is why. All people get used to wearing clothes of a specific style. Have you noticed that one day you would like to wear something formal, another day something comfortable, and so on?
People choose specific clothes not only because they are concerned about what others will think about them. The main reason why you put on a certain article of dress is the way these clothes make you feel. Though this issue is unique for everyone, there are some regularities that are true for many people:
1. Loose clothes make people feel calm, a bit unfocused, creative, and free.
2. Tight clothes encourage people to concentrate and make them feel more aimed to the result.
3. Brightly colored clothes urge people to be more unselfconscious.
4. Pastel and achromatic colored clothes can make you feel more serious and businesslike.
So, when you are deciding what to wear while working on homework, make sure that you feel comfortable, but not too comfortable, so that you still stay focused. Also, it’s better to dress in something without bright prints.
Tip #3: Find out your best working hours.
Though all people have their unique specificities concerning the most and the least active time of the day, there are some basic rules that you should follow to focus on studying better:
Rule 1: Don’t study right before going to sleep. When you are young, you rarely face the problem of insomnia, but you can face it if you are regularly engaged with mental activity before sleep. Working on your homework makes you feel anxious and urges the troubles with your sleep. Even if you won’t have problems with falling asleep, you still can be too excited to sleep soundly.
Rule 2: Don’t do your homework just after classes. Constant mental activity is harmful for health. You should take breaks. Just after classes it’s better to have a snack, watch a short episode of a series, play a musical instrument, walk outside with a dog, or just chat with someone.
Rule 3: It’s better to study after 4 P.M. but before 9 P.M. After 3 P.M., your brain is already refreshed from studying in class and still is not too tired before sleep. Plan your mental activity on these hours. Typically, most of the work is completed between 5 and 7 P.M.
Next time, when you are doing your homework, pay attention to the time your energy rises. Thus, you will know on which hours to plan your tasks.
Tip #4: Start with easy tasks.
How to focus on homework when you have many assignments? If this is not the first article on this topic you are reading, you might be a bit surprised with such a recommendation to start with easy tasks. Many teachers advise to work on challenging assignments first. Our opinion is the contrary and we will explain it. Imagine that you have three tasks to do – two of which are simple and one is difficult.
What if you start with the difficult task? You need approximately two and a half hours to complete it. When the first hour is left, you already feel a bit tired, but there’s no progress on the amount of tasks – you are still doing the first one. This thought can play a low-down trick on you. You will probably become anxious because you don’t feel the progress. And you are likely to do other tasks longer.
What if you start with easy tasks?
If you begin to complete easy tasks first, you won’t spend a lot of time on it because you are not so tired. You will probably spend half an hour on each of the easy tasks and you will have almost the whole evening to work on the most difficult assignment. You will feel that you made some progress and relax a bit. You won’t squander energy on thoughts that you still have a lot to do and you will be able to fully concentrate on the difficult task. Here, it is the same principle as with physical training – you start with warm-up and gradually move to more challenging exercises.
Tip #5: Switch mental and physical activities.
It’s impossible to be absolutely concentrated on a certain task; therefore, you should switch tasks. We don’t mean that you should do part of one homework assignment, then part of another, and then again return to the first. We mean that you should change the type of activity.
You can go for a walk, do push-ups, play the guitar, cook a dinner, or anything else that doesn’t require hard mental work. That way, you’ll have rest and do something useful for your health as well. We recommend that you do some physical work after you’ve completed one task, or half of it, if it is too difficult.
Tip #6: Establish rewards.
Last but not least, the final recommendation on how to focus on homework is about rewards. Staying focused is easier when you are properly motivated. Therefore, you should think of how you will praise yourself for doing homework. Our suggestions:
- Chat with a friend.
- Eat something tasty.
- Watch a TV series.
- Play a video game.
- Read an interesting book.
You shouldn’t break the rules and get the reward until you cope with the task. In this case, you won’t have the motivation to continue doing homework.
If you like this article, also, check out How Homework Causes Depression and Stress.
Are You Eager to Get Assistance?
Should students have homework or not? This is not the issue that we are authorized to handle. Our stance is that students should do their homework to develop their abilities. However, we also think that students should get some help if they are bewildered with certain assignments. Unfortunately, teachers don’t have enough time to help each student. For this reason, you might have to apply to tutors.
WriteMyEssayOnline.com offers you the ability to receive assistance from experienced and well-educated writers. They are able to work on all types of papers. You need only provide them with your requirements. If you need help right away, do not hesitate to contact us. Our service is available 24/7.