Written by Chloe O’Neill
Sometimes it can be really hard to feel motivated to lock in for uni. Trust me, I know (I submitted this blog about two weeks after the due date – eek). So, from one procrastinator to another, I want to offer a few words of advice to set yourself up to lock in.
I’ve found that motivation is something you can help cultivate – if you’re willing to set yourself up for success. If you can create the right environment to motivate yourself, it is so much easier to get in and do the work, and you’re more efficient.
Planning for motivation
Before you worry about how motivated you feel to study, consider whether you have set yourself up to succeed. I have a few questions I always try to keep in mind when I’m planning my study schedule.
When do I study well?
It’s as simple as it sounds. I would just say to try and keep this in mind when you are planning your study schedule. Does your brain function better in the morning or evening? Are you completely fried or motivated after class?
Where do you study best?
Knowing where you can practically get started and get work done is really important. It’s not much use putting aside the time to study and setting your location to your bed if you’re just going to end up watching Netflix.
Be honest about where you know you can work, and plan to be there. I know that for me, I can do easier class content at home or outside. But if I really want to get work done for an assessment or do a lengthy reading, I should go into the uni library or to a cafe because that’s where I work most effectively.
This also means knowing who you should be around when studying – does having friends around keep you accountable, or do they get you too far off track? The more honest you are about where and who you work best with, the less energy you’ll waste trying to force yourself to study in situations that don’t suit you.
Is your phone interfering with your motivation?
Let’s be honest: it is so much easier to scroll socials than do uni content and assessments. And it is very easy to enter socials from a notification and leave an hour later without having even realised you started scrolling. Our phones are a great way to derail a study session before it’s even started.
Something that I’ve found helps keep me accountable is setting app timers. You might even download a screen-time app to lock you out of unnecessary apps while studying. Though you can technically change it back if you want, creating a barrier between you and scrolling points you in the direction of study. Some apps even have fun characters!
Okay, so you’ve prepared yourself as best you can, and now I want to offer a few smaller things that work for me and help me get started on the day:
- Having a refreshing shower to reset
- Putting on fresh clothes
- Setting achievable goals
- Playing a good motivation playlist during study prep and travel to my study location
- Packing a sweet treat as a study reward
- Making myself a nice warm drink
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt as a fellow procrastinator, it’s that waiting until you ‘feel motivated’ usually doesn’t work. Instead, motivation often comes after you’ve started.
So be kind to yourself, make studying as easy as possible to begin, and remember that even a small amount of progress is better than putting it off until tomorrow (or, in my case, two weeks later!).
Charlie blog is a SSAF initiative.
