If you’re taking an online course of any kind, you’re investing your time, energy, and resources in it. That means you care, want to see certain results like building skills, or take your career to the next level, and you want that to be a good investment. But if you constantly get distracted, you might miss out on the knowledge and practical advice you can get. So, it’s worth making some changes to your day to make sure you improve your memory and are more productive and alert during the eLearning experience.
How you structure your day is crucial. Turns out, there are hours during the day when we are most and least productive. Imagine the difference it can make to move your online classes to that prime time!
Well, it can easily happen. The characteristics of this most productive period of the day are that your energy levels are at their highest. It’s much easier to find focus and keep it at that time, you retain information better, and you are more motivated to engage in the lesson. So, find your peak time, now, and structure your day around it.
Distractions are everywhere. Even if you’re alone in your room with your laptop, there can still be plenty of factors ruining your focus. A noisy environment, someone coming in the room, a wandering mind, notifications from your phone, etc. Let’s clearly identify these, and then do something about each one of those.
A great way to ease your mind and let go of anything else happening around you or later in the day is to take a few deep breaths, do one thing at a time, remember why you want to take this course, and how it can improve your life, and then get to work.
Now, science suggests that you do need to let your mind wander every now and then as it’s what unleashes your creativity and helps you focus better when it’s time to learn things. But right before you get to work, you need to leave behind the distractions around you and inside your head, and simply concentrate on this one task in front of you. You, then, become one with the activity, you’re present, and your mind is alert. Whenever we do something consciously and pay all our attention to it, we do a great job.
Downtime is crucial for our uptime. According to research on meditation, napping and more mental breaks work and help high performers reach their goals. And chances are, if you’re a motivated student who’s got a lot on his plate, you don’t have that much time set aside for rest during the day. But you need to do so if you want to improve your focus and memory.
Start by fixing your sleeping schedule. Going to bed and waking up earlier are sure ways to give your body and mind the rest they need but also kickstart them both as soon as the day begins. If you add a short meditation session during the day, you’ll be able to have a clear mind until the evening. Such a trained brain concentrates more easily and for longer periods of time.
Our attention span is quite short, and there’s so much going on around us. With social media, the information overload, and all the random thoughts in our mind, finding focus is a challenge. That’s why you need to set some limits.
For example, decide to browse the Web, watch funny videos, and/or check email just 1 or 2 times a day. Preferably, after your study time. Then, block social media with the right app for that. Your phone is such a big distraction. It takes a lot of our attention away once we unlock it, and we end up spending a lot more time than just checking who texted us.
One of the many advantages of the digital era (aside from the fact that we can learn online and at our own pace) is that we can leverage many other tools to make our days easier.
For instance, track your time with an app, use a tool for journaling your thoughts, meditating, tracking your tasks for the day and checking them off, scheduling meetings, setting reminders, etc. That means you won’t need to remember any of that, which gives you peace of mind and more focus left for your studies.
Don’t be afraid to use tech for easier actions too. I, for instance, track my sleep cycles with my phone and then, get a detailed report on how my brain is doing during that time. Additionally, I like this calculator to add time and use it even though it’s something that takes little to no effort. The point is that I’m saving my focus in any way I can, and technology is here to help me do that for free.
eLearning can be a challenge if the focus is nowhere to be found, but it can also be fun and let you feel accomplished afterwards if you do it right. With the simple but effective techniques above you’ll be able to keep your attention and be a great student without investing all your free time in that.