Students, if you want to instantly gain more free time, try an experiment this week. While doing homework and studying, shut off your internet and phone. If the internet is absolutely essential for a particular project (like doing research for a paper), keep your email and Facebook accounts closed. Otherwise, shut off all possible interruptions. No email. No calls. No texts. Just do focused work until you’re finished. Wait to check the voicemails, texts, likes, etc. until you’re done.
High school students (and a lot of adults) resist this advice. It’s uncomfortable at first to be cut off from electronic communication. But how much benefit would you need to gain for it to be worth it?
If you got your work done even just 30 minutes earlier each day, that’s 2 ½ – 3 ½ hours a week you could spend doing something else. The extra focus will also help you produce higher quality work. You get better results in less time. And all you have to do is turn off your phone and computer until your work is done.
Don’t believe it works? Try it for a week and see. If you won’t try it, you don’t get to complain about how busy you are.