How do you do homework?

[noparlpf]

Basically, I'm the worst student. Between various actual issues and then plain laziness I find it almost impossible to start my homework before the twelve hours before it's due. Sometimes later. How do Playgrounders make themselves buckle down and do work they don't want to?

[Mauve Shirt]

Is it a paper? I go to the library, sit at a quiet enclosed desk, turn off my wireless connection and write.
Is it fill-in-the-blank or other homework? I do it during the class for which it is due. :smalltongue:

[Milo v3]

I generally do it an hour after it is due....

[noparlpf]

Is it a paper? I go to the library, sit at a quiet enclosed desk, turn off my wireless connection and write.
Is it fill-in-the-blank or other homework? I do it during the class for which it is due. :smalltongue:

I don't take many classes involving papers. In this case it's math.
I can't do it during class, I take notes during class. In high school I did homework during class, but high school was slow enough that I didn't have to pay attention. I don't do well with textbooks, so I have to pay attention in lecture.
And the nearest university library is a good five miles away.

[Anarion]

Honestly? I too procrastinate like crazy, but you need to be able to estimate how long something is going to take you if you do that. And it does leave you with more psychic burdens that way.

Best practice advice is to set a time of day when you'll work, consistently. Say have a snack around 3:00, get a glass of water, then work for the next two hours no matter what, turn your phone and computer off. And do that every weekday. Set a time for yourself on weekends as well.

[Grinner]

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." (http://paidtoexist.com/the-number-one-productivity-hack-doing-****/)

We could give you all sorts of advice, but ultimately, that doesn't change the fact that you need to take that first step and actually do it.

Edit: Really? The filter censored the URL? :smallsigh:

[Remmirath]

I usually do it as soon as I get home, so that I don't have to worry about doing it later. I haven't yet begun doing anything that I want to do at that point anyhow, so then I just finish it and start doing the things that I would like to do.

The only time I have trouble making myself do it is if it's something that I'm not sure where to start on, such as if I have to give a presentation. Then I usually finish it in a desperate flurry the week before it's due, which is a poor idea, but what seems to always happen. I'm hoping not to fall into that trap again this year.

[valadil]

I haven't done homework in almost 10 years. Now I feel old :-(

I'm the odd one out in that I did homework almost as soon as it was assigned. I didn't like the burden of having homework waiting for me. If I had 4 hours of work to do and 4 hours of video games to play, the video games were less fun if I did them first because that homework was weighing me down. If I did the work first, I could go play games guilt free.

I had a couple tricks for getting work done in college. Step 1 was switching to linux. Back then it didn't have Steam, so booting into linux locked me out of playing games. I never had the option of catching a round of Counter-Strike between problems. When the work was done I could boot into windows and play, but the process was tedious enough that I only did it once or twice a day. Eventually I got a laptop and that became my homework machine. The desktop was for gaming. Mentally, that separation was awesome. I never associated my laptop with gaming, so I didn't have the temptation to game on it.

[Amidus Drexel]

I procrastinate the living crap out of my assignments... :smallamused:

I find I've got to be in the right frame of mind to get any work done... Normally, whenever that happens, I don't take advantage of it, instead using my time unproductively.

Heh, nah, I do my homework when the mood strikes me. I'm normally good for about two classes worth of stuff at once, depending on how much I've got. This is often late at night or during lunch.

...This isn't very helpful, is it? :smallsigh:


Is it a paper? I go to the library, sit at a quiet enclosed desk, turn off my wireless connection and write.
Is it fill-in-the-blank or other homework? I do it during the class for which it is due. :smalltongue:

...this is my process exactly, except with lots of music for paper-writing (for me, this requires the internet).


I generally do it an hour after it is due....

You're doing better than I do... Anywhere from days to weeks after the work is due, depending on how lenient my instructors are, unless I accidentally turn something in on time. :smallamused:

[Anarion]

On the topic of music, I generally prefer wordless and with some momentum to it for getting work done.

The Fighting is Magic Twilight Sparkle theme (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8lLaHCaQpA) is probably my most productive song.

[Androgeus]

I generally do it an hour after it is due....

You get it in that early?!:smalleek:

[Milo v3]

You get it in that early?!:smalleek:

That's for subjects I like. I still haven't handed in a single piece of math homework for the entire year.

My teacher thinks I'm always working simply because I'm a nerd.

