How to Avoid distractions when learning online

It is very challenging to avoid distractions when learning or working online. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 shifted learning and working culture globally. The pandemic forced a switch into home-based learning and working. Equally important is to really that it is increasingly difficult to avoid peeping into social media pages and all other distractions while working and learning. Here are a few tips to get you back on track:

Close social media apps on your phone

Seriously, log out! It may seem like a no-brainer but this actually works. In addition to literally keeping your attention to the things that matter, logging out of your social media apps may also protect you from continuous tracking. Yes! Each time an app such as Facebook or Instagram remains logged on on your phone, it collects and tracks your usage data and sells it to advertisers. By logging out each time, you increase the number of steps needed to see the latest gossip on your favorite Instagram blogger’s channel. Effectively, the more steps to log in and see updates makes the process tedious and discourages you from doing it… especially when you’re supposed to be productive.

Track and Limit your smartphone usage

There are several apps, both inbuilt and 3rd party, that you can use to monitor phone usage. These apps give key usage statistics on:

  • most used app
  • weekly app usage
  • Time spent looking at the phone screen

Importantly, these trackers may also allow you to restrict usage of certain categories of apps to certain times of day, or time allocations per day.

Switch off your phone, or leave it afar

It may be inconveniencing to your contacts, but in the extremes, it  might be important to switch off your phone. This may be through directly powering it down, putting it on airplane mode, or on silent mode. The alternative is to leave it on on silent mode, but place it out of reach until you finish that important task.

Replace time spent on social media with other activities

The lockdowns and closures due to the pandemic has borne a new crop of hobbies and unexplored talents. Most popular include tiktok challenges and online baking contests. To increase your own productivity, find something new you are passionate about, and do it each time you feel like you are getting distracted by social media. You may even go ahead and sign up for a new online course and enhance your skills as a person, and also for career advancement.

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