Motivation: 0
Procrastination: 1
That awkward time after midterms is over, but finals are just around the corner and we find ourselves with zero motivation to study or finish assignments. More and more, you find yourself falling asleep reading your notes. Coffee has lost its effect on you after your four cup a day you had during midterms. Whatever the bare minimum of work that needs to be put in is the work effort produced.
Fear not as we are all in the same boat. Though this is the point in which our grades start slipping and trying to recover it with just the final exam grade is a mistake made each semester. Here are some times tips to help make sure you find that sense of lost motivation.
A majority of the time all it takes is buying an agenda and managing our time. We know we don’t get more than 24 hours in a day, but half of that is slept through. The remaining of the 12 hours is split into class, lunch/dinner, and doing schoolwork, or so you think. Without noticing an average college student can spend up to two hours or more on social media without noticing. Place your phone on ‘do not disturb mode’ so no incoming messages or notifications will distract you. Take those two hours to start that paper that you have known about since the first week of school, will allow you to gain back those lost hours. Also, most students are the most productive from the hours of 10:30am- 3:00pm so make sure you allocate those hours for your most strenuous and hardest work load.
How often do you find yourself reading a textbook or doing an assignment and your eyes just weigh more than your will to keep them open?
So you cave.
Try snacking on foods that have high boost of protein or vitamins to wake your body up. Such as nuts, apple with peanut better, yogurt, bananas, dark chocolate, or air popped popcorn. Sometimes the best tactic to fight off sleep is to take a 15-minute break and going on a run or walk. A jolt of blood flows to the brain from exercise. This will save you more time than taking a 20-40 minute nap. Everyone can spare a 15-minute time slot; we stare at the same page for longer trying to focus sometimes. So you already worked out and had your snack, but you’re still tired? Try filling on the roots of your hair gently. It causes blood flow to your brain, which causes more alertness, without having to get up.
Just a change of scenery is enough to help you trick your brain that you’re doing something different. So pick a new study spot. Grab a study buddy. Just the presence of another person could be enough to motivate you to continue working. Just make sure it’s a studious study buddy and not a talkative one.
If that entire list still does not faze you and you’re still slacking, then just let the amount of work that is doing to be due at the end sink in. Really sink, the hours of catch up that needs to be done. Then that end of the year project and you cannot forget about studying for finals, as everything is cumulative. Oh, we were not paying attention to class for a week, well that could be a problem. Has the anxiety kicked in yet? Some times the best motivation comes from within. When you say you’re going to get your life together but actually do it this time around. Because some of use do not have the motivation of accomplishing schoolwork for the satisfaction of saying we did it all, but we gather our motivation from the pressure that the deadline is tomorrow and you haven’t started. So grab your coffee and that assignment you’ve been procrastinating on, because no more of that. It’s time to crack down.
Motivation: 1
Procrastination: 1