Concentrating on homework.
 

You know, I came home, and by instinct popped a beer open. Then I thought, "fuck, gotta get this algebra homework done." After the first one, I drank another. Now I'm buzzing and found that it is actually calming me down enough so that I'm not frazzled and can concentrate better.

I am SO drinking in between classes from now on.

What weird shit have you found helps you with your homework? This should get some decent responses since semester just started.

Disabling the Internet connection on the PC. Crazy, I know.

It does not seem to have worked for you. :(

Lots of caffeine. Sometimes I'd jerk off before homework. One time I actually took my stuff to an empty classroom and did it at the desk.

While I usually do that, although sometimes when I get down to the nittygritty I still revert back to just plain silence and grasshopper chirps. >.>; While those simulations seem to be really good at "creative" part of the whole enterprise (usually the beginning, roughing out).

Sometimes it isn't so great when I have to work on the more details and technical stuff while blasting heavy metal for some reason. Although that's usually more indicative of hitting a creative block.

Unfortunately sometimes I just have to turn off computer to concentrate. <.<; I don't really have odd ways of keeping myself concentrating other then eliminating distractions by moving locations (usually out of the house, and to either Coffee shop or Comic books store), or setting objectives and creating a flow of working and hitting specific goals one after another.

Being a compulsive internet browser (?) doesn't help me at all.

I bought a cd of rainfall that helped my son sleep when he was younger. When I was taking stats a few semesters ago, I found that I could concentrate better with the cd playing.

I guess the weird part would be that I played the rainfall cd at the same time that I had to listen to and watch the lectures and it helped me not fall asleep while trying to listen to a boring lecture about statistics.

Listening to music helps when you're doing music related homework. Who'da thunk? Also drone is fucking fantastic for helping you focus. I remember once when I was working on my Zappa paper last semester when some early Earth track randomized in and it was nearly 20 minutes of static-ish stuff. Amazing.

I used to smoke dope just to get through days at school. I never brought books home after freshman year, let alone do homework.

When I was in college, I would usually listen to NPR (nothing important on the broadcast, though) and sit on the couch to do homework. Usually with a cup of coffee.

Writing papers was always done at the PC with some ambient music.

I usually brought down homework with my peers. Since I'm unable to do something in silence or calmity, noises and chatting with them actually helped a lot. Especially if there was an unwritten agreement to divide the work.

Now I spend time listening to music and checking the net sometime when hitting the work. Some sweet snacks give an aid too.

And no, switching off the Internet don't help much.

The main thing that helped me concentrate on my homework was being pressed for time. It was honestly impossible for me to do most of my work if I tried to do it in a timely manner, but when I got to a point where it was 'do this shit now or fail' it was surprisingly easy to stay focused on the work (though of course I have to keep an eye on the clock as well).

That's obviously a terrible thing to be doing, but remembering back over my time in college I realize that's how I finished the brunt of my work.

I believe rockgamer nails it.

Deadlines!

Alternatively I like to study in a quiet environment without music. Because my mind would wander and try to analyze the piece which takes me off the task.

I think having a neat and comfortable and pleasant work space helps put you in the mood to concentrate.

I always need background noise when I'm doing homework. If it's music it'll be BoC or something similarly ambient-electronica, but half the time I found it easier to work if I threw on an old DVD I'd seen hundreds of times. I also prefer to work on the floor because it helps my posture; I hunch over work on a desk/table but on the floor I can stretch out properly.

I cannot focus on any kind of homework untill after I have to the watched some porn and jerked off. I wish I was kidding in this one.

I also would always do a shot or something before I started any homework

P.S. Take a test High or Drunk. 9 times out of 10 I did better than when I was sober due to the fact that I wasn't afraid of making mistakes. Also when I went to class drunk on St. Patrick's day, I retained more information then I did all semester.

Actually it never works :(

I've found that the time of day has a lot of impact on my ability to focus on my studies. I'm at my best for studying early in the morning. Unfortunately, I have a hard time disciplining myself to go to bed early enough, so most days I get things done in little increments between other activities.

