Homework Help Tip 1 from HomeworkFocus.com: Plan Your Day

Planning can make an amazing difference to how much homework you get done. It also makes it easier to focus on homework, because you are able to break down each task into smaller parts, which means that you can stop feeling overwhelmed by doing lots of homework.

Take for example, an English essay. If you want to get an English homework assignment finished over the next 3 days or so, and don’t know where to start, then you could make a plan. This makes it easier for you to focus on the task and get the work done.

Concentration is all about having a precise task to do within a well-defined time, and an environment that helps you to focus. Setting a plan is about creating that certainty in your mind about what you are going to be doing over the next couple of hours, or even a few days. This ‘certainty’ replaces the fog of not knowing what to do, so that you feel much more focused, and are able to concentrate on getting homework done.

Focus Step 1: Set Priorities

So you look at the other homework assignments that you have to hand in over the next 3 days. Imagine there’s an English assignment to hand in tomorrow, science the day after and algebra the day following that. So you decide that English is your highest priority, followed by science, then algebra. This prioritisation is the first part of the Plan method to focus on homework.

Focus Step 2: Write Down The Tasks

For English, you need to do the following tasks, so you write them down:

Read pages 45-82 of the book
Write the essay plan
Write the essay itself

It’s very important that you make goals that are realistic and don’t ask too much of yourself, otherwise you will only get discouraged and fail to concentrate over the whole homework assignment. So consider first your typical times for completing specific homework tasks.

If you decide that you need about 1 hour for reading the book and making notes, then add this to your plan. You may also need about 20 minutes to really think through your ideas about the essay. Writing the essay will take about 2 hours, once you have the ideas in place.

Your plan then looks like this.

Read pages 45-82 of the book – 1 hour
Write the essay plan – 20 minutes
Write the essay itself – 2 hours

Focus Step 3: Allow For Breaks

This means a total of 3 hours and 20 minutes will be spent on your homework. But have you accounted for dinner time, for time to watch tv and take a break? Not yet. It’s important to do so because you may get discouraged if you don’t meet the timetable.

This is the amended plan. It now includes the times as well.

4-5pm Read pages 45-82 of the book – 1 hour
5-510pm Break – 10 mins
510-530pm Write the essay plan – 20 minutes
530-630pm Write the essay – part 1 – 1 hour
630-730pm Dinner + break – 1 hours
730pm-830pm Essay – Part 2 – 1 hour

With planning ahead, and dividing your time, you get a lot more homework done each day. This helps your final grade a great deal if you are consistent and apply your planning skills to revision before exams as well.

Summary: How To Focus With A Plan

By setting priorities, writing down tasks and allowing for breaks, you enable a much clearer mindset to replace confusion. What you want is to create a mental environment for concentration, and by creating a plan, you should aim to set goals for yourself that are realistic and very well defined.

Article by Nyasha Madavo from HomeworkFocus.com