NeuroGenetics Institute
Every recurring interruption in your study day — written down, tagged, and given a plan. You can't fix what you've never counted. Do this before the workshop and Part 3 will hit ten times harder.
Think of one normal study day — yesterday works. List every interruption that actually happened (not the ones you plan to avoid "next time"). Then tag each one with one of three moves:
It goes, completely, during study blocks. Notifications off, app off your home screen, or off the device. Remove is the default answer — most interruptions earn nothing.
It can't go (family dinner, the dog, a job) — so it shrinks. Fixed times, shorter, batched, moved away from your deepest blocks.
The urge is legitimate, the timing is wrong. It gets a scheduled slot — messages at 5:30, the video after the last block — so it stops leaking into everything.
Every interruption you keep gets a pre-decided response: "When it appears, I will ___ instead." An interruption without a pre-decided response always wins. You'll write that sentence for your top interruptions in Section 2 — and remember the cost while you write: each switch taxes your working memory for minutes, and full refocus takes a lot longer than the interruption lasted.
One row per interruption. Tag each: Remove · Reduce · Redirect. Then write the plan — what happens instead, exactly.
The laptop paradox: the device your schoolwork needs is the device most of your interruptions live on. Give it its own audit. (We'll build on this in Part 4 of the workshop — blockers, tabs, notification schedules.)
Not every interruption has an app icon. Siblings, noise, hunger, and your own wandering mind all count — and all three moves still apply.