Just wondering, how do you manage to stay motivated? I always struggle to do so. Thanks!
Honestly speaking, I really struggled with staying motivated in my final two years at uni. Basically, this gif was an accurate representation of how I felt up until graduation:
[assuming that I got out of bed at all. tbh. you can track some of it here.]
Here’s a few things that helped me stay somewhat motivated aka:
“mate, teach me how to give a shit about my studies”
1. Start small.
Sometimes, its just a matter of momentum. Start with a small task for the day. Something that can be completed in 10-20 minutes. Knock off the easiest things on your list of things to do. That way, even if your arvo falls into an endless pit of procrastination, you’
2. Target your study method.
I think one of the strongest demotivators was studying for long hours and then failing to get the results I wanted. On my lowest days my thought process would be something along the lines of, “what’s the point of studying this - heck, I’ll just do as poorly as last time.”
The only way to get over that was to target my study for the examination at hand. I saved a lot of time whilst achieving decent grades. Two birds, one stone.
3. Shake things up
Study the same shit but in a different way. Whether that be writing notecards, finding videos online, group study, drawing up some mindmaps, screaming it at the mirror.
4. Look for inspirational shit
Whether it be something related to your field of study or not. It might be as simple as going on a youtube spiral on an aspect of your field of study, or finding an aspirational figure.
If you’re the type that responds to motivational quotes - great! Print out great A3 sizes of motivational quotes and plaster them all over your study space.
Personally, I respond better to the the dry humour sarcastic motivation. In that respect, #reallawblr and @lawschoolruinedme were very much my sources of inspiration.
TL;DR find what inspires you.
5. Fuck it all
Look, sometimes you need a break from studying in order to get back into studying. Kinda like those long term old-couple relationships you see in tv soap operas where the biggest plot point of the season is “oh, I’m so bored of my long term partner, how will I ever keep this relationship alive!” (bad analogy, but i feel like this is a good time to admit that I’m running on 2 hours sleep here).
Remind yourself of who you are outside of your school/university life. You are much much more than the sum of your academic achievements.
....to be frank, I found that I needed to take a small break from studying in order to be motivated ‘to’ study. That includes pursuing interests outside my academic life - catching up with friends, tv shows, heck even doing physical exercise.
Heck, you might even find a new hobby! I got into hockey due to a procrastination spiral. 4 months on and I’m a frickin’ hockey nerd. And i live in Australia, where there’s hardly any ice/snow to speak of.
And that may mean stop trying so hard to find motivation. Because that may be exhausting. While I know many people turn to studyblr as a source of motivation, I’ll admit there was a long period where I just had to avoid studyblr. Because it was draining to come home to posts about pens/study/stationery/TIPSFORA4.0GPA or whatever. After a 10 hour stint of study, the last thing I wanted to do was to spend my free time talking about studying lmfao.
My ramblings aside, here’s a list of ‘targeted’ tips that may help with those motivation levels!!
What to do when you really don’t want to study by @tae-studies
How to study when you don’t feel like it by @stressandstudying
Some curious observations on how the studyblr community may motivate students by Jaqueline Vickery
This answer by @studyign
Motivation Masterpost and A guide to motivation by @elkstudies
Things to watch for study motivation/ inspiration by @why-so-studious
JUST DO IT
All the best hun!