Since starting my second year of university, I've been feeling very overwhelmed and I've only been back for two weeks. I feel the jump between the first and second year was huge and that there is so much to do. So as a way to get out of this slump, I decided that I would write a post about staying motivated to motivate myself. This could just be the biggest form of procrastination, but we're going to roll with it. I've come up with a few tips to help you stay motivated when your workload could actually crush you.
Set Achievable Goals
This is something I always struggle with is setting achievable goals. I am terrible at this. Setting achievable goals means your workload won't be as intimidating. At the moment, my homework (also known as independent study) usually takes me about three hours per module (I have four modules) and that is a lot of work. So what I do is spread out when I'm doing my work. I have one lecture on a Monday morning and then nothing till the afternoon, so I use that time to work. It means that when I finally finish for the day, I can just come home and chill. I also try to do my homework on different days so I feel like I have a bit more time to myself. Rather than trying to cram everything into one day, I set achievable goals for each day and spread my workload out. It means I don't feel as stressed by how much work I've got to do.
Take Breaks
This is something I am also terrible at. Half the time I sit down to work, I don't move from where I'm working for several hours. I'm not exaggerating at all. I genuinely have worked for six hours without stopping. This a really bad thing to do and I do not recommend you follow my example. Something I am going to start implementing into my study sessions is breaks. By taking little breaks it means you feel a bit more motivated to continue. I don't know if you can get this app on Android, but if you have an iPhone you can download an app called Forest that helps with productivity but you can use it for making sure that you take breaks. I have it on my iPad and my iPhone. During my GCSEs, I swore by it and I'm pretty sure it's part of the reason why I did so much work. I am going to start using it again as it was very motivational. As the name suggests, you plant a virtual tree and watch it grow. I'm fairly certain after a certain point, the virtual trees you grow start being actual trees through a partner company. I found it really motivational and I am going to start using it again.
Make a Work and Fun Schedule
I have made one of these and once I have settled into a routine at uni, I am going to start using mine religiously. It allows you to see what you should be doing at certain points of the day. As important as it is to see when you should be working, make sure you schedule in some fun or you will go mad. I did this during my early academic years and I did go a little bit mad. I have scheduled in two nights a week off to have chill nights. So far I have been terrible at sticking to these. Once I've got more of routine, I am going to make sure that while I am getting lots of work done, I am also going to be making sure I have downtime as university is stressful. Having a balance means you can live a more well-rounded life and not just be a ball of stress.
I hope these tips have been helpful and if you have any more tips that you think I should add to this post, let me know in the comments below and I will add them.
Carenza x :)
