This weekend I went to Starbucks and Wendy’s. I feel like I have been spending too much money lately and need to be stopped. I had to go out for dinner because I was driving back to boarding school with my friend. our first stop was McDonalds. All I wanted was a shamrock shake. It should be like a dollar or two. It was almost five dollars. Like if I wanted to spend five dollars on a drink I would’ve gone to Starbucks. I was already triggered but by the time I pulled up to Wendy’s, I felt better. My friend and I had twenty-eight dollars in total. I ordered the Bacanator and my friend ordered a Chicken Sandwich. We thought the total would be thirteen dollars or something but no. It was twenty-eight dollars. Since when did fast food restaurants think it was okay to raise their prices so high? There was no good reasoning. Fast food restaurants already make so much money. They are getting too greedy. My Bacanator was immaculate but I was flabbergasted. 

This week, I have put off organizing and cleaning my room. It has been horrific and I couldn’t even walk in it without stepping on it. For me to clean I need a particular mindset. If not, it takes me forever and I dread it. My side table was filled with its drawers overflowing. My bed was covered in clothes. My desk had stuff falling off of it because of how full it was. I could not get ready without having to dig into whatever I needed. The drawers of my desk had stuff hanging out of it. My wardrobe was overflowing with stuff. My floor was covered with my things. Today, I was finally inspired to clean. I started with folding all of my laundry, which took me forever. I then began putting all of my makeup back into my desk. Then I cleared all my things on my desk and wiped them down. I placed everything back in their place. I then took any trash out of my side table. (I’m not disgusting, it was just the packaging of things, not food and anything gross.) I then wiped down my side table and put everything that wasn’t supposed to be on it back. Then, I checked under my bed to see if anything had fallen. I put all my work and pencils back into my backpack. I finally put my shoes back onto my shoe rack and after three hours of work, I am finally done.

I’m sorry, Elizabeth, that you have to read this crappy blog. It’s the last block on the last Friday of the Quarter and I have 20 minutes to fill the blank excel column on your computer that says: “Bohdan Cherkai – Blog #n, missing.” Pardon me, Mr. Westcott, for not paying a blip of attention to whatever today’s Computer Science lesson is about – I have got to meet my deadlines. Taking APs, saying “Yes” to every single camping trip and trying to get your life together is like juggling people’s opinions of you. There will be a moment when you have to throw one of them out so that the rest can stay in the air, at least for another instant.

You are in the class. The all school has already taken 10 minutes off the clock; you are having a quick chat with your buddy; the teacher has to scan through their notes and wait for the class to quiet down. The majority of students is finally paying enough attention for the class to start. As your attention jumps from the lecture, to talking, to checking your email, half the period has lapsed. You know you can cut out some extra time using the Swiss Knife of your tricks, “May I use the bathroom, please?” you ask. When outside the classroom, you can kill some time on your phone, stare in the mirror for a little bit, and have a quick chat with a passerby. By the time you return, the class is almost over. You beg the teacher to let you get in the lunch-line early successfully shaving the final 5 minutes off the class.

This sort of chaos, present in almost every classroom, turns 55 minutes of alleged “studying” into, at best, 15 minutes of purposeful attention. It’s absurd how inefficient education is, and how much time is wasted.

From my experience, sacrificing quantity over quality is the most straightforward solution. Replace six 55-minutes classes with two that are triple their size. The increase in class length will account for the time necessary for the students to enter the flow state and stay in it for a meaningfully long period.

Focusing on one task for an extended amount of time is more efficient than jumping between multiple ones without putting much attention or effort into any of them.