[Aedilred]

Basically, I'm the worst student. Between various actual issues and then plain laziness I find it almost impossible to start my homework before the twelve hours before it's due. Sometimes later. How do Playgrounders make themselves buckle down and do work they don't want to?
I think it's really just a personal thing. Some people work best under pressure of deadlines in short bursts of a few hours at a time, and some people work best over sustained, methodical periods of relatively low output. Trying to force the deadline-hounds to work in the latter fashion tends to result in a lot of inefficiency, faffing, and the same last-minute panic as ever. Many of the latter type of person go to pieces when forced to work under extreme deadline pressure. Unfortunately, I suspect it's just one of those things you have to recognise and manage.

The real key, though, is not to allow yourself into the mindset of treating deadlines as optional, as I did. That's a recipe for true disaster, because then you never do anything.

[pendell]

Basically, I'm the worst student. Between various actual issues and then plain laziness I find it almost impossible to start my homework before the twelve hours before it's due. Sometimes later. How do Playgrounders make themselves buckle down and do work they don't want to?

It's been twenty years since I've done homework for school, but when I did it I did it in the school library. I set aside my home and my room as my downtime space and the school library as my workspace. So I would work for an hour or two after school in the library in my work environment, then go home or go to my afterschool job (janitor at a department store).

Also, even today , I find it necessary to intersperse my work with "treats" for positive work. My current job is research and development, which means I spend a lot of time on the internet researching various possibilities and doing some fairly hard, abstract thought. I needn't describe the various temptations on the internet which would distract me. I can't simply disconnect it because I need it for my actual responsibilities, and if I soldier on I find myself constantly finding pretexts to goof off. So I work the goofing off into my routine -- work a certain amount, then goof off a bit as a reward.

Human beings respond to positive reinforcement as rewards and negative reinforcement as punishment. I've spent most of my life either punishing myself or being punished by others, so I tend to emphasize positive reinforcement for good behavior and reserve punishment for when it is really, really necessary. There's already plenty of negative reinforcement from the rest of the world as an adult that I typically don't need to add to it! :)

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Emmerask]

It's been twenty years since I've done homework for school, but when I did it I did it in the school library. I set aside my home and my room as my downtime space and the school library as my workspace. So I would work for an hour or two after school in the library in my work environment, then go home or go to my afterschool job (janitor at a department store).

Also, even today , I find it necessary to intersperse my work with "treats" for positive work. My current job is research and development, which means I spend a lot of time on the internet researching various possibilities and doing some fairly hard, abstract thought. I needn't describe the various temptations on the internet which would distract me. I can't simply disconnect it because I need it for my actual responsibilities, and if I soldier on I find myself constantly finding pretexts to goof off. So I work the goofing off into my routine -- work a certain amount, then goof off a bit as a reward.

Human beings respond to positive reinforcement as rewards and negative reinforcement as punishment. I've spent most of my life either punishing myself or being punished by others, so I tend to emphasize positive reinforcement for good behavior and reserve punishment for when it is really, really necessary. There's already plenty of negative reinforcement from the rest of the world as an adult that I typically don't need to add to it! :)

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Well you might be interested in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

tldr watch: with complex tasks positive(and negative) reinforcement (incentives) actually hurts productivity, it only works with simple tasks.

[Grinner]

Well you might be interested in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

tldr watch: with complex tasks positive(and negative) reinforcement (incentives) actually hurts productivity, it only works with simple tasks.

Thank you for sharing. :smallsmile:

[pendell]

It works for ME.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[AttilaTheGeek]

Honestly? I too procrastinate like crazy, but you need to be able to estimate how long something is going to take you if you do that. And it does leave you with more psychic burdens that way.

Best practice advice is to set a time of day when you'll work, consistently. Say have a snack around 3:00, get a glass of water, then work for the next two hours no matter what, turn your phone and computer off. And do that every weekday. Set a time for yourself on weekends as well.

Piece of advice I've learned through experience: Always, always, always multiply this time by one and a half to account for the inevitable "thing that goes wrong". There's always a thing that goes wrong. And if you aren't prepared for it, then Murphy's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law) happens.

Also, in a discussion about productivity, I couldn't not link this (http://xkcd.com/874/).

[Emmerask]

It works for ME.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Yes of course such things never apply to everyone, and I didn´t want to imply that it doesn´t for you.
However it does apply for a majority and I think its always interesting to see other perspectives :smallsmile:

[noparlpf]

Well you might be interested in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y

tldr watch: with complex tasks positive(and negative) reinforcement (incentives) actually hurts productivity, it only works with simple tasks.

