The Grade Whisperer is an occasional feature in which I use the Study Hacks philosophy of do less, do better, and know why, to help students overcome their academic problems.
Feeble Focus
A student who I’ll call Ron recently sent me an e-mail with an ominous title: Loss of Focus.
“I really enjoy most of my courses,” he started. “And I’m definitely not in the wrong major…But there are some courses that I find extremely difficult and uninteresting.”
There’s nothing surprising about this observation. As I’ve said before, you have to expect that not every course is going to incite scholastic reverie — some subjects you just have to grin and bear en route to becoming “educated.”
Ron, as it turned out, was having trouble with the “grin and bear” part of this equation.
“I sit down, stare at the books, and nothing happens,” he told me. “After reading and solving problems for 15 minutes I get bored and distracted, start surfing the web, checking email or such.”
He concluded with a key question that I receive often:
You mention that hard focus is necessary. I agree, but my question is: How can I focus on difficult, unenjoyable, painful tasks?
It sounds like a job for the grade whisperer…