Apologies for the gap in posting. I am afraid that is one of the symptoms of trying to juggle full-time work, part-time law degree, two year old daughter and life in general. The clocks going forward also meant that we lost a valuable hour this week! I know everyone says that if you have a blog it is vital that you update every week at the minimum but I am of the opinion that if you haven't got anything you really feel like sharing then why bother? Posting for the sake of posting is a bit like tweeting for the sake of making noise.
The last couple of weeks have been mainly taken up with putting together a research proposal for my dissertation next year. I am going to do it on the legal issues which arise from the increased use of social media in the workplace and having found a subject I am actually able to get excited about, (finally), I am really looking forward to starting on it.
Having got that out of the way it is time to knuckle down and really get revising for exams. Last year I was guilty of being decidedly casual about my exam preparation and my grades suffered slightly as a result. This years grades weigh heavily towards my overall degree classification so I want to aim for firsts across the board. I am acutely aware that competition for training contracts is so intense that, if I want to have a decent chance of breaking into the profession, nothing less than a 2:1 and preferably a first will do. I don't want to have spent years of my life and thousands of pounds to get a degree that will be of no practical use in getting me the job that I want.
If I going to achieve my goals I will need to be disciplined about distractions. I wrote a couple of months ago about the dangers of permanent partial attention syndrome. Between that and procrastination lies a recipe for disaster. I have always had an issue with putting things off till the last minute and that urge only seems to be amplified during revision time, so I have made a decision to turn off the computer when revising! I know it sounds drastic but I feel that in the interest of my future success I really have no choice. The temptation is just too great to check e-mails, have a quick tweet, follow a distracting thread on someone's blog or any of the myriad distractions that lie behind the screen of my laptop. So there it is, I am going to go cold-turkey from the pc during revision sessions. I'll tweet from my Blackberry to let you know how it's going.
If anyone has any other great tips for avoiding distractions during times when intense concentration is required I would be very grateful if you could pass them in my direction.
Dylan, v.good luck with your revising. My suggestion: revise in a room by yourself and close the door. Leave yer mobile phone and laptop in another room. Let people know that for x (or even xx) hours you don't want to be disturbed. Complete the revision then reward yourself with a beer:-)
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