It is a truth universally acknowledged that a high school student with seven classes worth of homework and a laptop will not do that homework – not with the mystic lure of the internet calling.

We’ve all fallen victim to this siren call. Student A tells herself, “Dinner’s at seven. It’ll take me three hours to do all this homework. So I have an hour to fool around.”

She opens up Facebook (or Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Goodreads, Reddit, The Onion – name your drug of choice). An hour turns into four. “I’ll do my homework after dinner,” she then says.

Dinner’s over and she’s forgotten to check her email. She opens up the laptop again and forgets to close it. Soon it’s one a.m., and the homework hasn’t been touched. Student A is up until four, sleeps for an hour, then wakes up at five to finish what’s left.

Has this ever happened to you? Rest assured: there is a solution.

Willpower. Set goals. Work for an hour and give yourself a fifteen minute break. Use a timer or alarm clock. Remind yourself of the consequences. Are you on the cusp of a D in science? Maybe that essay is worth 20 percent of your semester grade. Throw out the idea that you can finish it during class, lunch, or between periods. If you need to get on Facebook or your email to check on something important, do what you came to do and then get off.

Involve parents. If you’re like the rest of us, willpower just does not work. Instead of holing up in your room, do your homework in front of a parent or sibling. You’re less likely to slip up when someone’s watching. Tell your ‘supervisor’ what you’re doing: “I’m writing this English essay, Mom. This is my trig homework, Dad. Next I’ll tackle some questions for history.” Ask them to hold you accountable if they find you distracted, or have them ask you periodic questions to keep you focused.

Drastic measures. Bring out the big guns by blocking the problem sites. Use programs like LeechBlock (Firefox), StayFocused or Concentrate (Chrome). These applications will block sites during a specific time of day or for a certain amount of time. Or bring out the big guns by removing sites entirely on your computer’s host files. This can be undone with few difficulties.