Furthering or improving your education as an adult can be an incredibly rewarding process, it can leave you with a feeling of accomplishment, achievement, and pride. But it can also be very difficult, the pressures and the temptations of adult life can interfere with your studies or even stop them altogether.
Focusing is hard enough when you are a child or teenager, but with all of the other things that adults have to think about, focusing can be nearly impossible sometimes. But there are ways that you can stay focused and make the most of your adult education.
1. The first and most important thing to do is to set yourself a goal to work towards, and this is not just the goal of passing your exams as if you are having trouble focusing then this is obviously not enough.
Give yourself a reward for passing your exams and if you do not pass then you do not get the reward.
The “carrot and stick” method is one of the most effective motivators and it should leave you with a renewed sense of determination and focus.
2. Join or start a study group, not only will having other people around you make it easier to study because you will have additional support. Having someone monitoring you will make sure that you focus because you will be answering to them.
When you only have yourself to answer to it is easy to lie, but when it is someone else they will not be so easily put off.
3. Know your limits, studying until the small hours may make you feel very virtuous, but it will not do you any good, your brain will not be functioning properly and you will not be taking information in.
Also, if you work until you are exhausted, you are less likely to work again because you will associate it with the feelings of exhaustion.
Stop when you feel tired or your eyes hurt, have a break and try again later.
4. Be strict with yourself, turn your phone off, do not put the television or music on whilst you study and under no circumstances are you to go out if you have work to do.
Wait until you have finished and then go out, think back to when you were growing up, were you allowed to go out until you had finished your homework? No, because your parents knew the priorities.
Adult education can be a wonderful thing and if you stay focused you can make so much of not only your education but also your life.