To people who think Dl is easy, trying having to stop watching a killer movie/show to do your school work. Its so so hard! I'm so close to being done, if I made a hard push I could be done in four months. But that won't happen as long as there are shows like Pawn Stars and American Pickers.
One word. TIVO. I set it to record my favorite shows, then give myself a reward toward the end of the week. A few hours of TV, once a week, and I am eager to get back to studying.
This is a very good idea. You have control of when you watch and you can skip the commercials which eat up about 30% of your TV time. You favorite shows would not take as much of your time that way.
Tivo or DVR machines are great. Of course, certain channels have their shows on their websites as well, so you can access them at any time. On a side note, I'm right there with you about Pawn Stars and American Pickers. If you haven't seen it, you should check out Storage Wars. That's another fun show. -Matt
I can so relate, as those are two of our favs too! What I do is we DVR all episodes, then since my classes run Tues-Mon. I do most of my schoolwork Thur - Sun. Then that leaves me Mon-Wed to enjoy our shows, although since I don't get home until late on Mon & Wed that means usually only an hour or two of TV tops with the news taking up 30 mins. I love the DVR, we also bought an external HD since we got so far behind, plus we have had two DVR's freeze up so we lost everything. I find if I create a schedule it is much easier to give myself some much needed downtime. I will see how I do once I'm off work for the summer now. I'm hoping to be able to do all my schoolwork in one or two days while hubby is at work. Then I will have my evenings free for family time. Find a happy balance, it is well worth it to your sanity!
When I was pursuing my MBA, I cancelled my cable service and just kept the Internet connection (obviously!). That stopped me from watching TV and concentrate on my classes. As I graduated this past December, I still do not have cable service and do not miss it or its monthly price tag of $75 or whatever it used to be.
Go to the library and bring your laptop and books. I was there the other day looking for references and realized I should just bring my laptop in, write some and put the book back on the shelf. I ended up getting a very solid 2.5 hours of writing done there with no distractions.
I have to do something similar. On the weekends, I'd come up to the high school where I work. There's no tv, and our internet filter blocks Facebook, YouTube and pretty much everything else that's fun. I have no choice but to work without distractions! -Matt
1 episode of Jersey Shore and I gladly threw my TV out the window, went down stairs and lit it on fire on my lawn. I have since become much more productive. May I suggest you try Jersey Shore?
Friendorfoe is absolutely right. Jersey Shore will cure you. (and maybe even push you to homeschool your children...just sayin)
I had the same problem, but then I started doing my academic stuff at a local library. It takes some time to go there, but then I just "work" and do no other distracting stuff. Helps me to be more productive and enjoy the off-time more.
Exactly. It seems awful when you broach the idea of turning off the cable (satellite, etc), but in practice is not bad at all! Mine has been off for over a year, and I hae 2 kids under the age of 5!
The denizens of your local public library must be less, ummm, "interesting" than the people who hang out at my local public library. I find it hard to study there, as I get distracted by the people-watching. The folks who hang out in the library all day are much more interesting than the characters on Jersey Shore.
I agree a break from TV is good - I need to tell myself that, too! When we go on vacation we watch no TV and have no internet (though there are sometimes exceptions). And we don't really miss either. When we are home, though, it is hard to keep from watching TV and browsing on the internet (and on DegreeInfo - which is I what am doing right now). :redface: I would not be able to study at the library - too many distractions, too many people. I study in a quiet room, away from TV (we only have one TV which is at the other end of the house), away from people, where the only distractions are the internet, other books, my notes and papers, and the view out my window. But, when I am in the room where the TV is... and there is a nice show on...
