Technology has the ability to make learning and studying much more efficient, but only if students use it wisely.
Non-academic use of smartphones during class or studying time has resulted in many students not reaching their potential.
If your child is in college and his or her career success depends on these few short years, their responsibility to stay productive is exceedingly important. I encourage you to share the following tips with your child that can help him or her reduce digital distractions.
- Value quality over quantity. Ask yourself how much each post, message, or overall website or app is contributing to your quality of your life — then try reducing or eliminating your use of anything that doesn’t help you achieve great schoolwork, build your career, or maintain positive relationships. Avoiding certain platforms will undoubtedly prevent you from knowing all that’s new about your friends, family, and popular culture, but it will encourage you to learn more about what matters most.
- Don’t forget to turn off unnecessary notifications and unsubscribe from email lists that clutter your inbox!
- When in a lecture or studying, keep your phone and other unnecessary device(s) out of sight and on silent mode to avoid the temptation of responding to messages or browsing non-academic digital media.
- When you do use social media, set your profile as invisible, away, busy, offline, Do Not Disturb, or something similar so that others aren’t aware when you’re spending time online. This will make them less likely to chat with you unless they need to share crucial information.
- Set a schedule of when you plan to put the devices aside and focus on schoolwork; make others aware of it so they will know not to interrupt your learning process.
- Set a timer each time you sit down to study to hold yourself accountable and feel motivated by looking back at all the time you’ve spent gaining important knowledge.