How do you motivate your self to study?
Motivation is a fickle bitch that gets you drunk at parties and then leaves you to fend for yourself. What you need is self discipline, cause she's the good friend that makes sure you get home safe and drink enough water. That being said, here are my top three tips to get shit done:
Figure out your why. Why are you studying this subject? Why did you pick this degree? What do you want to do with this knowledge? Having your 'why' is absolutely crucial when it comes to motivating yourself to study. Let's pretend you want to become a history professor but right now, you're staring at this essay and you just really don't want to do it. Think about your 'why'. If you don't do this essay, then you won't get a good grade in this subject, which means you won't get a good grade in your degree, which means no masters/phD programme will accept you, which means that you will never ever ever achieve your dreams of becoming a history professor. Yes, it's pretty harsh, but so is reality. And do you really want to be sitting there in five years time, knowing that you could be living your best life right now if you'd only bothered to study for that one test? No? I didn't think so.
Timetables & Lists. If you're the type of person that timetables and schedule work for, then use that to your advantage. Plan out your ideal day, scheduling time to study, to work on assignments, and to do homework, but ALSO schedule time to eat, to take breaks, and to spend five minutes doing what you love before getting back into your school/college work. If timetables don't work for you (like they never work for me), then grab a pen and paper and divide it into three sections: Things I can definitely get done today, things I'd like to get done today, and things that can be done tomorrow. Write down all of your assignments or test topics you need to study for, and make your way through the list IN ORDER at your own pace. If you complete section 1, reward yourself by doing something you love, if you complete section 2, double that reward, and if you somehow manage to start and/or finish section 3, then take tomorrow off (if you can) because you're acing this!
Make it fun. Studying doesn't have to be boring. At all. Like. EVER. Even if you're studying for a super difficult test or you have no idea what to do for this assignment, you can still enjoy the process. Find out what makes you WANT to study your notes. Make it super colourful with highlighters and sticky notes, or make it super minimalistic with white paper and a black pen. Find out what makes it easy for you to learn things, and utilise that knowledge. You don't even have to make notes! You can use websites and apps like Duolingo, Quizzlet, etc. to learn things just as efficiently if you're not a note-taking person! In fact, I personally believe that the best way to study is to use the best aspects of all of these resources. I use Duolingo to learn German vocab, Quizzlet to learn verbs, and good ol' fashioned pen and paper (and a dozen highlighters) to learn grammar structures. Maybe you REALLY don't want to read this boring textbook? Well in that case, place a square of chocolate after each section to reward yourself, or read each paragraph and then challenge yourself to write out as many things that you remember as you can on a blank piece of paper. Studying isn't boring. People make it boring. Don't be one of those people.
