“I don’t want to do my homework. I’m just gonna watch TV,” is something I tell myself far too often. Homework, despite what some people may think, can actually be beneficial to students. It is extremely effective at building the habit of time management, as well as problem solving and productive study habits. But these positives don’t develop by themselves – it takes hard work and discipline from the student to establish these habits.

Developing good study habits takes time and work. In middle school, my mom would tell me I needed to study for a test I had the next day. So I would sit down, look at my extremely limited notes I had scribbled down, only to close my notebook and turn on the TV five minutes later. Obviously, my study habits were far from stellar. I would love to say that nowadays my study rituals are flawless, they are certainly better than they were back in sixth grade. Good study habits take a decent amount of work to establish, but when these study habits are developed, then homework can reveal its benefits to a student.

Despite the positives that homework creates, it also has negative effects on students. In high school, everyone has a lot going on. School work, sports, clubs, family, maybe a job, and for upperclassmen, deciding where they want to go to college. When homework piles on, it can cause a lot of unhealthy stress  

One teacher might have the philosophy that giving thirty minutes of homework to their students is reasonable. And they’re right – that is reasonable. But when six of your seven teachers decide to give a reasonable thirty minutes of homework, that becomes three hours of work. Most of the time, that three hours of work doesn’t really take three hours. It becomes four, five, and maybe even six or more depending on the student. Every student works at their own pace, and for me as someone that works relatively slower, a “reasonable” thirty minutes takes more time.  

But teachers and their philosophies on homework amounts are certainly not all to blame for the tedious hours us students spend on homework. Students nowadays pretty much have the attention span of Doug from Up, distracted every single time their phones light up. We can all relate to answering Snapchats and replying to texts while trying to study for a math exam. Let’s be honest –  homework would go by so much faster if we as learners were actually focused on our work. When I do homework, I’m always listening to music or trying to binge The Office again. Completely unfocussed. If students could eliminate all of these hurtful distractions, homework might actually be easier than it seems.

So taking these factors into consideration, eliminating distracting variables may be the key to getting homework done faster. Complaints aside, homework can seem like a lot of work, but it can easily be tackled with a proper mindset and perseverance.