As the semester winds down, we tend to feel more and more wound up. Finals, papers, projects and the anxiousness for the year to be over can chew away at our motivation. But now more than ever, students have to stay motivated. How on earth do we do that when we want nothing more than to tap out? Here are some tips.
Give yourself an incentive. Naturally, we are so much more motivated when we have a reward ahead of us. Just like when our parents would promise us toys if we cleaned our room, we do the things that are difficult when we want something. This can be anything from a pair of shoes you wanted, to a new video game or a favorite snack.
Often, instead of encouraging ourselves to do something we have to do, we’re more prone to beat ourselves up about not doing something. Ultimately, this is ineffective.
Positivepsychologyprogram.com wrote, “People often find positive reinforcement easier to swallow than other methods of training, since it doesn’t involve taking anything away or introducing a negative consequence. It’s also much easier to encourage behaviors than to discourage them, making reinforcement a more powerful tool than punishment in most cases.”
So not only is rewarding yourself with a special gift, a favorite snack or a night-out, super fun, it’s also more likely to help you become more motivated.
Get a head start. Cramming is bad. Forcing yourself to study or work on something all in one night is not only bad for your grade, it’s bad for your brain. Newsroom.UCLA.com wrote, “The problem is the trade-off between study and sleep. Studying, of course, is a key contributor to academic achievement, but what students may fail to appreciate is that adequate sleep is also important for academics, researchers say.”
So what do we do? There’s only so many hours in the day. The best course of action is to plan ahead. When you have a moment, maybe on Sunday, plan your week accordingly. Write out what you have to do for the week on a calendar or an agenda, and set an hour or two aside each night to get some of that work done. That may cut into free time or time with friends, but it’s ultimately worth it to avoid the cram-monster. Even just starting an assignment will help you not be overwhelmed later on when nothing is done. Doing small portions of a big project, little by little, makes a big difference overall.
Take a break. Sometimes we stress ourselves out. There are some instances where there’s not that much to do, but we force ourselves to get weeks ahead and be absolutely flawless in our work or study way more than is necessary. For those cases, it’s important to remember that you’re a human being and not a machine. We need breaks. Even for just an hour or two, take a walk, read a book or go down a YouTube hole. Relax. The only thing that comes out of stressing yourself out is, well, stress. So take a breather. Your work is not going anywhere.
Don’t let the final weeks of the year get you down. No matter what, you will be okay. So take a breath, keep your head up and keep going.
bonavent@sbu.edu
