Time management: Distractions

Not sure if this has been posted before, but I got to thinking the other day...

We live in a world full of distractions: friends, work, and, family. With social media everything becomes even worse. Sometime's its hard to pull away from the facebook chat, the twitter posts, or the addicting youtube videos. I've done it all while studying the GMAT and it got so bad that I completely banned myself from friends, going out, and facebook for the entire month before my test because I was constantly distracted and didn't know any other way to focus. But in the last month, the 7 hour cramming days didn't do it for me. I got burned out really fast and became disinterested in studying, but pushed on just because I had the test.

Your life doesn't have to be like this though. I found out about this thing called the POMODORO technique. There's no need for you to look it up. You only do two things: study and take a break.
This what you do:

• Study for 25 minutes
• take a break for 5 mins
• repeat 4 times
• Take a longer break (eat, laundry, etc)

The only requirements are A STOPWATCH and PERSISTENCE. I use my phone as my stopwatch. But you could use a kitchen timer, online timers, or a friend to call you.

For my second time around studying, I've found this immensely helpful. Many of you are studying around 2-3 hours a day, so one cycle is great for you (you lose about 20 mins of time through 4 breaks, which could be made up by another set of 25 mins).

The idea is to keep yourself as productive as possible. 25 minutes is a long enough time for you to get settled in, but not get bored. The 5 minute break gives your mind cool down time. You can do anything in that time, check your twitter feed, read your facebook, or do some jumping jacks. I occasionally come on GMATCLUB, bookmark some posts to read later, and get off. The 5 minute buzzer really helps. One thing about using this though is I get really hungry afterwards so you might want to eat before/after or have snacks in between.

Honestly, I now have a ton of more time to hang out and do the things I like to do while being extremely productive in my studies. I'm starting to like studying for the GMAT again and I even get to post more.

If you find yourself distracted often, try this. Your productivity will shoot up and you'll enjoy studying a lot more