Cam Says:
“I think I’ll just go down and have some pudding and wait for it all to turn up – it always does in the end.”
– Harry Potter (From Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)
We’re talking focus this week, and look reader, I have to be very honest with you, I’m a bit shit at focusing. I’m not a diligent student who sits at their desk and shuts out the world, focusing solely on their study. I change topic, I go on tangents, I think I have a lot of time, that time goes fast.
This sort of ‘study style’ works okay for a few weeks of the semester. But deadlines start to creep up. Suddenly, I find myself at my desk till midnight, pressing Control-F on articles to find essay evidence and handing in work with moments to spare. A bit more focus might have prevented this.
Unfortunately, it’s getting later in the semester – I can’t even tell you what week it is. Regardless, assignment due dates are approaching. Perhaps it’s time to focus, maybe I could change my ways – start aiming for early hand ins, put my phone away, avoid distractions, and begin to start working with more focus.
Or perhaps I’ll just continue the way I’ve been going, it’s worked so far.
Dan Says:
“To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil”
– Hamlet (the one by Shakespeare, not the other one)
What a quote, eh?
I don’t actually know what that means, but I’m gonna say it’s about the pain of waking up from a dream. Dreams are great. Everyone loves them. But eventually, they all end.
That’s kind of how this lockdown has felt for me.
I know that for some people, the lockdown has been hell. But for me, it’s been amazing. Long sleep-ins every day. Walks around the neighbourhood with my family and dog. Afternoons spent sprawled out on my living room floor, reading in the small patches of sunlight that slip through my windows.
It was a dream. And now it’s time to wake up.
I’ve been putting off my university work for way too long. I haven’t been watching lectures. I haven’t been checking assignment deadlines. I haven’t even checked my emails. In short, I’ve avoided university work with the persistence and doggedness of a fourth year avoiding Bar 101.
But it’s time to change that. Exams are getting closer. Most of my assignments are due in the next few weeks. As much as I hate to do it, this week I’ll be dusting off the few brain cells I have left and ploughing back into the oh-so-boring world of weekly readings and Canvas quizzes.
It’s time to focus up.