Motivation, coupled with discipline, underpins productivity and success. The following tabs will discuss how you can create systems that will help you become the student that can achieve your goals. This guide will also cover how to use routines to create momentum through habit stacking, how to take breaks effectively and how to reduce the likelihood of procrastination.
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It may be tempted to try to build motivation through goals alone. However there are a number of problems with only relying on goals, such as:
Goals are still important, but these should be paired with systems that help you become the person that you want to be in order to achieve those goals. Systems are about how you make those results happen - the process, rather than the outcome. They include how you organise, motivate, time manage, your methods… These often are far more important than the goal itself.
With these systems (e.g. time management) consider the 1% improvement mindset. How can we get those small improvements that add up. Here are some suggested areas to consider:
Whilst systems are crucial to make goals succeed, you should still have clear goals that you review regularly in order to give your life direction.
Making clear goals
First think broadly of what you want to achieve. Is it a grade, a place in your college of choice, a particular job in the future? Consider why you want to achieve this. Then once you have a few reasons written down work backwards from the goal to the present considering the steps that you would need to complete in order to get there. If for example you wanted a particular job, it may take you many years and steps to achieve. This can make the task feel difficult and can lead to a loss of motivation. To combat this, it is recommended that you break down the process of achieving your goal into sprints.
Let's imagine your goal is to become an lawyer. Your process would include obtaining qualifying legal placements (known as a training contract) professional qualifications, university degree, entry into a law school, through your A-Level qualifications and extra-curricular activities. Each of these steps could be a sprint, and each of those sprints can be split down when you get to that step. For now focus on the next step your journey, how you can get into the university of your choice, and break that down.
You can visualise these steps in terms of what you need to be doing:
- Over the next few years
- This year
- This term
- This month
- This week
- Today
This method can help you to feel that you are making progress towards your larger goals and can help you find joy in the process of achieving your goal.
Regularly reviewing goals
Your goals should not be static. They should be flexible to change over time. Over time you will develop and find where you interests and abilities lie, and so it is only natural that you will refine or even change your goals to match who you are and want to be.
It is therefore encouraged that you reflect on your goals at set periods of the year. Big goals such as career and lifetime goals can be reflected on annually, whereas smaller goals may require quarterly or monthly reflections. Stick a reminder in your calendar or diary so that you remember, and make time for this reflection.
The Power of Routines
Systems make goals happen, and the most important system in finding success is routine.
Routines are a powerful set of habits that allow us to complete tasks without thinking. Think about how you brush your teeth, or shower. You have completed the routine of these so often that once you start - e.g. picking up your tooth brush - you naturally go from one action to the next until the routine is finished.
We have many natural routines that we complete habitually. For example, every day we get up and we go to bed. During these two daily processes we often do a series of the same actions in a routine. These are individual habits that have stacked onto each other. Once you brush your teeth in the evening, you may naturally find yourself walking to your bed to read or sleep. The end of one action in a routine is the cue for you to start the next. This is known as habit stacking. These natural routines are opportunities to easily complete good habits such as reflection or reading. Aim to plan the things that you want to do regularly - reading, reflecting, socialising, studying - next to things that you naturally do.
To enable you to habit stack to add positive habits into your natural routines, it is helpful to know how habits are formed.
- Make it obvious
Your habit should have an obvious cue that makes it unforgettable. For example if you want to encourage reading before bed, put your book onto your pillow so that you have to move it before you sleep.
Conversely if you want to lose bad habits, make them invisible so that you are less likely to be prompted to do them. If you struggle with studying due to playing video games, consider moving your games console from your desk or room whilst you study.
- Make it easy
Your habit should be as easy to complete as possible. If you want to drink a glass of water each morning, then have a full glass waiting for you when you wake up. By having it ready and pre-made it is much simpler to complete your habit.
If you want to lose a bad habit, you should make it difficult here. For example if you want to stop yourself from using your phone before bed, move your charger to another room or to the other end of the room so that you have to go to the effort of getting up to use your phone. This also helps with waking up too!
