How to study when you're not feeling motivated
Hey everyone happy Friday! I'm a week behind on forum replies now, which isn't good but I've had an interesting week so I'll hopefully get to them soon. Thank you everyone for your patience with me and hopefully I'll sit down to do replies soon!
Today I wanted to talk a bit about studying while unmotivated. It's one of the most challenging yet incredibly common for all of us to face. It's extremely de-moralizing most of the time to know that we need to study but just don't have the motivation to do so. It's hard, but here are three tips on how to manage it all and how to try and get things done that need to get done!
1) Stand up and take a walk or just to take a break
Sometimes it does more harm than good to continue pushing yourself to study or work on a task when you're burnt out. When we push ourselves to work when we are just too burnt out to, it can lead to us just becoming more tired and more frustrated with our inability to concentrate. Instead, taking the time to rest and to re-group ourselves can end up becoming more beneficial and lead to us feeling more relaxed. If you're not feeling it and feeling like you can't concentrate, it might be helpful to stand up and try taking a quick walk around your house. Other things you can do are to take a walk outside (safely!) or to clean up your working space a bit. Or, you could even grab a snack or a glass of water! The point is to get up and moving a bit so that you can take a breather.
2) Shift your mindset by shifting your language.
I've talked a lot about shifting your language before, but it applies to a lot of things! I think in terms of studying, the simplest ways of switching up your language can help how you think of things. One way is to replace "but" with "and". For example, you might think "I have my test tomorrow but I'm unmotivated to study for it". When you replace "but" with "and", you can think of it like "I have my test tomorrow and I'm unmotivated to study", which shifts the narrative to two separate phrase. When you use "but", your limiting your options as to what you want to do while using "and" means that the second phrase doesn't negate the first.
3) Build momentum by starting off with something simple first.
A common study tip is to always start with the hardest thing first. This sometimes can be counterproductive since you may feel like the task is going to take so long to finish and you might not have the energy built up to finish it. If you're feeling like the bigger or harder task isn't working, try building up the momentum to work with completing a small task first. This could literally be as simple as doing your laundry or just checking a few emails. This is helpful because it almost convinces yourself that you're able to start working.
Discussion questions:
How do you usually study when you're feeling unmotivated?
What are you most excited or fearful (or both) of for this upcoming schoolyear?
What is your most used emoji? (If you're on the website and use windows, you can right click and click emojis to look for them! Mine is 🥺)
@AddictedTealover98 @AnastasiaSmith @AveryLove @betterchoices @BlackRose1832 @BookChunky @calmingSummer5564 @captainmajesty @charmingOrange5817 @dancedance @DayDreamWithYou @Dinoprincess12 @Domae @DreamTouch @dynamicHemlock1736 @Hashib22 @herealways27 @honeypie720 @Hydrangea03 @ItsJoel @iwishuwell @izu201ph @jKempy @Kassy7cups @Listeningsarinn @lyricalAngel70 @MariWhale @Memisse @mistke @Oxymoron6demon @parisayano @playfulPink51 @rosymaplemoth @SmolBurrahobbit12 @SparklingSnowflake15 @StanDaMan78 @TheAtticusFinch @TheGoldenHand @TheGoodFairy @theheartproject @tranquilSunshine07 @TreatYouBetter @wohooradhika @wonderfulMango5023 @Yourlifeisworthy
How do you usually study when you're feeling unmotivated?
I usually try to get myself through it by focusing on the future benefits of studying the material. If necessary, I will shift my motivation to a fear-inducing one such as "You don't want to fail the test, do you?"
What are you most excited or fearful (or both) of for this upcoming school year?
I'm trying to start a club/program/thing at my school, and I am going to talk to the Career and Life Success Program Coordinator for approval and guidance. I'm excited for sure, but also a little anxious.
What is your most-used emoji?
My most used emoji is "😊".
@TheGoodFairy
Hey Goodfairy! :) Hope you're having a wonderful day whenever you read this ~ Thank you for responding today! I definitely can relate by using fear-inducing strategies to pressurize myself to study, but it can get way too stressful sometimes and do more harm than good for me. I think benefits is good! Hopefully they're leaning more towards intrinsic motivations with what you can do with the material. Oh!! That is indeed so exciting that you're starting a club omg! I want to do that, but my passions already have clubs so I've sorta been leading those clubs instead. What club are you hoping to start? I wish you the best of luck with it and it's totally understandable to be worried and anxious about starting it. Awww I love that emoji haha <3
@TheAtticusFinch
thank you for this wonderful post Atticus! I'll definitely keep those tips in mind next time I feel unmotivated!
