You *Need* To Do This When Studying

If you’re like any student around the world, studying is among the most borings things you can spend time doing. Yet, even though you know it will help you do better on whatever assessment you have coming up, you still put it off or skip it entirely. And that’s because you aren’t truly motivated. So, let’s get our motivation back and figure out how we can—dare I say—enjoy studying with one key thing:

Incentives

Part of why school in general is so boring and upsetting is because there’s no instant gratification attached to it, or the idea that we’ll quickly get something in return for our work. We see it as a negative thing because, well, there’s nothing spectacular about it. You spend 8 hours sitting in classrooms hearing teachers talk and then another multiple hours doing more work when you get home—it’s reasonable to feel wholly unenthusiastic about school. But, there really isn’t any need to feel this way.

And that’s where incentives come in.

Remember in elementary school when you’d get a question right and the teacher would let you pick from the prize box? You felt like you were on top of the world! But, once you reached older grades, that treasure box vanished (literally and metaphorically). School stopped being fun because there was nothing to look forward to—no prizes, no clip chart, no feeling of accomplishment.

So it’s up to us to bring that back. Because, let’s be honest, your completion of a big assignment shouldn’t be met with the feeling of “one thing down, ____ more to go.” School is difficult, so give yourself credit where it’s due! When you get work done, pat yourself on the back. And, even set up a way to do this before the work starts piling up.

Tell yourself that once you get an assignment done, you’ll be able to do something. For example, “if I finish studying for my chemistry test tomorrow, then I can go on Instagram.” Or, “once I turn in this piece homework, I can have this pack of M&Ms.”

By doing this, you give yourself a way to feel excited about getting things done and being productive, other than having one less thing to do. Sure, it requires discipline in the present, but future you will be thrilled when they get to see the fruit of their labor right when that labor is done.

So now we challenge you: incentivize yourself when studying or working. You’ll fix your motivation by giving yourself something to look forward to, whether it be screen time, candy, or hanging out with friends, and you might even get more work done too. And, if you liked this, be sure to check out our other blog posts below or in the Blog page!