5 Ways To Motivate Yourself To Study

Studying online is hard and exhausting and if your anything like me, motivating yourself to study online is much harder than when you have in-person classes to go to. I would never have skipped an in person class but I find it easy to skip an online class. There is less obligation because it feels so withdrawn and separate when online.

Hence throughout this past year, I have been trying different ways to motivate myself to be productive. Some worked and some really didn’t fit with me. Finding a method that works is very personal – what works for one person may not work for you. The best thing to do is try out multiple ways to see which is the best fit for you.

Below are 5 ways to motivate yourself to study, especially when learning is so online focused.

#1 Brain Dump

Feeling overwhelmed is often the reason behind my own lack of motivation as it seems like too much to tackle. Sound familiar?

I have found the best way to over come feeling overwhelmed is to brain dump (write down) every single thing you need to do – no matter how small. Once it’s all down on paper, you can see everything in one place and start to plan.

From this brain dump, allocate every single task a category – complete immediately, complete soon, optional. This will let you see which tasks you need to tackle first and which you can simply forget about.

Brain dumping is a great way to motivate yourself because you can break down everything you have to do into manageable chunks.

#2 Reward Yourself

Reward-based learning is one of my favourite ways to work – it’s simple and effective! You set yourself goals (e.g. finish 3 tasks on my list) and then you get a reward once this is complete.

One of the reasons that I love this productivity method so much is because the rewards can be anything. It could be food related (e.g. a chocolate bar or a takeaway), it could be entertainment related (e.g. once I have completed my list I can watch an episode of the show I’m watching), you get my point.

I like to combine rewards with setting deadlines to be the most productive. I set myself mini deadlines throughout the week to make sure I am on track to completing my to-do list. Once I have hit a deadline, I get a reward.

This method is completely flexible and can be adapted to fit your likes. Rewards are a great way to motivate yourself to study.

Related Reading: 8 Cheap Ways To Practice Self Care For Students

#3 Plan for Breaks

Breaks are very important in terms of keeping up your motivation. Working for seven hours straight is often unproductive.

The Pomodoro Technique is a great way to make sure you are getting frequent breaks. This technique is where you study/work for 25 minutes and then get a 5 minute break, and then repeat. Once you have done four of these, you take a longer break – up to 30 minutes. Before returning again, if you need too.

Alternatively, if you are working/studying solely from home another great way to make sure you are getting breaks is to plan your day out like its a school day. Where you have “lessons” – hour long blocks of work – with breaks in-between.

This one will mean you get a designated time for lunch and will feel less lethargic than if you were to start working at 4 in the afternoon.

Whenever and however you take your breaks, just make sure you are taking them!

#4 Get the Bad Tasks Out of the Way

I find I am much more productive once the tasks that I don’t want to do are completed. Get these done first and then you can spend the rest of the day doing the tasks that you enjoy.

For me, watching lectures for a certain module I am taking this term feels like pulling teeth. So I always watch these first thing Monday morning to get them out of the way. Otherwise I find that I will put it off until it is too late.

Look at your brain dump (see #1) and put a star next to the tasks you don’t want to complete and plan to complete these first.

#5 Start Each Day Fresh

Each day is a brand new day – treat it that way! Forget about anything you didn’t complete the day before and plan for a productive day.

Start the day by making your bed because this puts you in the right frame of mind because you have already completed your first task of the day. This is a great way to start a productive day.

There we are, five ways to motivate yourself to studying.

Do you have a favourite way to motivate yourself?