Help???

[fathomlessspite]

I know a few of the people on my flist have been or are students, I just wanted to know how people like actually concentrate when they have extensive amounts of written work to do?

I've always had problems with concentration and generally cant commit myself to anything significant, or stick with one activity for more than a half hour (maybe an hour or two in terms of like films i guess, but i cant read anything for that long).  I just get ansty and bored and move on to something else.  Subsequently I have half read books and fic, half watched tv episodes, films and so on coming out of my ears, but thats kind of unimportant compared with my studies. 

I've literally only got two months left so I figure I can do this you know? Two months of intensive work so I come out of this with something to show for it, but the attention thing has just gotten worse.

So, anyone, how do we concentrate on amazingly dull things such as dissertations and essays?  Tips? Advice?

Comments

[elandrialore.livejournal.com]

I do things in steps. Like I'll do the outline of a paper for one class and then switch to reading a chapter for another class, take a break, re-read the outline, add to it, write the first paragraph, switch to another project, take a break, etc. If I think of things in chunks of time it makes it easier, and if I have multiple projects it makes it easier otherwise I feel bogged down with the same thing and it's hard to concentrate.

[fathomlessspite]

The thing was up until recently I just had my dissertation to do, which is obviously all just one topic, an interesting topic really but not when its the only thing you're doing. I have a few essays now to write, so I think I'll switch them around and stuff.
Yeah thats how I feel, because its one massive project its just like looming in front of you, never ending and its like I'll do anything to get away from it!

Thanks for your advice! :)

[flyersun.livejournal.com]

I think the best thing to do is to brake things down.. so it's not such a huge task.. set your self loads of little goals, you'll feel great when you reach them.

[fathomlessspite]

Yeah I'm going to try to do that. Like I'm writing my intro at the mo and its going on 4000 words and I'm thinking, if i hate writing it this much its gonna suck to read, so i'm breaking it up into subsections and am going to divide the rest up the same way. So its easier to write and hopefully to mark as well :)
Thanks for your help :)

[bingbulette.livejournal.com]

I really know how you feel. It's absolutely the same with me. Most of the time I don't even have the attention span to sit all the way through a movie.

Well, and I don't have all that much writing to do. I mostly have projects and practical assignments, but I guess it's mostly the same.

What helps me is getting away from any and all distraction and getting out of my comfort zone, aka not doing the work at home.
Instead I go to the library or a study room at University or even visiting my mother helps. Then I can concentrate on the task at hand. And once I really concentrate on it I have no problem working on the same thing for hours and hours.

But it's really different with everyone. Mabe doing the work in chunks, with little rewards, that has worked for me before. Like, when I have worked for two hours on this, I will reward myself with watching an episode of this or that show, or surfing the net for an hour or whatever.

Anyway, I wish you good luck with that and I'm sure you can do it! :]

[fathomlessspite]

I used to manage to do that, but at the moment I've so many books and articles and piles of stuff that I need ALL of (which kind of boggles my mind to be honest because their has to be several trees worth of resources on my floor) that I doubt I could lug it all to uni with me via public transport.

I used to get all my work done in the day when i was the only one in my house, but at the moment everyone seems to be at home all the time...

I'm thinking rewards is the way to go tbh, i've recently fallen into new fandoms, so there's plenty of fic waiting to be read, so maybe per 1000 words of disso i'll let myself read a fic :)

Thanks for your help! Hopefully I'll be able to do it! To what quality is the question... :)