Having a hard time studying

DefendingNetworks

Stupid tv and various other things keep me distracted. I can't seem to get myself motivated. Ideas? I thought about going to the 24-hr coffee shop with my laptop (since they have wi-fi also) and study there. Worse cause I could run some labs on mindtechcom.com/

montanablue2

I managed to get my CCNP study time in by just parking my car in a park, sitting in the driver's seat and just reading.
If I got bored of reading, I would get out of the car and go for a short walk. That way I got my exercise in too.
If just sitting in the car reading is too intense and gets too boring too fast, park next to a footpath so you can people watch and give your mind a rest every so often but still not get too far away from studying at the same time.
Worked for me!

dynamik

Get out of the house and go some place with no distractions.

mamono

I study best with distractions. I don't watch TV except Battlestar Galactica and Heroes on TiVO HD, luckily I can watch them whenever I want. But where I study best is by going to a busy tea cafe in the heart of what we lovingly call Little Taipei (Rowland Heights) that serves sugar loaded flavored tea served by young Asian girls in shorts.

I can easily read through 100-200 pages per sitting while loading up on caffeine, sugar, and msg from their food. If my brain starts to go numb, I just stare googly eyed at the girls until I feel cognizant again. Wipe away the drool and hit the books again for another 4 hours.

Studying at the library doesn't do it for me. I can't get anything done there. The most progress I've made at the library was about 40 pages of studying.

Why do I mention all this? Everyone has their own specific study method. What you'll need to do is determine what works best for you. Sitting in a car next to a park to people watch while reading? Sitting at a noisy tea cafe with girls running around? Your kitchen table with a laptop and your ankle handcuffed to the fridge while your girlfriend leaves with the key to go out to have her nails done? To each their own, hardest part is finding what works best for you.

Best of luck dude!

dynamik

Did you say, Battlestar Galactica?

Scroll down to the video: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20232284_3,00.html

That cracked me up

wat08

DefendingNetworks wrote:

Stupid tv and various other things keep me distracted. I can't seem to get myself motivated. Ideas? I thought about going to the 24-hr coffee shop with my laptop (since they have wi-fi also) and study there. Worse cause I could run some labs on mindtechcom.com/

True. I end up getting through a few pages and then start philosophizing to myself about why networks even matter and if we'd all be better off if we just blew up every network and returned to a simpler time. Amish lifestyle anyone?

moss12

warcraft should help you

DefendingNetworks

moss12 wrote:

warcraft should help you

Lol, did that for a while. Its the reason I quit, took to much of my time and $$$

dynamik

DefendingNetworks wrote:

Lol, did that for a while. Its the reason I quit, took to much of my time and $$$

I bet it cost you next to nothing in comparison

I'm not sure this couple is much better

keenon

headphones, i found that putting on headphones and listening to music helps me study. by drowning out the complete randomness of the tv. I also turn to not see the tv as well. this is just some small stuff i did while reading/studying.

during the lab time i do the same thing.. too bad that they won't let anyone do it during the lab

DefendingNetworks

dynamik wrote:

DefendingNetworks wrote:

Lol, did that for a while. Its the reason I quit, took to much of my time and $$$

I bet it cost you next to nothing in comparison

I'm not sure this couple is much better

What's with the **** in the middle between the chairs?

Slowhand

I've found that my study habits vary depending on my mood. I'm a big fan of going out to a coffee shop to sit down and read, (or do homework if it's for a class,) but sometimes I go in for marathon-sessions of CBT Nuggets videos on the desktop computer. Once I have a laptop that works again, I'll probably do more of the computer-based studying out and about, since I find that I feel much more. . . scholastic(?) when I'm out someplace than I do at home. I also find going to some place that has students, like a college campus coffee shop or a park near a university, also helps me get in the studying-mentality.

AlexMR

Motivation!!

Where do you find it? Well, it's inside! Imagine yourself in that job doing what you love to do and being paid for that. I think that is the ultimate motivator. If you dont have it, I think you should pursue it some place else or keep looking inside until you find it.

Passion for what you do. That is something I dont feel in my career and something Ive always felt about IT. Im 29 and sometimes i feel old to be doing this, but I am not . I will get there!

DefendingNetworks

AlexMR wrote:

Motivation!!

Where do you find it? Well, it's inside! Imagine yourself in that job doing what you love to do and being paid for that. I think that is the ultimate motivator. If you dont have it, I think you should pursue it some place else or keep looking inside until you find it.

Passion for what you do. That is something I dont feel in my career and something Ive always felt about IT. Im 29 and sometimes i feel old to be doing this, but I am not . I will get there!

