Focus…. Focus… Focus..
Okay 35 more minutes left, I remind myself. 30 seconds later, I glance up at the clock again, “Wow, still not 12 yet. Longest minute ever!”
This little conversation with myself happens almost every period. The long periods of our block schedule allow us to get a lot of work done and dive deeply into the curriculum, but if I’m being honest, they are often really hard for me to get through. I remind myself to focus on the small things that the teacher is saying. Maybe count how many times my teachers says ‘the’ or ‘and.’ When that fails and I’m found staring at the yellow and red construction tape from outside or the sun casting a shadow on the Copper Square glass building, I try my other tactic, the fake out. I raise my hand politely, trying not to interrupt my classmates thoughts.
My teacher calls on me, “Yes?”
“Can I go to the bathroom and fill my water bottle?”
“Sure,” my teacher replies blankly.
I excuse myself, grabbing my water bottle. I manage to grab it and head for the door. While on my way to the bathroom, I remind myself why I’m here. I take a few deep breaths and walk to the water fountain thinking about refocusing myself for the remainder of the class. I walk into the bathroom, for some reason my instinct when no one else is in the bathroom is to do jumping jacks.. so there I start; one, two, three… ten. When I complete ten jumping jacks, I take a brisk walk back to the classroom, where I am now ready to sit and get back into focus.
Now that my thoughts are recentered, I manage to get about 20 minutes into the last part of the class without looking at the clock. But as soon as my eyes start to glaze over into my notebook, I realize everything I am writing is just information that I am regurgitating onto the page. I haven’t understood one part of the material! I open my laptop and find this small animation that I found on tumblr. It’s a gif of a line becoming a box. The animation is incredibly soothing. I find myself trying to keep in time with my the line by breathing in and out while the line forms and deforms. This tactic seems to work a lot better than any most times. It is an incredibly good way to maintain your focus. You lose about 20 seconds of the information that your teacher just spit out, but in the end i do think 20 seconds of not paying attention is better than 90 minutes of not retaining one piece of the information.
I know that our classes are long. Of course they are super rad and entertaining at times, but we all have those days were we just feel like a piece of mush. For me, focusing on my breathing and recentering myself works the best. For others, it could be drinking a glass of water, or eating food, or listening to music.
Hopefully my tactics work for you!! Let me know how it goes in the comment section below !