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[smurfingtonthethird]

This year, I really need to bunker down on my studies. Unfortunately for me, there's games. Lots of them. There's Destiny, Dying Light, Halo 5, Titanfall, South park SoT, possibly SC:LoTV, WoW:WoD, AC5, Elder Scrolls Online and a new DF release that I want to smash through. Plus I'm moving house and I have like 20 parties to go to.

What do?

[Shook]

Study first, then reward yourself with happy fun times. That's the ideal scenario, anyways. Think about it like this: Once you're done studying for the day, you can game and party all you want without soiling your conscience! ... This might require a fair bit of discipline, however.

[Tiruin]

Prioritize.
Focus.

Two words that should be on your mainlist of planning your day out. All those games? They'll exist later on when you're done studying--what does waiting a bit to play them in lieu of your studies mean?
Your studies? They're more like a here-and-now factor. Their aim, while subjective to the learner, is to show how things go in the world: observe, study, learn, analyze, reflect, apply.

What you should do is to check and see which is more important to you: Now and in the future. Don't take subjects for granted, for even those that you may not see useful in your life (ie Calculus, for most professions) still have their benefits in how they're taught.

tl;dr: Focus on your priorities. Strive for knowledge. Develop your learning, observational and analysis skills.
But I'm not advising to drop playing games at all--they also work as a coping mechanism when stressed to balance it out, just play in moderation.
Take gaming as a reward for your hard work. It's all the sweeter that way.

Study first, then reward yourself with happy fun times. That's the ideal scenario, anyways. Think about it like this: Once you're done studying for the day, you can game and party all you want without soiling your conscience! ... This might require a fair bit of discipline, however.

Just takes a bit to turn it into a habit.
Work on what needs to be done first--save playtimes for later, no matter how little time there may be left.
If that's done, you'll worry a ton less and be stressed a LOT less than if you procrastinate and play your day away (and do last minute work...seriously, not good on self-esteem, or quality of self-work/worth)

[SanDiego]

This year, I really need to bunker down on my studies. Unfortunately for me, there's games. Lots of them. There's Destiny, Dying Light, Halo 5, Titanfall, South park SoT, possibly SC:LoTV, WoW:WoD, AC5, Elder Scrolls Online and a new DF release that I want to smash through. Plus I'm moving house and I have like 20 parties to go to.

What do?

My tip is either set timetable for yourself (e.g. studying till 6PM, fun&games later) or develop a guilty conscience which will nag at you when you are not studying.

[Anvilfolk]

Those things are really easy to say, but as someone who's gone from being pretty good at what they did to being shit at what they do, sometimes it's really effin hard to "just focus".

When I'm faced with a hard problem at work, my immediate reaction to not wanting to fail miserably is to open a random website and just browse. So I basically installed a website blocker. It's easy to disable, but it does require you to explicitly go to Chrome extensions and disable it, and that turns out to be just enough to make you think twice. It eliminates the knee-jerk reaction to being faced with a hard task. Now I allow myself a little bit of browsing in the morning, just after lunch and after a hard session of work.

It also helps if you keep working and playing environments separate. Your brain unconsciously associates areas with certain types of activities. For example, bed is for sleeping, school is mostly for working and/or falling asleep, etc. If there's an environment where you don't play at, you can make that into a work environment. I try really hard not to work at home, because then work would consume my entire life, but it has the unfortunate side effect of me not being able to work at home anymore. But if I really need to, I'll take whatever I need to do and go to a different table in the house, which is no longer my play area. The brain isn't immediately "oooh, play area! Let's play!", so you can force yourself to work there more easily.

There are little tricks that help, but ultimately it's going to be up to you. Whether you decide to stay at school longer to work on things and then get home and play all the games without conscience problems or whether you find a space at home, you'll still need to force yourself to work on things.

Eventually getting over that hurdle that stresses you out and becoming good at things, as I like to say, becomes its own reward, and then things are easier and you feel better. I'm trying to get there myself too, though it's a hard, rocky road.

My tip is either set timetable for yourself (e.g. studying till 6PM, fun&games later) or develop a guilty conscience which will nag at you when you are not studying.

Ninja'd: if you're having a bad enough time on focusing, you'll just end up feeling guilty all the time, which won't really help you work. You'll just have trouble sleeping, have a constant sense of little self-worth and end up being miserable

[Knight of Fools]

Something that helped me as a lifelong gamer was pretending life was a game.

"I have to level up my History skill before the Evil Professor takes the Diploma of Awesome away" is more engaging than "ugh, history homework" if you're desperate.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Something that helped me as a lifelong gamer was pretending life was a game.

"I have to level up my History skill before the Evil Professor takes the Diploma of Awesome away" is more engaging than "ugh, history homework" if you're desperate.

Totally. When working out, for example, keep track of your results in weight lifted or speed in a given running distance. It's harder with academics. But keeping in mind that you get good at something by working at it, does help.

Another thing that helps me not procrastinate (though I still do, a lot) is reminding myself that I will have to do the work eventually anyway. I can do the work at the last minute and do poorly and feel super rushed and horrible, or I can do the work first and then relax and enjoy the time I'm goofing off.

[freeformschooler]

Something that helped me as a lifelong gamer was pretending life was a game.

"I have to level up my History skill before the Evil Professor takes the Diploma of Awesome away" is more engaging than "ugh, history homework" if you're desperate.

Reading History books in your off time is like powerleveling.

This mindset works surprisingly well.

[Tiruin]

Instead of seeing them as obstacles (ie Learning is a chore!) attach something you'd LOVE as a note (ie See everyone else's suggestion of imagery above) and put that in your viewpoint.

It helps!
^{Oh, Calculus. Oh, Algebra. I do love your many curves and angles. Thy twists and thy imaginary baubles.}

Or find out how your memorization/understanding methods are and work from that point.