29 old? Oh dear god..Please don't say that. I'm 26! gah

Halcyon Hell

Hey people. First post on this page. Finding the right atmosphere for study can be a real pain for me sometimes. I totally know what your going through DefendingNetworks. I have found my own way kinda. Got a room in the house with no TV and a door, a mini study. Plus my PC is there as well which of course is a necessity. The park idea aint a bad one either.

bashtie

for me the best way is to study in the bed befor i sleep, with my girlfriend next to me also reading some books ...

but for sure if i ve to study something more practical it doesnt work ... or i never tried to take my computer with me to the bed

kryolla

I dont look at how old you are to get into a certain career field but how long do you have until retirement. If you are in your early thirties you still have thirty more years until you retire that is a long time so why not get into IT as an example.

Keeping with the thread I like someplace quiet I get distracted too easily

miller811

For me the best time to study if first thing in the morning. I wake up between 4 and 5 and get a least a couple of of hour of study in before work. This also allows me to think about what I studied in the morning, all day.

moss12

Listen guys studying in the morning is the best way , my father always encourage me to wake up early in the morning to study cause you can store more information and retain them quicker , any scientific proof into this ?

bashtie

i just heared, that if you study a short time befor you sleep, your brain kinda works on the learned stuff while sleeping

Mishra

The best way to motivate myself to study is to rip me away from whatever I'm doing and just do it. I get pretty stuck sometimes so I have to pull really hard.


Honestly, if you have motivation problems like I do then you need to do something to annoy yourself. Set a schedule task on your computer to launch a "QUIT SURFING AND STUDY" MS Word doc every 15 minutes from Xpm to Xpm, whatever time you want to dedicate to study time.

Tell your g/f-wife you need motivation. Women usually like a good excuse to bug the crap out of you.

Get one of those electrical socket timers to set a taser to go off every hour... OK maybe a little extreme.


Now if you finally have motivated yourself to sit down and pick the book up, how do you stay focused? Well obviously don't sit by anything you use to break your concentration (TV remote, laptop). Or in 2 hours you will notice you have been watching monkeys crap themselves instead of studying. Also, a pretty good motivator for me is to think "Well... This isn't the worst thing. I believe I would choose studying over being an army grunt in Iraq right now... So let's not whine and get unfocused and continue to read at least 2 chapters".



As you notice I fight with myself all the time. It's been an on going thing since I was a child. :-\ I swear I have a disease.

Turgon

DefendingNetworks wrote:

Stupid tv and various other things keep me distracted. I can't seem to get myself motivated. Ideas? I thought about going to the 24-hr coffee shop with my laptop (since they have wi-fi also) and study there. Worse cause I could run some labs on mindtechcom.com/

One of the biggest problems these days is attention span. I blame diet for a lot of this and the constant bombardment of electronic content that surrounds us these days, including music and games.

CoD's and computer based learning have their place but I think you would be well served by simply sitting still for a while with no noise and trying to read a chapter of a book. A lot of people speed read. This is not a good thing if you are learning new things particularly technical things that involve mechanism. You need time to reflect on those things. Reading the whole of Caslow in a weekend really isn't going to help much. So..go somewhere quiet with a book and try and read at a steady pace for 15 minutes without fidgeting. You will be surprised how much you get out of that 15 minutes. The next day increase the duration of the session. After a few days when your attention span wavers towards the end of the session take a short break then return the book. This sort of attention span training will help your concentration. Try this technique for a year and change your entire life. Quiet patient reading works.

Inc

moss12 wrote:

Listen guys studying in the morning is the best way , my father always encourage me to wake up early in the morning to study cause you can store more information and retain them quicker , any scientific proof into this ?

If you take information from vedas for scientific proof then yes, there is. I can't quote directly, but I have been listening lectures about vedic lifestyle and one specific lecture was dedicated to studying methodology. Emphasis was on morning as main studying time.

I have applied this in my daily practice and results are improving.

Parallel discussion is here: http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39512&start=0

gorebrush

My ultimate motivation?

Knowing that if and when I apply for another job... there will be someone else who is probably more qualified than I am.

So, whilst preparing for exams, I know that I HAVE to know more than the other guy. In fact, this other guy with the CCIE that I don't have... might not even exist... but bottom line is - I simply must be the best.

Otherwise, I know if I slip my concentration or fail an exam, I know it will make me look bad. Altough, when I pass, I have a load of great people around me who are proud of my achievements and celebrate my ability with a keyboard