The 4 Things That Kept Me Focused When Revising

It is really difficult to focus on one thing.

Especially when it is something that we know we should be focusing on,

But don’t really want to.

It’s possible you’re even experiencing this sensation right now whilst trying to read this newsletter.

So,

Here are the Four things that helped me to stay focused whilst revising.

And I am saving the most ‘interesting’ point for last.

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Number 1: No Phone

Revising without your phone is the biggest difference maker.

I have written about it before and will probably write about it again.

However,

Something interesting that I have been thinking about recently is that despite your teenager’s likely obsession with their devices,

I think most students actually would rather be without their phone when revising,

Especially if it means you allow them to do less revision as a result.

For me this all comes back down to incentives,

If they know that a session is shorter without their phone then with it,

Or if they know they get a reward after doing a certain amount of revision without their phone,

The incentive is there.

Then it is just about accountability.

Of course the phone can just be given to you, the parent.

But another alternative that may cause less arguments is using an app like Flora (https://flora.appfinca.com/en/) which tracks and gamifies how long you spend off your phone.

This puts the agency in the student’s hands whilst still providing the same level of accountability.

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Number 2: Having a clear goal for the session

I would wager that over 80% of students don’t have a real plan for their revision sessions when they sit down.

Maybe more like 90%.

When we don’t have a plan, we often overestimate how difficult a task may be.

The Hard/Easy Effect is when we spend all day,

Or even weeks,

Procrastinating as we believe a task is going to be difficult,

When in reality it turns out to be a lot easier than we expected.

I think we can all relate to doing this.

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Now I appreciate getting a teenager to revise is hard enough

But everything is only going to seem harder without setting a plan for the session.

Writing ‘5 pages of notes’,

Or ’doing 15 questions in a maths past paper’,

Or (even better) ‘continuing to revise until getting 5 random straight line graph questions and 5 random histogram questions right in a row,’

Taking a second to set a goal and ideally,

Be held accountable to that goal, will make a huge difference.

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Number 3: Work expands to the amount of time you allow for it

If I say to myself,

Or even better,

Someone else,

I have to get done 5 pages of notes before I can stop revising.

And I have an hour to go until the Chelsea game,

Or when I have to go out,

You can believe that I will work as hard as I need to, to finish in time.

The process of getting a teenager to start revising,

Is different to the process of helping a teenager to stay focused whilst revising,

(Introducing a tangible time pressure and/or goal, and removing the chance of a casual, ‘sleepy’, attitude).

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Number 4: The Problem is You!

Distracted is the opposite to focused..

And that distraction is usually in the form of parents coming in with tea and biscuits,

Reminding their teenagers about something incidental,

Or stumbling in with a bunch of washing.

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Now teenagers need to take some blame for this,

They need to be working in a private location,

(I prefer it if its not their own bedroom but sometimes this has to be the case),

And they need to inform you when they are revising,

(Back to the accountability point I made earlier)

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I know obviously parents have the right intentions,

And sometimes teenagers even want the distraction,

But I am telling you know from an objective position interrupting them during revision stunting them more than you think.

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I hope you all have a great week ahead,

Best wishes,

Joel