We’ve all been there; having to sit through a lecture or presentation that is beyond boring. In this post, I will provide tips to not just survive these lectures, but to actually get something out of them.
As a professor, I do my best to engage my students. Still, I know some of them are on Facebook and texting their friends, despite my best jokes about Kanye West. Sadly, I know they are missing out on material that they will need to help them in their counseling career.
I get it. I’ve been there. I have sat through lectures by professors so boring I wanted to poke my eyes out just for some relief. So I tuned out completely.
Let me say that I am NOT advocating tuning out completely; it won’t help you. It is likely there are at least a few nuggets of useful information buried in-between all of the tedium.
The best course of action is, of course, to pay complete attention to every single thing a professor says. But, when that isn’t possible:
- Don’t: Completely tune out. The key to successfully metabolizing boring lectures is to pay just enough attention so that you can tell when the professor is hitting a relevant point. Listen for changes in their voice pattern, such as changes in volume, pitch or speed. Also, pay attention to pauses. Professors will often pause prior to making an important point. Pauses also indicate a switch in topic, so you’ll want to tune back in re-evaluate.
- Do: Try putting your laptop/ipad/phone away. It will be too tempting to completely switch your focus, and you will end up completely tuning out the lecture. What you need is an activity that will only slightly distract you, so that you can stay tuned-in enough to hear when there is a “nugget” of information. Try something relatively mindless, like doodling. If you must use your laptop/ipad/phone, stick to mindless games like Candy Crush, and not things like Facebook that might require some thought.
- Do: Find something you admire about the speaker. Having positive feelings about the speaker will help keep you engaged. Clearly it won’t be their speaking skills…but perhaps their credentials? Their experience?
- Do: Ask questions. Find something, anything, that piques your interest even just a little bit, then ask the professor about it. (Hint: make sure it’s relevant to what the professor just said, otherwise everyone will know you aren’t paying attention). Once you feel more engaged, you will feel less bored. It is also likely the professor will become energized by your question, and may even become more interesting. If nothing else, perhaps you will learn something.
Yours in the Joy of Knowledge,
Dr. Barbara LoFrisco
