I love being home. As I sit here writing this post, I realize that this is the first time I’ve opened my laptop this entire weekend. Break is a time to enjoy time with family and friends, and that’s just what I’ve been doing. I’ve rarely looked at my phone either. At Midd, my laptop is a necessity for homework and other modes of procrastination. My phone is necessary to communicate meals with friends, homework meet-ups among other things. Being home has made me realize just how relaxing it is to be without technology (flashback to the media fast). Anyways, I hope everyone is enjoying their breaks and I look forward to seeing you all!

Hello,

When you are in class with you computer open taking notes, do you ever feel distracted by the surrounding applications?  Have you ever felt like you just can’t prevent yourself from checking a notification when it pops up? Well just know that this is very normal.  Computers have added so many easy distractors that it is almost impossible to not want to stray away from your notes and class discussion for a second so that you can check that Facebook post or even a unimportant email.  In my digital media class we are required to use laptops and other devices.  Is this a good thing or a bad thing?  Well personally, I believe it is a great thing, it will teach us to learn how to multitask on the computer not just because we have to, but because with the new notification bar we need to.  There are many different things that can help us focus whether you are in class taking notes on the computer or just doing an english essay in the library.  Multiple applications, such as self control, focus bar, focus mask, and time butler are applications that I use to prevent myself from getting distracted.  Honestly, none of these things can actually work unless you take them seriously, which means that you just have to come to terms that there will be distractions and you will need to learn how to deal with them.  What I find to be most effective is doing things in short intervals.  Telling yourself: “work hard on this for the next 25 minutes and then you can check your email” etc.  It may not work for everyone as the notification bar still makes it hard to not want to check email or other things earlier, but it definitely is worth a try.  Anyway, distractions will only continue to get worse, so start now and learn to deal with them.