One of the things I’m most grateful for in my career is my timing in history. I was lucky to pass the exams before smartphones and social media gained such a stranglehold on everyone’s attention. “In the old days” (i.e. anytime in history before about 2007!), it was actually possible to hide in a room without the entire world still having access to your attention through the computer in your pocket. When I was taking exams, I was very good at finding hiding places in my company during my study time so that I wouldn’t be interrupted.
As I say over and over, time management is probably the number one success factor in actuarial exam prep. There are many dimensions to time management, but one of the most important is the ability to focus and get the most out of each hour of your precious study time.
If you are prone to check Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, iMessage, and the billion other options for getting distracted from the present moment, it’s critical that you:
- Gain this awareness of your behavior
- Make sure it doesn’t interfere with your study time
It’s remarkable how hard it is to do in this day and age, but one of the best things you can do is to just put your phone on the other side of the room when you’re studying. Just adding this little bit of friction can be an effective “circuit breaker” to stop you from mindlessly reaching for your phone.
Sometimes the Pomodoro technique works really well for people, too. That way, you’re giving your mind a reward for focusing for a specific segment of time, then you can take a break.
If you’re using your phone to study (e.g. with one of our mobile apps), I highly recommend putting your phone in “do not disturb” mode or something similar. Airplane mode is also a good choice if you’re using our app to watch videos offline. Or maybe just use a different device altogether for studying.
Key point: time management is paramount. It doesn’t matter if you put in 500 study hours if you are distracted during that time. The earlier in your prep you can actively combat distraction, the better off you’ll be.