How to get motivated to do homework is a riddle so many students are trying to solve. Sometimes even if you have nothing else to do but work, you find things to do to procrastinate. If only you could just sit down and do the task.
Wait, as a matter of fact, you can, with the help of some tips and tricks thousands of students have already tried. Before you start working on any of them, look back at why you enrolled in the first place. Are there academic goals to achieve? Or maybe you have something else in mind? As you try to find the important sense of studies, incorporate the following recommendations into your schedule, even if just to see where it leads.
Find out what drives you
There must be at least something you like in the curriculum. Play with that thought until you find a thing to get inspired by. It may be anything from a subject to someone you like being good at this subject.
Sometimes homework motivation comes from an unexpected place. Here are some nudges:
- What plans do you have once you finish the assignment?
- What happens if you don’t do homework for a long time?
- How many minutes does it take to do the task and go back to your hobbies, friends, etc.?
- Who or what inspires you to move forward?
- What stops you from working and staying motivated?
While looking for the answers to these questions, you’ll have another chance to procrastinate, so control yourself. Nobody says you should eliminate all the bad habits in one day, so take it easy on yourself. Maybe one of the questions will lead to another, and you’ll finally find some drive to get done with the homework.
If there’s nothing positive to motivate you at first, remember about a thing called negative motivation. It starts with “If I don’t do this…”, and who knows, maybe you’ll get a bad grade or the unfinished work will haunt you in your sleep.
Set small goals
It’s easier to achieve small goals than keeping the same level of determination while going towards a big one. Besides, the feeling of accomplishment after the first couple of mini achievements may drive you to do more and better.
One of the best ways how to get yourself motivated to do homework is dividing the big assignments into chunks. Think about finishing the whole essay and then about, say, writing an outline. Which one sounds easier?
One thing about such an approach may be difficult, though. Before you get used to it, you’ll need more time to finish your homework. Not all students can afford it because of packed schedules. But there’s a way out of here as well, which is asking professionals to help. Using Prohighgrades saves you a ton of time and improve your academic performance quickly!
Reward yourself (but not too much)
To make goal achievement much easier, you should think of a reward to give yourself once you’re finished. It’ll always be one of the best ways how to get yourself motivated to do homework. Anything you like could be a reward:
- Meeting friends;
- Watching a movie;
- Getting a snack you love;
- Going to a SPA;
- Going on a group quest;
- Going on a trip (the goal should be big enough for that, though), etc.
One important detail: you’ll have to control the process yourself, which requires self-discipline. It takes courage not to give up and just get the reward. Some also try to motivate themselves by getting the perks first with a pinky promise of doing homework later, which is a huge mistake.
Here are some tips on improving self-discipline:
- Always have two plans: the main one and the backup.
If you’re trying to eat healthier, your main plan is to avoid junk food and develop healthy habits. But then you get an invitation to a party with lots of food. Now you need a backup plan: drinking some water and being nearer to the veggie section of the table until you feel full; - Change your inner perceptions.
Try practicing mindfulness, self-talk, and meditation. If you think you can’t work on your self-discipline or you have a certain amount of willpower and not more, it will be like that. If you get rid of those subconscious settings, you’ll be free to think you’re capable of anything; - Start with small things.
Practice self-discipline for 15 minutes a day first, increase to a half an hour in a couple of days, an hour in a week, and so on.
Get a study buddy
If you desperately need someone to control you, get a study buddy. It may also be more fun and easy to do homework together and inspire each other. Feeling support from a good friend does a lot to a person.
Look at some of the ways to work together:
- Meet at a café, school, someone’s house to work every couple of days;
- Write a short email to each other every day with supportive and motivating words;
- Share knowledge on the tasks your friend doesn’t understand and vice versa;
- Practice increasing focus together;
- Help solve any problem your friend faces but avoid doing everything instead of them and vice versa.
There are a lot of applications nowadays to use to keep in touch with someone if you have different schedules. You can find shared notepads and text editors that are updated in real-time, messengers, checkers, etc. Create a schedule together and help each other focus and finish assignments on time.
Take care of your physical and mental health
How motivated can you get if you’re dehydrated, lacking nutrition, and are in a state of constant anxiety? Take a break and look at your everyday habits, evaluating their level of healthiness from 1 to 10. If most are 7 and lower, consider taking more care of yourself.
