Staying Motivated

One of the hardest things with studying is staying motivated. It’s all very well and good knowing you have to do something, but finding the motivation to get it started, and not to get distracted during what’s supposed to be a “small” break that ends up lasting the entire day, is something that I know a lot of people struggle with.

I consider myself lucky in that I don’t struggle with this as much as my friends and course mates do, and will happily – maybe not happily, but easily – spend an entire Christmas break revising for January mock exams and entire days pretty much locked in my room.

So, how do I stay motivated?

First off, there’s the big picture. I’m not revising to pass exams or pass a course. Whilst I was revising through Christmas break during my A levels, the key motivation was “I want to study at Edinburgh”. Edinburgh University required rather high grades, but getting the As needed wasn’t what motivated me. It was the thinking “study for just another hour and you can study at Edinburgh” and then, once that hour was up, “you did that hour easily, you can do another one, and then you can study at Edinburgh” (once, when I was a kid, my mum tricked me into eating three of these disgusting vegetable finger things using the same method. And it worked then too, though I don’t think Edinburgh University was the reward back then.)

After going on an open day to Edinburgh, I decided against going there to study. So, what’s the “big picture” motivation now?

A job.

Not just any job.

What I told a friend when they asked: “Ok, here’s my secret. Have an obsession. Find a job to aim for within that obsession. Become totally focused on getting that job. Have an unrealistic view that everything will be perfect when you get that job. Worry about that not being true when you have to face that fact. Just focus on getting there first.”

This pretty much sums up the “big picture” motivation.

Of course, that isn’t always going to work, and I don’t rely on that all the time. For long projects, such as stupidly long chapters I have to read or exam papers, I use a reward system.

Chocolate is my reward of choice, but stickers also work for me. You’ve probably seen the picture of gummy bears on a book and, when you get to a gummy bear, you can have the sweet. Same thing. And it works, or it works for me anyway.

These two things are what really keeps me motivated and, most of the time, makes me get everything I have to do in a day done.