Need to hone self-discipline badly ...

[Rapid]

Hi, everyone. I wanted to investigate graduate school so I am taking two courses in preparation for it. My problem is self-discipline and concentration. Of course, like everyone else I do have other things besides school that I need to worry about. But sometimes when I sit down to study my mind just wonders or wants to check out news sites, etc. It may have to do with the fact that I haven't taken courses for a while. What disturbs me is that I'm taking courses in a subject that I'm supposed to be interested in. I feel disengaged (yes, lack of concentration begets disengagement). Other factors could be media addiction and the fact that I feel that the courses at this institution are not as difficult as those from my undergrad institution. Since I can't move now I realize that I need to reclaim my focus and self-discipline (which are crucial since I feel that I need to do some extracurricular reading in my field of interest). The thing is that I've never been really good at setting my own goals and achieve them - I've relied on external pressure and deadline (I'm starting to slip on my raw vegan diet again). I've simplified my life so that I can focus the bulk of my free time on my studies. Even so sometimes I do feel overwhelmed by what I need to study despite the free time on my hands. As a result, I procrastinate.

Anyway, I'm hoping to read Steve's articles on self-discipline and goal setting and kick off some sort of a discipline program today.

I'm very disappointed at myself (I obviously have no self-control).

How do you all keep yourself from being distracted? My mind seems to dwell on irrelevant things.

[MariaG]

Some advice from someone who worked full time, commuting more than 10 hours per week, and went to graduate school half time for 3 1/2 years:
1) Experiment with background noise. For me, I found that I studied better listening to music without lyrics. Ambient or classical works well for me. When it came time to write, though, I needed quiet.

2) Get out of your living space. Out of sight, out of mind does seem to be true for distractions. If your house is messy, but you need to study before you get around to cleaning it, go someplace else to study. I personally LOVED studying at my university's library. There is just great intellectual energy at those types of places. If you're doing more rote stuff, you may have success at a coffee shop.

3) Figure out what you can skip. You'll probably have to set priorities both in your schoolwork and in the rest of your life. In my graduate program there were a few classes where doing all of the assigned reading actually HURT my learning - so I didn't do it. You may also want to skip assignments that don't contribute much to your overall grade.

4) Don't fight with your "monkey mind." If you've been away from school for a while you'll find that you've developed a raging case of Adult ADD! Don't fight with your mind when it wants to wander - that takes too much energy. Instead, do what the Zen masters do, and gently redirect your attention every time it wanders. Be kind and patient with yourself or grad school will be miserable.

Best of luck with your studies.

[bbdream8]

It is still possible to do stuff like checking up news and surfing the web but just make sure you set a specific time to do the "time waster" activities. 30 mins to 1 hour?

The rest of your time you just concentrate on what you need to do. Generate a list of to do list for the day and follow it. Having a list definitely help.

These are 2 articles that I wrote on doubling your productivity and dealing with procrastination. Hope that helps.

Keys to double your productivity

10 tips to blasting procrastination

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

[Rapid]

Thank you for your suggestions! I'll try them out.

I find that once I actually get in the zone, I can stay with my studying/writing for a while (like this morning when I finished my paper).

I realized today that I harbor a lot of hidden anxiety about going back to school, getting A's in my classes, and preparing to apply for graduate school (especially studying for the dreaded GRE!). It's my "last" shot (I've been told by my dad too). I think that I've been procrastinating and getting off my raw vegan diet (i.e. eating cookies lying around the house) because of it -- oh, yeah, with two new zits to show for it.

As Socrates said to Dan Millman (The Peaceful Warrior film): "If you don't make the Olympics, what will you do?"

On a separate note: While out and about today, I actually got out of myself, or "became awake," looking around at the sunshine, the birds, the trees, and thought how lucky I am!