Stay focused and in control of your learner journey

In today’s modern age our lives are full of distractions through our phones, social media, games and more. Staying focused and determined is now harder than ever. In this article Inspire ATA will provide some tips and tricks for staying focused in order to help you achieve your learner goals.

Set realistic goals

Often when setting goals our mind tends to jump ahead to the end result, however, setting our goals to high and too far may cause us to get discouraged when those take longer to achieve than originally planned, leading to loss of interest and procrastination. This is why breaking down your goals into smaller more manageable chunks can help you plan your journey and get a sense of achievement faster that’ll help drive you forward.

If your goal is to progress in your career to manager, start planning out the steps you need to take to get there. What short term goals at your job do you need to reach first? Are there any courses or additional training you can take to help you reach your end goal? Set each of these steps as a goal of its own and watch as you slowly climb the staircase of success.

Time-block

Similarly to the previous advice, breaking down your work into manageable chunks of time can help you to focus your energy on the task ahead and stay in the zone. Start with a to do list where you set out what you need to achieve during the day. Then block out specific time for each task where during that time you only focus on the task ahead. Between each task, take a short break 5-10 minutes to recharge and set yourself up to the next task.

This can be done by simply blocking out time in your calendar or setting a timer on your phone, but you can also use specific apps for this such as Forest which stops you from using your phone while you are planting a tree, or use other methods like Pomodoro sessions on YouTube that have time blocking parts alongside background music to help you get in the zone.

Set screentime limits

Our mobile phones are one of the biggest distractions nowadays. The constant communication flow with others and social media apps that are designed to keep you engaged and locked in make it very hard to stay focused on other things. By setting time limits on your phone and apps you will not only be helping yourself stay focused in specific time blocks, but reducing your screentime can also help your overall concentration and wellbeing.

You can set up screentime limits through your phone’s settings, planning out how long you can spend on each app or overall on your phone on a given day, or use blocking apps like Opal to block specific apps during set times of the day.

Reach out

Sometimes, the amount of work we need to do can get overwhelming even if you have set yourself up to success the best way that you can. This is why it’s important to open up and reach out to others when you feel you need support. Your Inspire ATA tutor is there to support you and help you to plan your work and set your goals and set you up for success. For further support contact your tutor or email us on atasupport@inspire-ata.co.uk