Check out these easy ways to improve your health:
- Eat more vegetables, starting your meals with them;
- Eat less fried food, it does no good for your blood vessels;
- Drink more water, opting for 7-8 glasses a day;
- Exercise for at least 30 minutes every other day;
- Take a walk every evening, it will help you relax and get to exercising;
- Meditate, concentrating on your breathing;
- Don’t neglect a shower a day;
- Get your health checked every year.
If after your analysis there’s a feeling something’s not right, go see a doctor. It’s much easier to fight physical and mental health problems when you’re young. And doing it will improve the quality of your life dramatically.
Get rid of distractions
With all the distractions nearby, the question of how to get motivated to do homework becomes more difficult. There’s a TV with all the reality shows, social media with all the news and gossip, even student platforms turn into chat rooms instead of working space.
Find out what your weaknesses are and make sure you eliminate all of them before you start working. Turn off the TV, ask your friends and family not to distract you, leave the phone charging across the room, disconnect the Internet. If you need the Web to work, use blocking websites or apps to make sure you won’t go watch the newest film junkets on YouTube.
Make it a ritual and do it every time you get to homework. Again, all the preparations could be used as a chance to procrastinate a bit, but it’s worth it.
Take advantage of technology
Tech maybe not only a major way to waste time when you have to work. You can use it to create, maintain, and improve your schedule. Here are some ideas to check out:
- Find free courses on the subjects you’re interested in or weak at;
- Use YouTube to watch 50% of the junkets you want and 50% of some useful stuff like foreign language learning, space, our planet, newest findings, etc.;
- Use social media to create useful polls to research, find study buddies, and get college help;
- Use apps to establish your work and break rules, set alarms, remind yourself to drink water, etc.
When you make even leisure useful, your levels of productivity skyrocket. Doing homework or learning new stuff becomes a habit, just a way to spend time with use, not something you hate doing.
Create a cozy study bubble
Upgrade the place where you usually do homework to make it a motivation-boosting study bubble. Print motivational quotes to hand on the walls, make sure everything you need to get inspired to work is in the room. If you don’t have a permanent place or your own room, you can make it anywhere. Put the “bubble combination” into your bag and go to a library or a café.
The combination may include anything:
- Your favorite homework utensils;
- A notepad with inspirational quotes;
- Your diary;
- Your laptop with the needed materials and motivational videos;
- A picture of someone who inspires you;
- A mind-map, etc.
If you manage to create a cozy study bubble where you have the things you love and get inspired by, you’ll want to go there and do homework.
Use the “5-minute” rule
The 5-minute rule works with almost anything, including homework. Sit down, focus, and do the work for 5 minutes. Some students make it 10 because 5 isn’t long enough to even get into it. Set an experiment, learn a little bit, and you’ll get motivated to continue.
First of all, you have already started, so why not just continue and get done with it?
Besides, if you’re focused enough, doing homework may even become interesting. You do all the tasks to realize if you know the material well. If you don’t, you read it again and memorize all the little details. One process leads to another and the next thing you know, you’ve finished.
Change things up regularly
Trying something new is always exciting, so why not change something you do every day or the way you do it? This will be a great help to both the people who have a schedule and those who don’t.
If you do, build a new plan for the nearest month. Change the timetable and the place to do homework, try a new course, plan new goals and rewards. It may be your chance to upgrade your life on many levels and welcome new productive habits.
If you don’t, try building a schedule and follow it meticulously. Make it a quest, call a buddy to join if you want. This will change your every day and maybe you’ll love it so much you won’t need to go back to your old life.
Try everything to find what works best
Make sure you try as many techniques to get a motivation boost as you can. Don’t try to deceive your mind, be honest with yourself. Some psychologists say that there’s no such phenomenon as laziness, it’s just our lack of motivation. It’s a fluid state: you get inspired to learn how to build a space shuttle and you work eagerly, but in a week the motivation may disappear and the thing your eyes were glowing about becomes just another thing.
So, being motivated has to intertwine with dedication, commitment, and realization of the reasons why you study. Maybe that’s what successful people call motivation – being able to get inspired to do the thing even if you don’t want to. We hope the tips we gave you will help develop your own strategy.