How to Stay Motivated for the Entire School Year
- Every new school year brings with it
the same age-old problem: the constant war of attrition
that is fought against your motivation
as the semester wears on.
See, in the beginning of the semester,
your motivation levels are usually high.
You've got brand-new classes that you're excited to take
and there's usually not a whole lot on your plate
to stress you out.
But in the middle of the semester,
it's a very different picture.
You've got tons of assignments, deadlines,
projects all stressing you out.
And as a result, your motivational reserves can take a dip.
You just don't wanna go on.
And I know I dealt with this problem
during every single semester of my college career
and it's probably something that you've dealt with as well.
So, what I wanna do in today's video
is give you five different strategies that you can use
to maintain a high level of motivation
to do your work, to study diligently
all throughout the entire semester.
Now, everything we're gonna be talking about today
is either a habit that you can adopt
or an action that you can take in a specific moment.
We're not gonna be talking about any motivational mantras
or mindset hacks here.
Everything on this list
is something that you can actually do,
but it's still going to have a tangible effect
on your motivation.
So, let's get into it with the first habit on the list.
From the moment you walk into
your very first class this semester,
make the commitment to sit up front
and wring class for all it's worth.
Treat class like the active learning time that it should be.
This means, again, sitting up front,
taking notes the entire time, raising your hand,
asking questions, and participating in discussions.
If you can do this right from the start,
then you're gonna gain an implicit psychological pressure
to keep doing it throughout the entirety
of the rest of the semester.
And this is because humans have
a core drive to act consistently.
We wanna act in accordance
and in line with our previous decisions.
And this is something that Robert Cialdini talks about
in his excellent book
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
As he puts it, "Once we have made a choice or taken a stand,
"we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures
"to behave consistently with that commitment.
"Those pressures will cause us to respond
"in ways that justify our earlier decision."
And this desire to act consistently
was definitely something that I experienced
in my own college classes.
In the ones where I immediately sat up front,
took notes, participated in discussions,
I felt pressure to act in accordance with those decisions
the entire semester afterwards.
And on the other hand,
for the classes where I just maybe didn't care a whole lot,
sat in the back, sold computers on Craigslist,
and didn't pay attention, that colored my experience
throughout the entire semester as well.
So, think of your first week of classes
as your opportunity to establish
either positive momentum or negative momentum
because of this consistency principle.
So, that brings us to habit number two,
which is to make sure you establish regular contact
with your teachers and your professors.
And this is actually quite related to the first tip,
especially that quote from Robert Cialdini
that I just mentioned, because, if you remember,
he mentions both personal and interpersonal pressures
for remaining consistent.
And I've found that when you know your professors,
you actually feel a little bit beholden to them
because when you're in class,
you know that since they know you as well,
they are paying attention to how you are behaving.
They'll notice whether or not you take notes diligently.
They'll notice if you actually participate
in class discussions.
And again, you're gonna wanna act consistently
with both your own expectations of yourself
and what you've done in the past,
but also with their expectations
that they develop through observing you
in the beginning of the semester
when you're already highly motivated.
Tip number three is to have a plan
when it comes to your homework and your study time.
So, if you think about your class time,
that is highly regimented.
You have a specific place you're supposed to be
and the class is happening at a specific time.
And as a result, you almost always show up on time.
There's really no decision you have to make.
You just kind of do it
because you know that's part of your schedule.
So, why not apply that logic
to your homework and study time?
Instead of just saying, "I'm gonna study wherever I want to;
"maybe in my dorm, maybe in the library, I don't know,
"and I'll do it whenever I have time,"
instead, maybe at the beginning of every single week,
look ahead at your calendar,
see what kinda blocks of free time you have
and block out planned spaces of study time.
And additionally, know where you're going to study.
Maybe have a specific spot in the library
that you usually go to or create a specific study space
in your dorm room and plan to study there.
Again, when you have a plan ahead of time,
then you reduce the amount of decisions
you have to make in the moment,
which decreases the likelihood
that you're gonna take the path of least resistance,
which is probably playing video games
and putting off your studying until later.
Okay, so before we move on to tip number four,
I do wanna share one little bonus mini-tip with you,
which is to find yourself some good study music.
And this is a tip that comes from personal experience
because I've learned over the years
that I just enjoy researching,
doing my work, studying, reading,
I enjoy it more if I have good study music
to go along with it.
And for that reason, I have been curating a study playlist
over on Spotify for quite a few years now.
It's just about 10 hours long
and I'll put a link to it down in the description below
if you wanna check it out.
Now, obviously, music does not work for everyone,
so you might wanna experiment.
Some people like white noise,
and you can use white noise generators like Noisli
to create a custom soundscape for your studying,
but some people really do get
a motivational boost through music,
so at least do some experimentation.
And that brings us to tip number four,
which is to know when to quit.
And I don't mean quit the entire semester,
but know when to quit something
that is dragging down all of your other efforts.
And I wanna tell you a story here.
So, when I was in my junior year of college,
I was in the college's honors program,
which meant that I had to go to certain extra classes
in order to meet the requirements to graduate with honors.
But I got to thinking during my junior year,
"Do I actually need to graduate with honors?
"Do I need to take these extra classes?"
