Ed4Career Blog | Category: Online Education

Optimal focus comes with no distractions, right? While we might imagine that it is the key for focus, we don’t live in a perfect world. We have co-workers, family, kids and animals that are usually around us while we try to get things done. For example, my cat is currently walking across my keyboard. Our phones are constantly lighting up, someone is talking too loudly, or the television is playing in the background.

While we can’t control outside factors, we can control the workspace around us and what it looks like! A disorganized workspace can cause negative energy and stress. Knowing where your things are (notes, calendars, your green highlighter, the hole punch, etc.) can save time, help you get more work done and relieve anxiety. Let’s get into some organization tips/ideas for our workspace that can help us attain as much optimal focus as we can.

“Motivation is the incentive or reward behind why a person is compelled to act a certain way.”  Evan Tarver 

We often look at motivation through the lens of whether we have it or not. But have you ever considered what truly drives you? Or, more specifically, looked at the motivation behind motivation?

In this blog we will cover the two main types of motivation – Extrinsic and Intrinsic – which represent the external and internal rewards that fuel us. We also include tips and tricks to increase your motivation by helping you to identify and tap into what drives you. 

Extrinsic Motivation

Events of the past year forced many of us to stick closer to home. Some may have used this time to improve themselves or their surroundings – learning a new skill or tackling household to-do lists.

However, not everyone took this past year to embark on home or self-improvement projects. For many, our focus was more on survival - planning for and simply getting through each day. The past year was more about asking, “how do we keep ourselves and our loved ones safe and healthy”? There was little energy or mind space left for outside interests or pursuits. Quite honestly, many of us are still trying to figure things out; with schools and offices slowly reopening, we are once again thrust into change. And that may very well take up all our energy. And that’s okay.

Whether you are working from home, helping children manage their remote learning experiences, taking courses for personal or professional development during this time of economic unrest – or all of the above - there are steps you can take to make your days more efficient.

The principles for setting up for successful learning at home are not all that different than those needed to work remotely. The basic needs for structure and discipline are the same. By following a few of the steps below, you will communicate to your child, yourself, and your household that education and work are a priority.