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How I Stay Motivated To Study

As the first term of uni comes to a close and it starts to get darker outside earlier and earlier, I feel my motivation to study slowly slip away. Unfortunately, I have also multiple formative assessments due in the coming weeks, so here’s a few of my top tips on how I stay motivated to study!

Use a reward system!
Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I’m simply not someone who’s very intrinsically motivated. I rely a lot on extrinsic rewards to motivate me during my study sessions – here are a few of my favourite rewards:

•

Treating myself to a take-out after a weekend in the library.

•

Grabbing a coffee in the library café if I finish writing up notes from my last lecture.

•

Allowing myself a day off if I get more revision done than planned during the week.

As a student, it’s really important to me to focus on budget-conscious rewards; after all, I can’t buy myself something new after every single study session! Luckily, rewards can come in all shapes and sizes, whether it’s watching a movie with your flatmates or having a quiet night-in with no books in sight.

Chat with your coursemates.
If you’re a competitive person like me, one of the best ways to motivate yourself to study is to ask others what their study plans are. If you know your friends and coursemates are revising hard, you’ll probably feel inclined to step up your game as well. At the same time, be careful when comparing yourself to others: a long study session doesn’t always equal an effective study session, and we all process information in different ways and at different speeds.

If you enjoy socialising but want to spend more time studying, consider arranging a group study session before, in-between or after lectures.

Read (and implement!) assignment feedback.
Although I revise often and put my all into every assignment I’m given, there’s always room for improvement. Whenever I feel like I don’t know what to do next, I like to read the feedback of my previous assignments to see whether or not I’ve actually improved on the areas I need to most. Reading feedback can sometimes be challenging – especially negative feedback or feedback you don’t necessarily agree with – but it can also act as a great motivator when you need it.

And finally, for any students currently preparing for upcoming assignments or exams – remember to take regular breaks and sleep well! :biggrin:

Hope this helps,
Eve (Kingston Rep).

Reply 1

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post

by Kingston Eve

As the first term of uni comes to a close and it starts to get darker outside earlier and earlier, I feel my motivation to study slowly slip away. Unfortunately, I have also multiple formative assessments due in the coming weeks, so here’s a few of my top tips on how I stay motivated to study!
Use a reward system!
Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I’m simply not someone who’s very intrinsically motivated. I rely a lot on extrinsic rewards to motivate me during my study sessions – here are a few of my favourite rewards:

•

Treating myself to a take-out after a weekend in the library.

•

Grabbing a coffee in the library café if I finish writing up notes from my last lecture.

•

Allowing myself a day off if I get more revision done than planned during the week.

As a student, it’s really important to me to focus on budget-conscious rewards; after all, I can’t buy myself something new after every single study session! Luckily, rewards can come in all shapes and sizes, whether it’s watching a movie with your flatmates or having a quiet night-in with no books in sight.
Chat with your coursemates.
If you’re a competitive person like me, one of the best ways to motivate yourself to study is to ask others what their study plans are. If you know your friends and coursemates are revising hard, you’ll probably feel inclined to step up your game as well. At the same time, be careful when comparing yourself to others: a long study session doesn’t always equal an effective study session, and we all process information in different ways and at different speeds.
If you enjoy socialising but want to spend more time studying, consider arranging a group study session before, in-between or after lectures.
Read (and implement!) assignment feedback.
Although I revise often and put my all into every assignment I’m given, there’s always room for improvement. Whenever I feel like I don’t know what to do next, I like to read the feedback of my previous assignments to see whether or not I’ve actually improved on the areas I need to most. Reading feedback can sometimes be challenging – especially negative feedback or feedback you don’t necessarily agree with – but it can also act as a great motivator when you need it.
And finally, for any students currently preparing for upcoming assignments or exams – remember to take regular breaks and sleep well! :biggrin:

Hope this helps,
Eve (Kingston Rep).

Hi there!

I think this is a great idea so I wanted to add how I stay motivated to study too.

