How to stay motivated

So you may have a bit of a procrastination problem… Looking at all the high achievers around you, you might be surprised to learn that they are likely no strangers to procrastination. Everyone, even the most ambitious gunners will have slumps in motivation. The difference is that those who succeed generally push through these slumps and will force out the work, whether they want to do it or not. That being said, there are things you can do to improve your motivation and things you can do to push yourself in the right direction when you simply cannot motivate yourself. So now let’s look what you can do!
 

Timetable yourself!
Time is the only currency in the world that can’t be bought, sold or regained. With that in mind you need organize your time so that you can give yourself breaks. Drops in motivation are most common after a long session of doing work or cramming. The best way to avoid that is to plan out your time efficiently and include plenty of breaks with rewards during those breaks! Everyone studies at different paces, so you need to find out at which frequency breaks work optimally for you. It’s important to recognize that these breaks are not a waste of time. In fact you’ll find that by taking intermittent breaks you can maintain focus and motivation and your work will be productive, as opposed to endless hours of achieving nothing while sitting at your desk.

So what to do in the breaks you do take? Let me tell you right now, there is no “right” answer. Your breaks are for you, you need to do things that will help you relax and remember the finer things in life. It’s true that some people break up Math study with English study and it’s true that some people also get a quick gym routine in through their breaks. Personally, I broke up study with a combination of Scrubs, How I met your Mother and Big bang theory. I found that the 20-minute episodes were a good duration for every break.
 

Set some goals (with some rewards)
Setting goals is one of the most important keys to staying motivated. Big, small, long term and short term you need a combination of all of them to get through year 12. Every time you achieve one of the goals you set, you need to organize yourself a reward that will motivate you to try and achieve the next goal that you set. Now for those curious about how to go about setting good goals, there is another blog entry on it called setting SMART goals. Another thing that you will find really helps setting goals is having a High School UCAT course (or VCE® Exam course), because the good ones are usually divided into manageable segments and include a lot of concrete goals and self-scoring exercises.
 

Study by yourself or with others
VCE® Exam is a competition, however this does not mean that you cannot study as a group and learn from each others. Once you reach university, the bulk of your learning will be from fellow students! Learning and studying in a group is a fantastic way of staying motivated because when one-person drops, another one peaks. It’s the same principle as having a gym buddy or a sports team. Humans are inherently social creatures, so make use of your nature! That being said, you need to find the right group of people as some groups can distract you more than help you. If you are easily distracted or at a stage of your studies where you’d rather concentrate on working alone, group study may not be the way to go either. That being said, I’d recommend you gave it a try, you may be surprised by the results.
 

Just do it!
These are just a few simple things you can do to keep those motivation levels from dropping. Remember though, it’s not necessary to be motivated to do work. There is no doubt that motivation greatly helps your productivity but you can study regardless of your motivation levels. For instance, if you feel really low on motivation, try picking something easy or that you enjoy doing. In 80% of the cases, your motivation levels will be forgotten once you really get into your work. The hardest part is getting started… My advice: don’t over think. Don’t start dreading the work ahead or thinking about what else you’d rather be doing. You wouldn’t enjoy that thing anyway, knowing that you ought to be study inginstead. Walk to your desk and get to it.

Happy Studying!