Because, really, the only benefit that I was gonna get
from the honors program
was graduating with a cord around my neck
and the ability to put 'honors grad' on my resume.
But the thing was,
I already had a lot of other irons in the fire.
I had a full course schedule, I had extracurriculars,
I had a side project that was growing into a business,
and a part-time job.
And I realized going through that semester
that all the extra requirements I had
because of that honors program
were just fragmenting my attention
and they were bringing my overall level of motivation down.
And when I really thought about it,
having that little bit on my resume
wasn't going to matter in the long run.
I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I wanted to work for myself,
so having accolades on my resume
really wasn't gonna get me a whole lot in the future.
So, I made the strategic decision to quit the honors program
to make more time to focus more deeply on my other projects.
And as a result, my motivation for those other projects
and for my other classes went up.
Now, I do wanna note that I'm not saying you should quit
when things just get tough, right?
You have to kinda go through this dip of difficulty
with anything that's worth doing.
But if you're realizing that your attention is fragmented
or you've taken on too many commitments
or the thing that you're doing
or one of the things that you're doing
just isn't really worth it anymore,
then it could be a good strategic decision
to quit that in order to raise your motivation
to tackle the other things on your plate.
And that brings us to the final item on this list,
which is to make real fun a priority this semester.
And I have to say this because I know a lotta people,
myself included, who will often feel too guilty
to let themselves do the things that are truly fun
because they feel like they need that time for work.
I know a lotta people
who will not go to movies with friends.
They will not play that video game they wanted to play
because they think they need every single spare minute
to get their homework done or to do more studying.
But these same people, and I'm gonna include myself here
'cause I catch myself doing this, these same people
will not work efficiently during their work hours.
They will take random breaks to go to Twitter or Facebook.
And the thing is, going to Twitter or Facebook,
that's not actually that fun.
That's just a distraction.
It just fragments your attention,
probably harms your mental health
because of what's on Twitter and Facebook,
and it certainly isn't mentally refreshing in any way.
But the other thing is,
when you allow yourself to do the things
that you feel are truly fun,
whether it's going out with friends
or playing Magic: The Gathering in my case,
that will hone your focus
and hone your attention during your actual work hours
because when you know you have a limited amount of time
to get your work done
because there's an actual plan later on,
you will use that time effectively.
And once you actually go and experience that fun thing,
you're going to get a mental reset in the process.
Part of the reason why a lotta students lose motivation
throughout the semester is that they work themselves
to the point of exhaustion and burnout.
You need that cycle of actual rest,
which isn't just sleep but it's respite from your work
and actual fun time, and work.
You need that actual interplay
between those two states of being.
So, all that being said,
make time for real fun this semester
and you're gonna find that your motivational reserves
maintain themselves
throughout the entirety of that semester.
And of course, when your motivation is high,
you work more efficiently and you have more time,
both for the fun things but also for pursuing some things
that can help you get ahead.
And one of those things that I would suggest doing
this semester if you haven't started the process already
is building your online presence.
It is never too early to start building relationships,
to establish a portfolio, and to start establishing yourself
as an up-and-coming expert in your field.
And one of the very first steps to doing that
is to get yourself a professional domain name.
Even if you're not yet ready to build a website,
you wanna get your hands on your domain name
as soon as possible
because if someone else comes along and registers it,
then you can't get it.
So, go and get your professional domain name
before someone else gets it.
And when you do, you should go get it at Hover.
Hover is the best place on the internet
to get your hands on domain names, not least of which
because they have over 400 domain extensions to choose from.
They have all your classic .coms, .mes, .nets,
which I think are great for a professional presence,
but they also have a lotta more fun ones,
like .ninja and .lol.
In fact, I have thomas.lol
and I'll probably end up registering more fun ones like that
in the future.
Additionally, with Hover, there is absolutely no friction
in the signup process.
If you have an account, you can actually buy a domain
in less than 30 seconds,
and, yes, I have timed myself on that.
And you can do that because there are no upsells.
There are no annoying popups.
And then, once you have your domain,
they have a couple of extra tools
to help you build your online presence even further,
including the ability
to create a professional email address,
such as mine, which is thomas@collegeinfogeek.com,
a little bit more professional than a Gmail,
plus their Connect tool,
which allows you to connect that domain
up to website builders like Squarespace
or even online store builders like Shopify.
So, if you're ready to get your hands
on your professional domain name,
then head over to hover.com/thomasfrank and get it there.
And when you do, if you're a new customer,
you're gonna get 10% off your first order.
Huge thanks, as always, goes out to Hover
for sponsoring this video
and being a big supporter of my channel,
and thank you for watching as well.
Hopefully you found this video helpful
and hopefully you stay motivated
throughout this entire semester
and all semesters afterwards.
Of course, if you wanna get more study
and productivity tips on this channel,
make sure you are subscribed
so you see new videos when they come out.
And maybe also grab a free copy of my book
on how to earn better grades right there.
Last but not least,
you can watch one more video on this channel
by clicking right here
or check out our latest podcast episode right here
if you haven't listened to that.
Thanks again for watching.
And I would say best of luck this semester,
but luck isn't what you need.
You need systems and self-discipline
and, well, I believe you've got it.