Another time of day that allows me to work better is late night, though that one is rather hard to stick to as well since my girlfriend tends to be KO'd after midnight, and that makes it so that staying up all night working would only end up in the two of us never seeing each other, so that's out of the questions.

I guess my best option would be to get up at 4 in the morning and go to bed at 10 in the evening, though that is most certainly not going to happen in the near future.

When it came to homework for both school and college, I found that music helped me a lot.

Yep. I fully agree. I found out a few times that me trying to do something ahead of time usually took me up to 5x as long as it should have taken me if I had just put it off until the last minute. Case in point: about 2 years ago, I had a Computer Engineering project to do. Attempting to be the good little boy that I was, I tried to start on it a week before it was due. For the next 5 days I worked on it just a little each day. By the time the 6th day rolled around, I pretty much scrapped what I did the last 5 days and redid the entire thing on that day and got it validated on the 7th day and turned it in the 8th day.

Of course, you hit the nail on the head for the flip side too. This becomes problematic if you have a lot of classes which might throw homework at you at any given time, potentially screwing up your schedule. Luckily, most classes give you about a week to do homework, so this is rarely an issue.

There have actually been studies that found people do better on tests when they take them in the same state of mind as when they were studying for them. That means if you tended to get high when studying, it would actually be beneficial to be taking the test a bit buzzed.


I generally like working on homework with friends since it makes it a lot more relaxed and group effort than sitting alone in my room trying to get through impossible problems. I have found a few times when I'm completely stuck a beer or two will help me out since I'll be less likely to dismiss ideas which I'd normally think are wrong.

lol, Wastefield State.

This is gonna sound elaborate, but I just need space. Open space. If I can sprawl my stuff around and lay down on the floor and go to town, I'm usually fine. I can't do work at a desk, and I need background noise. Like a TV, preferably with something on I've seen before, this way I'm not compelled to watch it, just so that it's not silent in wherever I am.

Honestly my preferred position is laying on my stomach, laptop in front of me, with no one else in the room, and my books sprawled about.

Pretty much this. I'd plop myself down in my chair, fire up my PC, turn on some trance music, and get to work. If I ever got stuck on something or frustrated I'd just talk to one of my buddies for a while, or browse. After I cooled down some I'd tackle whatever it was I was having trouble with before. Half the time it worked. I figure it was because I was "clearing my head" or something.

That's also pretty helpful.

I usually find, the best way for me to concentrate on my homework is to literally have peace and quiet in a comfortable location. During my time at college my most comfortable location was my own room. I don't do well with distractions and my mind can wander fairly easily. The less distractions there are, the better chance I have when concentrating on my homework.

I had lived in residence during my entire time at college and from time to time I always found it hard to study especially when I was on a floor with 30 to 40 other students. Like any college residence I would assume you would have quiet hours, but a lot of times they were incredibly lenient with it. The first two years of university I really struggled with it. I couldn't hold it against anybody because it was college I wasn't going to get bent out of shape just because some students were making noise.

My third year I finally devised a way that I could concentrate without any distractions while still being in my residence room. What I did, is that I set up the majority of my courses in such a way, that they would be either early in the morning, really late in the afternoon, and a night course.

So with that kind of schedule during my last two and a half years. I use to stay up all night and do my homework and it worked because for the most part after 11:00/12:00 in the night; everybody was asleep. Went to my morning classes, got my lunch early, took a nap, woke up to my late afternoon courses or night course. Finished those, went for another nap. Woke up and repeated. During some days I had to adjust because some of the times for my courses were in the late morning or early afternoon, but that would just mean I would go to bed at 4 or 5 in the morning.

As strange as it was, I actually found it really good and my marks and the quality of my work really improved during my last few years at college.

Coke and adderal. But I don't do homework.

take your books to a study centre or library. get a friend to join you. you will be forced in some ways to concentrate.

will work in some ways, although i like to be at home because i have all my materials with me

What kind of pussy school did you go to? I'd say more people were awake at midnight on my floor than at any other time of the day.

I used to study and ask things I don't understand in chat. The collective mind hive that is the internet is a great tool for cramming.

RR even helped me out with Calculus over IRC and AIM.