I'm incapable of rewarding or punishing myself even for simple tasks. Say I want ice cream, I'll just eat it and watch anime instead of doing homework and rewarding myself with ice cream. But that's an interesting-looking video.


It works for ME.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

And that's what matters.


Piece of advice I've learned through experience: Always, always, always multiply this time by one and a half to account for the inevitable "thing that goes wrong". There's always a thing that goes wrong. And if you aren't prepared for it, then Murphy's Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law) happens.

Also, in a discussion about productivity, I couldn't not link this (http://xkcd.com/874/).

For example: I spent five hours one night a few weeks ago proving a ridiculously complicated identity that I'd forgotten we'd learned in class. The entire problem should have taken no more than an hour, but that was just part (a).

[Negativethac0]

Back in university I was terrible at getting anything done as long as I sat at home, usually because of the computer, or if things were too silent. So I usually ended up sitting next to the heavily trafficked road running next to our faculty. It might not have been especially quiet (or healthy) but at least it's consistent noise. For me it helped going to different places and try it out, although I'm not entirely sure how viable that is in your case.

Things haven't changed after I became a self-publishing author, in which homework translates into getting stuff down on paper. Usually, in my opinion, the hardest part is getting started. Some people have luck removing all distractions by going somewhere else or shutting everything not needed off. Others have great luck allying with friends from class and do homework in groups. Having someone to motivate you or at least kick start you have done wonders for some. Have you considered started doing homework with some people in your class?
At least you then have not only an obligation to yourself but also to others.

[Stadge]

I'm no longer a student but it wasn't too long ago.

At High School I was generally pretty good and would get things done the evening I got it, or if there was a larger task for another subject, prioritise it.

By Sixth-Form I had got worse, still generally alright, but I tended to save the non-essay based things, like maths and biology for the hour+ bus journey.

Now University.... Really I can honestly say that on the whole I was awful. I have no regrets from the place, but I'm sure many would say I wasted the opportunity of being at the institution I was at.

Essays would start with good intentions. I'd get my first batch of books as soon as possible.... And then things would go down hill. On a good week, I'd start my research early, but generally hit a speed bump in the reading, overcome it, then hit another huge one in trying to write the thing. For the most part my essays were written in the nights before and the morning of deadlines.

Kind of similar with my final dissertation. Came home for the summer at the end of second year with about 30 books, and I got through them and made the most organised notes I'd ever made. Then, despite maybe adding an article or two to them, my dissertation got relegated to the bottom draw of my desk til about a week and a half from the final deadline. No drafts, or anything. The time was then split, pretty much evenly between re-reading my notes, adding more books and articles to them, and then writing the thing. And do you know what? My second highest mark from my final year (the first, rather worryingly, was in the paper that I had missed over 3/4 of the seminars for).

So in short, I do homework, not necessarily badly, but definitely with a ticking clock.

For other details, always had music or audio-books, a pint mug of very sweet, very strong black coffee and at one point I made a dissertation nest of pillows, cushions and notes and could send my remote controlled K-9 down the hall to deliver tea or collect biscuits.

[The_Snark]

Others have great luck allying with friends from class and do homework in groups. Having someone to motivate you or at least kick start you have done wonders for some. Have you considered started doing homework with some people in your class?
At least you then have not only an obligation to yourself but also to others.

Indeed. I recall working in groups, or just with a single friend, was generally pretty productive for me. This despite the fact that most of my friends were just as bad about procrastinating as I was! Of course, we'd spend a certain proportion of work-time chatting about other things and goofing off, but we almost always got the assignment done; no browsing the Internet, no picking up a book, no putting it off for tomorrow. In order to do that, I would have to say "hey, let's blow off this assignment," and my friend would have to agree, and that's much harder than quietly giving up (or never getting started in the first place). Inertia is on your side, at that point.

You still have to get yourself started, of course. Try to set it up in advance; I've found that it's much easier to commit to doing something in a week than to doing it right now (this is basically the essence of procrastination). It's fairly low-effort to call a friend and say "hi, want to get together next Saturday to work on that math assignment?" And once someone else is involved, it becomes harder to flake out. I could never keep to arbitrary self-assigned deadlines, but planning to do it with someone else turns it into a social commitment.

Plus, having a study partner is helpful for subjects like math or chemistry. You're less likely to get stuck on That One Problem with two perspectives on it. It's a little trickier with essay-writing and other assignments that don't lend themselves to group work (you and your friend aren't writing the same essay), but maybe not impossible. If you have any friends in your classes, or even just people you sort of know, I'd recommend giving it a try.