I'm sure my editor is shaking her head after reading the title, as I am almost a week late in submitting this article. Does this sound familiar? Friday: I receive email asking for article due YESTERDAY. I reply stating I will have it to her by first thing Monday. Saturday: It's my birthday! I can't work on my birthday! Sunday-Monday: I come down with the flu that keeps me in bed. Tuesday: Finally, I write and submit my article. The worst part of it all? I knew about this article three weeks ago!

Ignitia, Switched-On Online, and Switched-On Schoolhouse are all designed with the intent of helping your students know what is expected of them and give them a plan to complete it. Many times students still find it hard to keep up with the work scheduled for them. Here are some motivational as well as disciplinary options you may try to help keep your students on track.

Manage distractions. Today, more than ever, your students' minds have so many things to think about. When I was young, I only had a handful of television shows that I looked forward to and maybe thought and talked about during the day. Today, Netflix, Hulu, cable television, not to mention You Tube, offers thousands if not millions of multimedia morsels that are just a click away at any time. Chances are, when they aren't watching these millions of videos, they are thinking about them. Social sites like Facebook and all the other Internet web sites they can frequent are taking the place of mental time spent in schoolwork. You know, it is probably true in your life to some extent, so just imagine how your students are dealing with it.

If you can't block it; track it! Along with blocking access to distractions, work with the students and their parents and help them realize how much time is being spent online. Rescue Time  is just one of many applications that will track time spent on each activity performed on a computer, both online and off. This can be a great learning tool for your students and will also help today's parents realize time they may be wasting as well.

Establish subject-specific class periods. To help your students finish schoolwork in subjects that may be a little harder for them, schedule time slots for each subject during the day. Everyone could work on mathematics the first hour, language arts the second hour, and so on. This may provide better focus as opposed to just switching from one subject to another at will. If students finish what is due before the hour is up, instruct them to study for upcoming quizzes and tests, as well as work on projects that are usually lingering. If students do not finish what is due in the hour given, assign as homework.

Set assignment grade to zero. On a disciplinary note, there is a way you can create real time grade consequences. When a student does not complete items by their due dates, manually change the grade to 0.

Within Ignitia, change the status to "Graded," which requires a manual grade be entered regardless of what the student has accomplished. If the status is "Assigned," you must choose "Completed," and then "Graded." This can be done via the Gradebook tab or more quickly via the Assignment Alerts tab.

Switched-On Online requires you to change the status of the assignment to either Completed or Accepted. Then, enter the assignment, and change each individual question score to 0. If you don't mind losing their work, changing the status to Completed, then to Assigned, and then right back to Completed will erase their work and give the assignment a score of zero.

Switched-On Schoolhouse has a button on the bottom right of the Assignment tab labeled "Zero Assignment." This will erase all work and set the grade to zero. You may also set an entire unit's grade to zero by right-clicking on the unit title, and selecting Set Unit Grade to Zero from the menu.

Whether you approach your student's lack of focus with motivation or discipline, realize the goal is not just to "get schoolwork done." Take these opportunities to help the student realize how distractions can so easily beset us, and teach time management skills that will help them not procrastinate, but be more productive citizens of both this earth and God's Kingdom.