- Make it satisfying and rewarding
The reason why we have many bad habits is because they are satisfying in the short term. This is why marketing often highlights things as treats, or rewards. Good habits often are less naturally satisfying in the short term, but more so in the long term. To build good habits, you will need to make them feel more satisfying to you. Try linking each action that is a good habit to your goals and who you want to be.
For bad habits, make them as unsatisfying as possible. Consider the long term effects of the bad action. For example if you wanted to stop eating chocolate you could think about the impact on your teeth as a way of making it unsatisfying and unrewarding.
If you are keeping good habits, reward yourself for it. Reflect on your successes and progress. You may want to track your habits so that you can give yourself a daily tick as a reward for maintaining your habits.
Task - Homework and Revision: When do you work best?
As individual learners we are not all the same. Some of us learn better in different ways and different times than others. When completing your homework and revision you may find it useful to consider when you learn best.
Are you an early riser who finds doing work easier early in the mornings, or are you a night owl who best studies in the evenings? Spend some time reflecting on this and plan to do your revision and homework in the hours where you feel most productive.
Making Breaks Effective
Breaks help us to increase the amount of time that we can spend at our highest levels of attention, however breaks can lead to a loss of momentum and ineffectiveness.
To ensure you make your breaks effective try to have a proper break from the type of activity that you were completing before. Here are some examples of effective breaks.
1) If you have spent a long period of time staring at a screen, your break should be away from screen based technology. Having a conversation with family members, going outside, doing some exercise, tidying, and writing could be effective forms of break here*.
2) If you have been reading, an effective break could include watching TV, going for a walk, tidying, and tidying*.
*These lists are not exhaustive. What matters is that you complete a different form of activity.
You can be productive during a break from studying. Completing chores, practicing hobbies and doing some exercise are productive options that can be an effective break.
How long should the break be?
There is no exact time limits, however taking too long of a break can disrupt your momentum and increase the likeliness of procrastination. The pomodoro technique recommends taking a 5 minute break after around 25 minutes of studying.
Motivation Pitfalls
There are many challenges to motivation that can lead us to become distracted and to procrastinate. Spend a few minutes thinking about what distracts you, then have a look through the common challenges below.
Environment
Habits occur where there is a cue that inspires you to act. This cue can be something physical or based on an environment.
When designing your study space, have in mind that you want to make bad habits as invisible and difficult as possible and good habits as obvious and easy as possible.
Think about your study space. What on or around it can distract you? Consider what you can do it make any distractions as invisible and difficult as possible. For example, you may have a video games console or your phone on your desk. How can you mitigate the distractions?
With your desk setup consider what you would need within arms reach for when you are working. Is there any improvements that you can simply make? For example, could you add a water jug to your desk so that you can stay hydrated whilst studying. Do you need paper, pens and highlighters within arms reach?
Setting up study environments does not need to be limited to physical spaces. Digital spaces such as your phone and computer are customisable. Consider how you can set them up to inspire good habits. Potential action could include uninstalling or hiding games to make them more difficult to find, or to make it quicker to access useful apps like your notes and calendar.
Phones
Phones can be hugely distracting. Notifications are designed to divert our attention away from whatever we are doing and towards something else. When you need to properly focus on your work, remove your phone from eyesight, or even from the room and turn it off.
However due to our modern reliance on phones, it may not be possible to switch the phone off. Often you will need to reply to some messages, or have your phone on hand in case you are called in an emergency. Phones can also be useful, they are dictionaries, can answer most questions through the internet, and have so much functionality. You can use them for rapid notetaking, for time managing and for organising yourself. So if you can't just simply turn off your phone what can you do?
Spend a few minutes going through your app permissions and reviewing what notifications you do and do not want. Anything unnecessary or distracting, block it. Anything important but not urgent, set it for a silent notification or off. If a notification is both important and urgent then you can leave it as an interrupting notification. Reducing your number of unwanted notifications can also lead to reduced stress. Some apps add new notifications and so you may find yourself having to update the permissions again from time to time.
