Wanted: motivation to study

Am I a bad student? I’m already over my courses despite it only being the fourth week.

Author: Asirah

I think I’m feeling this way because my brain is juggling too much information and stressing over too many deadlines at a time. When I wake up, I’m reminded of the notes from week 2 that I’m yet to finish and before I sleep, I’m reminded that I have quizzes due by the end of the week that I haven’t done. My friend and I were talking about the mental exhaustion we’ve been feeling lately and we know that when we’re too tired, we tend to lose motivation to do anything.

Motivation comes in waves and its fluctuation is a common thing that we go through no matter what we’re doing in life. So, in an effort to prevent this demotivation from prolonging, I’ve devised some ways to get myself back into the groove of studying because I can’t afford procrastinating to the last minute and leaving tearstains on my textbooks again!

Movie time

Firstly, I dimmed the lights in my room, grabbed some Ben & Jerry’s and sat myself down for a nice movie date with myself. You’re probably like, dude, isn’t that just procrastinating? Now, it may look like so but really, I’m tricking myself into adopting a new personality based off the movie I’ve watched. You know how we used to pretend we were Katniss Everdeen and braided our hair to the side after watching Hunger Games? Yeah, that’s exactly what’s going on here. I streamed Legally Blonde, and On the Basis of Sex which is a movie about the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and was immediately inspired by their determination and perseverance to study. Now that 80% of my new legal and headstrong personality is in place, I am moving to phase two.

Changing up the way I study 

I used to type my notes in a Word document for each subject. That system has worked well for me for the past year but lately I’ve gotten tired of looking at the same depressing white pages and plain bulleted notes, so I decided to give Notion a try as recommended by studytok. I’ve tried it before and was repulsed by how complicated it was but that was really my fault for expecting to be a pro at it on my first try. Now that I’ve decided to give it a go again, I’ve come to enjoy it. It’s actually not that complicated, though I still have a lot of things to figure out (can someone please tell me how to get rid of the calendar widget on my homepage?).

With Notion, I was able to have different files for each subject contained on a single screen which makes it easier for me to jump from page to page when I need to refer to different parts of my notes. I’m still new to Notion but at the moment, the organised and clean interface has gotten me more excited to make my notes!

Keeping it simple

Finally, I laid out all my upcoming assessments and work in a single document and noted them down on my desk calendar. That way, I was able to transfer the cluster of due dates that have been swirling in my mind into a single, neat location that I can refer to from time to time. Doing so allows me to visualise my expectations and schedules for the coming weeks, predicting how busy I’ll be and planning the hours I must put in for my assessments, then when I can have my downtime. It also relieves me to know that I actually still have a lot of time to prepare for my coming assignments - the timelines seemed closer to each other when they were living in the folds of my brain. It’s somewhat like making a mood board or staring into a glass orb, I suppose, as it helped me see my future!

So, there you go, my three-way action plan to claim back the motivation I had from week one. It took me about 4 days to get this in motion because as you’ve all probably come to know, it’s always harder pushing yourself to do something than actually doing it but I’m now ready to grab week 4 by the horns!