Firstly, I like agree with the reward system! I find it quite hard to motivate myself, so I always like to have some sort of reward for doing work. I don't reward myself every time I do something, but if I get what I need to get done during the week, or the weekend I like to make sure I have some sort of nice plan!

I also like to plan out my days and week. I work better knowing that I have a task to do, rather than just going into the library with a long list of things that need doing this week. If I have a set task to do that day, I feel so much more accomplished at the end of the day which feels so much more motivating.

Making sure I take breaks regularly is helpful too. I can't sit and work for too long, so I like to plan in breaks or time to go for a short walk at lunchtime so I know I have breaks coming up and time to rest my brain for a bit.

This one is my fault really, but I find it so hard to not go on my phone and get distracted. If I am at home I like to leave it out of the room, or put it somewhere where you have to get up to get it, rather than being able to reach for it. This makes it more of an effort to get it, rather than just reaching for it subconsciously which means I think about it more and stop myself from getting up to get it.

Revising or working with friends can be helpful too. If I know my friends have work to get done too, I will often do work with them so I feel more motivated to keep doing it. If everyone around me is typing and getting work done, I feel like I have to too!

I hope some of these are useful!

Lucy -SHU student ambassador 🙂

Reply 2

UniLancashire

Official Rep

Original post

by Kingston Eve

As the first term of uni comes to a close and it starts to get darker outside earlier and earlier, I feel my motivation to study slowly slip away. Unfortunately, I have also multiple formative assessments due in the coming weeks, so here’s a few of my top tips on how I stay motivated to study!
Use a reward system!
Unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I’m simply not someone who’s very intrinsically motivated. I rely a lot on extrinsic rewards to motivate me during my study sessions – here are a few of my favourite rewards:

•

Treating myself to a take-out after a weekend in the library.

•

Grabbing a coffee in the library café if I finish writing up notes from my last lecture.

•

Allowing myself a day off if I get more revision done than planned during the week.

As a student, it’s really important to me to focus on budget-conscious rewards; after all, I can’t buy myself something new after every single study session! Luckily, rewards can come in all shapes and sizes, whether it’s watching a movie with your flatmates or having a quiet night-in with no books in sight.
Chat with your coursemates.
If you’re a competitive person like me, one of the best ways to motivate yourself to study is to ask others what their study plans are. If you know your friends and coursemates are revising hard, you’ll probably feel inclined to step up your game as well. At the same time, be careful when comparing yourself to others: a long study session doesn’t always equal an effective study session, and we all process information in different ways and at different speeds.
If you enjoy socialising but want to spend more time studying, consider arranging a group study session before, in-between or after lectures.
Read (and implement!) assignment feedback.
Although I revise often and put my all into every assignment I’m given, there’s always room for improvement. Whenever I feel like I don’t know what to do next, I like to read the feedback of my previous assignments to see whether or not I’ve actually improved on the areas I need to most. Reading feedback can sometimes be challenging – especially negative feedback or feedback you don’t necessarily agree with – but it can also act as a great motivator when you need it.
And finally, for any students currently preparing for upcoming assignments or exams – remember to take regular breaks and sleep well! :biggrin:

Hope this helps,
Eve (Kingston Rep).

Hi everyone!
Some great tips and advice here already! I would like to just add that the way I viewed regular breaks changed once I started implementing them. I would often think negatively about breaks but once I tried them more and more, the more I realised that they're helpful and positive not negative.

Even a small 5-10 minute break is enough to keep you motivated. I would often think that if I have a break I won't get back to my studying or that I would rather just get it all done and then have a break but I started to feel burnt out. I noticed that with breaks I would get more and better quality work completed.

Lastly, being in the right setting and figure out what works for you to keep you motivated when studying or revising. Experiment. We are all different and have different ways in which information sinks in so don't be scared to try different revision styles. Are you more motivated when working fully digitally or is it more pen and paper or a combination? Do sounds or music help or do you prefer silence? Ask yourself a few questions like this. You've got this!

Best wishes,
^Zac