Reduce distraction for Better School Marks

You know how when you are in class how easy it is to be distracted by something more exciting than the lesson? Smart comment. Random fart will do it. Screeching car. Teacher's fly undone. Someone makes funny face through door. They happen all the time. Well, you just can't get rid of these, they will always be there and will often be more annoying than a source of amusement. It will take some concentration and practise to get over these quickly and get back to the job. They clutter your clear concentration, stop your brain building links between the important bits. Most of all they waste precious time. Time when you could be learning that really key link or idea that makes you go: "Oh! That's what you mean. Now I get it!" Whatever the "it" may be.

Do not be one of those annoying extremists on the other end who wouldn't know how to have fun if you poked them in the ribs with a funny stick. But do recognise lost time as one of the few valuable assets we have that can never be regained once lost. If the distraction looks like taking over for a while (you know, one of those things that disrupts and keeps going with the class in no mood to settle back down), glance down at your notes to see if you can make some sense of bits that may have been vague. Do not openly ignore the activities or you may be ostracised for it but do take furtive glances at your notes or even take a furtive view into recent work in your mind's eye. Just think back to the last lesson or two and see if you can recall what you learned. It would look just like you were daydreaming, so not really ignoring the class at all.

Carry with you at all times, in your mind, your picture of you after fulfilling the next success task. Remind yourself of what you have achieved, even if you have begun with your success planner as mentioned a couple of posts back. This is good reinforcement for the effort you have put in so far and will give you proper reward for a job well done, so far. It is your success and your focus we are building on.

You cannot blame a disruptive day for a way out of work. What others do should be a separate world away from what you are trying to do. "They were talking"; "They didn't study"; "They did no work"; "They had no notetaking equipment". Being drawn into this is what a lot of people use as an excuse for their own laziness. Keep above it and don't become part of it. It will suck you down toward failure.