{"id":15093,"date":"2017-04-17T08:52:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-17T13:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=15093"},"modified":"2017-06-22T09:27:09","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T14:27:09","slug":"how-to-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2017\/04\/17\/how-to-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"How to focus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">We have roughly two to three weeks of the spring semester left!<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">That means a lot of you are losing focus when it comes to doing projects and assignments. I feel you; it\u2019s a rough time for all of us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">I thought it would be a good idea to give you some tips on how to get or stay focused to push through this last haul.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">A good way to get focused is to keep food at your desk or work space. I understand that food gives you energy, but let\u2019s be real\u2026 If there are snacks around I\u2019m not interested in anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">You\u2019ll also want a good chair for your work area. If you aren\u2019t comfy while you\u2019re sitting there pretending to do homework what good is that chair? You can go lay in bed and play on Facebook instead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"15073\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2017\/04\/17\/how-to-focus\/attachment\/howto-headphones\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Headphones.png\" data-orig-size=\"543,720\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"HowTo-Headphones\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Headphones.png\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-15073\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Headphones.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Headphones.png 543w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Headphones-226x300.png 226w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>Speaking of Facebook, go ahead and turn off your phone when you\u2019re trying to focus. Who cares if you\u2019re expecting an important call or your kid is at the babysitter\u2019s house?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Since you\u2019re turning your phone, you might as well go ahead and turn everything off. Turn off your computer. Turn off your lights. Basically, get ready to make the room black like your soul.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">While you\u2019re at it just go ahead and clear everything off your desk. You\u2019ve already given up on doing anything productive at this point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">You turned off your electronics and the lights. You\u2019re basically ready for a nap. (And you have that comfy chair.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Once you get that power nap out of the way, there are some other tricks you can do to get you focused.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Try putting on headphones. There are some great soundscapes, like the jungle or a thunderstorm, you can listen to rather than music with vocals. Granted that storm might make you drowsy for another nap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">You could also time yourself when doing a task. If you\u2019re studying, use the method where you read (or whatever studying you\u2019re doing) for a set amount of time, then give yourself a break to do something different.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">I don\u2019t like this method because when I take that break I lose focus for 30 minutes looking at Pinterest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">If you\u2019re one of those people that like rewards, try giving yourself one when you take those breaks. Or you could set some other type of mini goal to reach in order to reward yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">I like this idea because I just use it to get food or my phone and get un-focused again, but this time with food.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"15074\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2017\/04\/17\/how-to-focus\/attachment\/howto-stopwatch\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Stopwatch.png\" data-orig-size=\"547,720\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"HowTo-Stopwatch\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Stopwatch.png\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-15074\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Stopwatch.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Stopwatch.png 547w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/HowTo-Stopwatch-228x300.png 228w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">If you\u2019re really into planning and organizing, you could make a list of things you need to focus on. Make the effort to point out the important ones and strategize how to accomplish those first.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Or you could just be overwhelmed by the ever-growing list and just not do anything. Take another nap instead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019ve also heard that having your pet around helps you focus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">This is probably the biggest lie I\u2019ve ever heard. When my dog is around, I\u2019m either turning around to give her attention or to tell her to stop doing a thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Overall, there are plenty of great ways to get focused. That doesn\u2019t mean we won\u2019t find a way to make each of them lead to a nap or food.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><strong>Brittany Fletcher<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Creative Director<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have roughly two to three weeks of the spring semester left!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10290,"featured_media":13780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[1975,1922,1455,1384],"class_list":["post-15093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-brittany-fletcher","tag-focus","tag-how-to","tag-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Britt-Website.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3Vr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15094,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15093\/revisions\/15094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}