Problems Studying? Knock out the Internet

By Michael H. on December 13, 2011

Some students seem to have the innate ability to get all of their studying done. As finals come around these people are incredibly lucky.

photo found on flickr.com, uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/photos/aubergene/3066850162/

If you’re like most people (and by that I mean me), you probably have to find yourself a secluded area in the back of the library devoid of anything that could distract you from studying. Usually I’ll have some headphones on in order to drown out any other noise, but I don’t often end up actually listening to the music.

Recently, my apartment complex was doing electrical work inside all of the apartments which required them to cut off the power for about 4 hours. This meant that the ethernet router would also lost its power. I ended up proving incredibly successful with my study habits during this time.

I had forgotten they were coming, and when I got back from class I found my door off the hinges and multiple contractors inside with plastic sheeting separating the work area from my apartment. At first I thought that this would be far too distracting to actually get work done, but it was surprisingly helpful.

I replaced the low din of the music in my ears with the humming of their saws. I brought out the multitude of notebooks for my classes and found myself easily drafting the reading responses that I had to work on. In just a short half hour I had filled 5 more pages with notes and was easily ready to start working on my finished copies (which were due in just a few hours.)

Though the contractors killing my electricity had proven helpful for one class, it would have been detrimental to another had they taken more time than necessary.

PROS of non-internet living:

  • less likely to find yourself on Facebook.
  • no constant email reminders or other noises.
  • no friends messaging you with what happened to them today, asking to hang out, or sending you funny YouTube videos of cats.

CONS of non-internet living:

  • incapable of submitting online assignments
  • no access to online research documents
  • inability to email professors, teaching assistants, or classmates if questions arise.

Luckily for me, I had the Internet back online when I needed to submit my documents to my professor. Unfortunately, if you didn’t choose to have your internet turned off and hadn’t planned for it, you could find yourself in a world of trouble as the semester comes to a close and all the gigantic assignments (and thus, most heavily weighted) are due. In the current state of the digital age that we’re in, nearly everything is completed and turned in online except for exams.

Essentially, unplugging your own internet at home might be a good idea (if your roommate doesn’t mind) as a way to boost your productivity. If you want an even simpler route, just turn off your Wi-Fi connection or unplug your ethernet cable. If you have to go the more extreme route because you’d be too tempted to plug them back in, find somewhere that you can sit down and get work done that doesn’t have online capabilities so you can power through your textbooks and notes.

Just make sure that you’re not too far out from a connection or remember to plug yours back in well ahead of time. You never know when you might remember that last-minute essay or project you completed and forgot to throw into the drop box, and this late in the game you can’t throw your grade away on silly mistakes.

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