Absolutely unable to concentrate

[Janice88]

I have a work related exam coming up. I am off today and tomorrow (rota), working Saturday and Sunday. I’m off all of next week and the exam is on the Monday after. It’s been ages since I studied for an exam. I’m struggling to concentrate :(
I sat down at 10 this morning. It’s 3pm now. I only did about 40mins of the training video. Random thoughts, random browsing, kids to-do list, thinking of friends, family, things I need to do etc. Even while watching the training video, I’m still lost in though somethings so I had to go over parts of the lecture again.
Please can someone help me ! How do I concentrate? I’m planning to start my masters degree part time next year and at this rate I’ll screw it up big time.

Following because my OU degree is currently going out the window while I just sit and wave

I use a timeboxing app
You can do anything for 20 minutes
Google timeboxing or pomodoro

Divide day up into writing sessions and set a goal for each session e.g. write 500 words on x - doesn’t need to be perfect as you edit later. Do something between each session. Turn off phone and internet whilst writing. Do alphabet soup - pick a random letter and start each paragraph with a word that starts with that letter. Summarise what you have written in each session into 5 bullet points. If you genuinely really can’t achieve anything - walk away and do all your other chores. Nothing is more demoralising than spending hours and achieving nothing.

I used to really struggle writing/studying/ working at home but you can train yourself to do it.

.... and get off Mumsnet

Do you have practice questions? That might be easier than vaguely looking at the work again: attempting to discover the particular answer will give you a focus.

Best thing for me was to get in the habit of studying away from the house, where anything and everything could be a distraction. I went to the library one night a week and to the local college library 3 nights a week. That habit then came home with me and weekday evenings 6-10 were study. I got a thermos of tea so I didn't even stop to make a cuppa

Some people work better under pressure, last minute kind of thing.
Could this be you op?

Write a to do list of all the distracting little jobs you have to do. Then alternate between studying for 30 min and doing the jobs. If another job occurs to you whilst you are studying just scribble it on the list and get back to the studying.