STAYING FOCUSED DURING DISTANCE LEARNING

Writer: Eveline Stella Budiman | Illustrator: Ariyani Nuraini | Editor: Athaya Hardono | Photographer: Reinardus Darren

An entire year has passed since COVID-19 wreaked havoc on everyone’s lives. Since the commencement of stay-at-home orders, people have shifted much of their daily lives online – this includes students who are forced to take their classes from home. When the commute is simply between the bed to the desk, many have found it difficult to maintain their focus and remain productive. In this article, we bring you a few tips in order to help you stay focused and centered during the long hours of online lectures.

Keep your desk clean and organized

While some view a messy desk as a sign of intelligence, we believe that a cluttered desk is simply a sign of a cluttered mind. A clean and organized workspace helps eliminate distractions, which would subsequently help you better concentrate and remain focused while studying.

Pick a good studying spot

We believe that it is necessary for you to find a space that is both quiet and has an adequate amount of light in order to maintain your focus during online classes. We strongly suggest you to not take your classes from bed. Yes, it may be very tempting to listen to lectures while laying down on a bed – especially when no one is watching. However, with the way our beds are associated with comfort and sleep, studying in bed may get you into lazy mode and possibly fall asleep. In all, we encourage you to dedicate a study space that is comfortable, but not too comfortable.

Go offline

Distractions are always a click away. With classes now online, it is understandable that you find it even harder to resist the temptation of checking out your phones and mindlessly scroll through Instagram when no one is there to scold you. This is why we encourage you to put your phone on airplane mode; or better yet, turn it off and place it somewhere far away. There are also several applications that help you focus and block distractions during class like Forest and Freedom. These focus apps help you build a better learning habit by blocking both websites and apps on all of your devices, which would then force you to focus on your studies.

Start taking notes

Taking notes serves as a great way for you to stay focused during an online class. Aside from providing you a record of what was covered during the lecture, notetaking is proven to keep you alert and stay focused. When you are taking notes, you are forced to pay attention to the class’ contents in order to jot down the important parts for you to review later on. As you concentrate on what to comprise in your notes, you are less likely to be affected by whatever distractions around you.

Though this remote teaching method allows students to learn from the comfort of their own homes, many complain that they struggle to stay focused during lessons due to the many distractions within their reach. We understand how staying focused was often hard enough in the offline learning setting, let alone online. However, we would like you to hang in there and bear with this online learning format for now as we hope for the pandemic’s end. In the meantime, be sure to give these tips a try and see if you can feel the change!