Motivating yourself to study

Source: Jo Draper from Wordsworth Reading

It’s hard isn’t it? There you are having to study when everybody else is enjoying the sunshine, the football or the pub! But it has to be done and trying to motivate yourself to study with all these are very disciplined and study 7-8 hours per day; others find it difficult to study for even an hour!

It is important to understand what kind of person you are as this will help when setting yourself a study plan. Not everybody can just sit down and study. In fact, sometimes the subjects can be boring and uninspiring making it even harder to motivate yourself. If you are somebody who is easily distracted, then set yourself small goals, perhaps an hour of study, then a break for thirty minutes then some more study. By doing this, you will make studying more manageable and still be able to do other things. If you do approach study in this way, make sure you leave yourself enough time and don’t start a day or two before a paper is due or you are sitting an exam!

You may find that studying in a group or with another person helps to motivate you as you are sharing the experience with like-minded people. It is more difficult to ‘escape’ a group session than to just not study if you are on your own. Studying in this way can also make the experience more fun and less of a chore. Studying in a group can also help you retain information better as you often remember who said what when answering questions. You may find a mixture of studying alone and in a group works for you.

You can also motivate yourself to study by thinking about the overall aim of why you are doing this. What is it you are trying to achieve? What is it that getting a good result in this test, examination or paper will help you get to? Getting a good result may be the ticket to your future dreams and aspirations; it may get you the job you have always wanted; it may get you into the university you really want to study at or it may get you the promotion that means your future is secure. Sometimes it is hard to think in this way, but if you can contextualize your studying in this way, you will be surprised how much this can motivate you.

For most people studying is a relatively short term activity. Try to keep this in mind. You are studying to help yourself achieve a goal or dream, putting the effort in now will be worth it in the long term. You know what they say ‘no pain no gain!’