Nixing Distractions in Your School Day

Getting connected with friends on your favorite social networking sites. Surfing your favorite websites for the latest online news. Your favorite apps. Online games. Checking on the cell phone and seeing a text message from a friend.

These are all things that can prevent your online high school day from being as productive as you want. These disruptions can keep you from finishing your goal for the day. And as this daily debt grows, you will soon find that you are out of time and with still a ways to go before you finish your current online high school lesson.

As a student of a virtual high school, it is important to be well-motivated, free from distractions so that you can direct your energies towards learning and finishing the tasks at hand. This is particularly true when your learning tool can also be the one that is instrumental in distracting you. Since you are always connected to the internet, it’s quite easy to take a “quick” peek at your Facebook or other social networking account and without realizing it, you have wasted some precious minutes, even hours.

Here are some ways for you to prevent distractions from eating up your day:

• Log off your other accounts. Or at least the notifications that beep or pop up to tell you that someone liked your profile picture or sent you a chat message. Set a specific time (during breaks) where you allow yourself to check your emails and other online activity.
• Get a work app. Fortunately, some enterprising programmers have created software that prevents you from accessing the usual suspects – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. These include apps such as RescueTime (www.rescuetime.com) and The Web Blocker (www.webblocker.com). These apps not only block detracting websites but also keep track of how you use your time. This can make you more aware of any other time wasters that you can whittle out of your schedule to make your day more productive.
• Get rid of external distractions. Your workspace should be one that minimizes distraction. These can be gadgets (such as iPads and SmartPhones), other people in the house, the phone ringing, the dog barking or other noises. Set aside a room or a corner of a room where you can work on your online high school Math or English lessons without you being interrupted time and again. Turn off your phone or put it in silent mode. Put a “Do not disturb” sign on the door. Tell family and friends to avoid visiting during your study hours.
• Finish schoolwork before chatting with virtual classmates. Being connected with your online classmates is important in adding value to what you are learning. You can discuss the lessons and listen to their various viewpoints. However, to prevent chatting with classmates from eating too much of your time, finish your lessons or assignments first.
• Establish a schedule and stick to it. Switching from one subject to another without any discernible pattern can also be a distraction in itself. It will be helpful to establish a schedule where you assign specific hours for specific subjects. This will help you be more focused for the work at hand. The apps mentioned above can help you stick to your schedule.
• Let these distractions be your reward. Now, if at the end of the day, you are able to finish the work you set out to do, you can pat yourself in the back and enjoy! You can actually use the things that could distract you into something you are looking forward to doing once you get your goals for the day done.