How do you usually study when you're feeling unmotivated?
I usually go to my room, lie on my bed, and really think about what is making me feel unmotivated, what I really want to do instead, process some of my thoughts, and then after clearing everything, I usually feel more motivated. Sometimes if I still feel unmotivated, I would take a break and go read some really sad and really good novel. Once I finish it or finish a few chapters, I usually am more up to study too. However, if I still don't, I usually just tell myself that let's just finish this as soon as possible and get it done so I don't have to think about it anymore.
What are you most excited or fearful (or both) of for this upcoming schoolyear?
Hmm, I'm not sure if I'm excited or fearful about anything for the upcoming school year, but I can tell you that I'm very disappointed about my school and the way they are going to operate next year (we're doing distance learning, where teachers simply assign homework - not really lessons at all). I do understand the reason my school decided to do things the way they did, but I was really looking forward to junior year. Ooh, and I suppose I do enjoy learning, so I am excited to see if I will meet a teacher that is super committed and willing to teach. :)
What is your most used emoji? (If you're on the website and use windows, you can right click and click emojis to look for them! Mine is 🥺)
hmm, I think my most used emoji recently is probably 😯 (:o).
@DayDreamWithYou
Dreammmm <3 I'm glad that you found the post wonderful!! :D Thinking about what's making you feel unmotivated and going from there seems like a good strategy to clear up your mind :) I like it! Awwwwh I gotta get into the habit of reading whenever I'm bored instead of going on my phone, I admire you for that! Awh, I really feel you with next year's style of learning. I'm going to be doing a similar independent study program as well and it sucks that we won't get much teacher to student time as we normally would. I understand that junior year is going to be important and I'm sorry you have to spend a lot of it indoors/in quarantine but I know you'll be okay. :) 😮 Is definitely an emoji we use a ton in TL, so I totally get the frequency of use with that! :D Thank you for responding and take careo! :)
@TheAtticusFinch,
Nice questions.
How do you usually study when you're feeling unmotivated?
I have 2 options:
First, I set a time when to study and tell my inner consciousness some lines like, "Time is gold" or "There's a deadline" to help myself get some willpower.
Second, I study the next day instead, because my unmotivation heavily affects my mood to study. Taking a break is indeed important. 
What are you most excited or fearful (or both) of for this upcoming school year
My most excited or fearful activity for this school year is my upcoming internship in the next semester. It's scary because I'm not so used in communicating with people online/offline, yet I'm a bit excited to experience it as well.
What is your most used emoji?
I've been using this 🎂 for a lot of times, greeting people I know in their birthdays.
@LovelyOrangeJuice
Hey Orange Juice!! Thank you for laying out your two options, they both sound like great ways to motivate yourself to study and you're absolutely right that taking breaks is really important. Having deadlines can be a healthy pressure for yourself and I'm really glad you're able to use that to push yourself forward! Ah yes, I'm nervous for upcoming internships as well and it's all really stressful, I agree. Those feelings of being confused as to how everything is going to work is incredibly valid and I know you'll be able to get through it and figure it out eventually :)) hahah! I love how all the birthdays are grouped together for you <3
As for me, my education is the initiative of my parents. They paid me for it in full and I was grateful to them. It was really difficult for me with motivation because it seemed to me that everything was decided for me. I was an amorphous student for the first two years. The help of this service helped me a lot then - https://www.writemyessayquick.net/ Everything changed when the practice was added to the theory. We went to enterprises to do internships within the framework of the cooperation program with the university and for the first time, I was interested in my work. I talked with those who are already working in the profession and learned many positive nuances. This was the best motivation for me.
@GreenHouse89
Hi greenhouse <3 thank you for responding, I can totally see how it was hard at for you to stay motivated at first! I also came from a more dependent-on-my-family childhood and I can really empathize with you and see where you are coming from. But I'm really glad you were able to use your resources wisely and figure out how to stay motivated on your own eventually, that's the key point! :) It sounds like your internships at your university were good for you and I'm glad it helped you find a passion for what you do! Take care <33