Newer Android and Apple devices have a 'focus mode' type feature. This feature enables your phone to block certain apps and notifications during certain times of the day automatically. If you are in the routine of completing your homework between 4-6pm, you can set your phone to block distracting apps in those time periods before allowing you to use them again afterwards. By setting up and using these routines you can remove the distracting features on your phone either automatically or manually at will.
Internet
Phones are only one distraction. What about the internet itself! You can’t turn your computer off and still do work with it! Well, whilst this is true, you can restrict certain activities by blocking websites of your choosing if they are distracting, or making them less visible.
Your bookmarks and quick access make it simple to use potentially distracting websites/apps. Simply by removing them from sight you may find yourself using them a lot less.
Furthermore if the site requires a log-in, logging out of the site and not storing your log in data on your computer makes it more difficult for you to log into the website/app. In the time it takes you to remember and enter your username and password you may lose interest in using the distraction.
Another alternative option is using internet plugins to temporarily block certain sites upon request. Some plug-ins allow you to set a study mode that blocks a number of websites of your choice for the duration of the study period.
People
People can be a distraction. Parents, siblings and friends requesting your attention can create an easy way out of doing work that you have been putting off.
The first way to avoid being distracted by others is to set expectations. Let people know when you are likely to be busy and when you will be available. If you have upcoming exams or coursework make sure that they are aware that you may need more time to concentrate than usual.
One method of making this clear is to create a simple busy/available sign and putting it on your door whilst you are studying. If you ensure that you have time where you are available then the sign can be an effective way to inform others of your availability.
For some, these methods may not work particularly for those with younger siblings or demanding parents. If you find yourself unable to concentrate at home, consider if you could study elsewhere. For example, could you study at a friends house, at an afterschool club, or outside on a pleasant day? Is there a local library that you could use to create a quiet environment?
Productive Procrastination
Productive procrastination is where you get a lot done, but manage to miss doing what you actually need to do. In a sense you are making yourself busy to avoid doing something, or because, despite its importance, the task lacks urgency.
To spot productive procrastination, review your activities through reflection. Identify what you need to be doing, and work out how long you’ve spent actually doing it. If you are struggling to find time to revise for your exams but are busy, it may be the case that you are making yourself busy to avoid revision.
Examples of productive procrastination include:
- Excessively tidying
- Completing one piece of work to a very high standard whilst not starting another
If you are struggling to make the time you need, consider booking it into your calendar as a fixed important event (ringfencing).
What is Reflecting on my Experiences?
Reflecting on your experiences is looking back on your past experiences in a way that helps you to learn from them. Unlike reflective writing for an assignment, this can be a personal reflection does not need to be shared with anyone else.
If you are struggling with reflective writing for an academic assignment, you may find it useful to begin with a personal reflection and then adapt it to fit your assignment.
Why Might I Reflect on my Experiences?
Personal reflection can be a great way to get to know yourself better, and to improve the way you work. You might want to reflect on your studies - a recent project, a completed assignment, or on feedback that you received. You might also want to reflect on things outside of your studies.
How do I Reflect on my Experiences?
Because this reflection is personal and private, you don't need to worry writing to a certain model or style. You can experiment to find the way that works best for you. Of course, if you find it helpful to do so you can still use one of the reflective models.
In general, reflection consists of three stages. The first stage is a descriptive stage where you describe the experience on which you are reflecting. The second is a critical thinking stage, where you ask yourself key questions about the experience to further your understanding or explore your emotions. The final stage is a future focused stage where you consider what you might do next time you are in a similar situation.
During each stage, it can be helpful to consider questions beginning with What, Where, When, Who, Why and How. You can find suggested questions for each stage below.
Questions for Reflection Documents
These documents contain possible questions to get you started as you reflect on your experiences. You won't need to answer them all, and you could ask yourself other questions not listed here.
Each document is available as both a PDF and a Word document.
Level Up Your Skills with Reflection.
Create your character using the worksheet below to reflect how you feel about your skills. Then use the information on the back of the sheet to help you level up!