Get Your Head In the Game

By Grace Carballo ‘17

My screenwriting professor’s parting advice to us in our final class last week was to throw our phones off the balcony of our second story classroom in the cinema school.  She explained that, after teaching for over 20 years, she has seen the detrimental effect cell phones and social media have had on the productivity of her students, citing how all of us immediately turn on our phones and computers during the 15 minute break, unable to go even three hours without being connected to the outside world, as a perfect example.

She, on the other hand, is only reachable via e-mail, less than a handful of people have her cell phone number, and she only takes call on her home phone when she is not writing.  My classmates and I agreed that it sounded very liberating to be just barely “on the grid”, but with most organizations utilizing a Facebook group to schedule meetings, tons of event invites exclusively shared through social media, and a steady stream of time-sensitive e-mails and texts each day, turning off the gadgets may not be practical for everyone.

Still, knowing how to resist the temptation to constantly be checking your phone or Facebook can be a valuable skill, especially during finals. Or, when the people you love are trying to talk to you or share a meal - that’s also a wonderful time to not be plugged in.

Lauren wrote in her post about finals tips that there is an app called Self Control which helps with this tremendously. 

Personally, I prefer turning my phone on Airplane Mode and studying near intense people who will judge me if I am on Facebook - just do whatever works for you. The best part of turning my phone offline for a few hours is I feel like such a social butterfly when I turn it back on and the texts come pouring in.

An anecdote to inspire you to next-level focus capabilities:

My dad is an attorney and when he was in law school, he studied insane hours to prepare for the Bar exam. The guy’s concentration was, and remains to this day, unrivaled. One morning, he set up shop in a Dunkin’ Donuts and started a long day full of long readings and coffee consumption. Studying at a Dunkin’ Donuts is absurd to me, with all the noise and people coming and leaving, but again, the man has a gift. He didn’t even listen to music- such willpower! 

(I feel the need to clarify Hey Arnold is not based on my father and has little to do with this anecdote, but it sure does take me back).

Anyway, next thing my Dad knows his concentration is broken by a tap on the shoulder. He looks up and sees a police officer and flashing lights and sirens blaring outside the window. 

“What did you see? Can you describe him?” the officer questioned my perplexed papa.

Apparently, while my father was engrossed in the lovely world of legality and all its complexities, the Dunkin’ Donuts he had chosen as a study spot was, in fact, robbed at gunpoint. No shots were fired, but there was a fair amount of screaming and commotion and crime and he never once looked away from what I assume was pretty dry material. 

Back to the present, and I checked my phone five times in the course of writing this post. I didn’t have any texts, so it was particularly disheartening. 

As my mom often reminds me, we all get the same 24 hours in the day, even Olympians and really successful people - everybody’s working with the same time daily constraints. 

And during finals, when every minute seems to count, you may find, like I have, that managing your time is cake if you just force yourself to turn everything off and focus solely on the task at hand.

Good luck with all your finals! Don’t let them change you!

- Grace