As the weather in Toronto keeps getting warmer, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for secondary students to focus on their studies. Spring is on the way, after all, and spring begets summer, and summer begets summer break.
It can be challenging for secondary students taking courses online from home to pay attention to their studies when the weather starts getting warmer. Even for the most high-achieving students, when the classroom is your bedroom, what’s stopping you from heading over to Trinity Bellwoods Park and watching the dogs play in the Dog Bowl?
Of course, there are plenty of upsides to taking online high school courses in Ontario. Compared to traditional brick-and-mortar high schools in the province, some offer more flexibility, a larger variety of courses to choose from, and a more customized experience. In fact, taking online high school courses work better for many students than taking courses at traditional high schools.
But one of the potential downsides to taking online high school courses from home is that, without the in-person supervision of a teacher, it can be hard to stay focused when the warm sun beckons.
How Students Can Keep Their Eyes on Their Books
There are plenty of ways Toronto students at all levels can stay disciplined when taking courses online. Obeying a consistent study schedule, setting up a dedicated study space, making time for physical activity, connecting with study groups, communicating consistently with teachers, and eliminating distractions are only a few.
Another excellent—and underrated—way to stay disciplined is to leverage to-do lists.
There’s a reason productive people, not just students, use to-do lists. To-do lists help you identify the things you need to do and get them done. That’s obvious. But why do to-do lists work so well? Why are they so tried and true?
The Psychology of To-Do Lists
There’s a psychology behind to-do lists. It’s the psychology of goal making and completion. To-do lists are tools that offer much-needed structure, decrease anxiety, and provide a record of what you accomplish in a day.
Bluma Zeigarnik, a Russian psychologist, published a research paper back in 1927 where she put forth an idea now known as the “Zeigarnik effect.” Zeigarnik began to develop the idea after noticing at a busy restaurant in Vienna that the waiters remembered unpaid better than paid orders. Zeigarnik later argued that the tasks we have finished take up less space in our minds than the tasks we have not. In other words, we remember what we haven’t done better than what we have.
Tasks that we haven’t done, or tasks that have been interrupted, can cause us to feel anxious. When we write down—preferably by hand—a task we want to finish, we are not only more likely to finish it, but also less likely to procrastinate or feel anxious about doing it. What’s more, using to-do lists helps us get things done faster than we would otherwise.
That means that, when online Toronto high school students leverage to-do lists, they make it easier to finish their schoolwork while still having free time to spend at the Dog Bowl in Trinity Bellwoods Park, watching other people’s dogs, and basking in golden, heavenly light from above.
