How to Stay Motivated at University

Posted on: July 20, 2023

Picture the scene. There’s an important deadline hanging over you and it just keeps getting closer. You’ve known about it since the beginning of the semester, but it was such a long time away, then why would you worry about it? Unfortunately, all these weeks later, the essay you need to research and write is getting harder to complete the nearer the deadline gets. The pressure continues to build, but you still can’t bring yourself to start working until you have no choice. Things are so dire now that you must write through the night to get the work done. The finished essay just passes, but imagine what you could have achieved with a steady and well-planned program of study and writing? All this scenario is avoidable, and the hardship is entirely self-inflicted. But often, when the pressure is on, we are unable to motivate ourselves to do the work we know we need to do.

Unfortunately, maintaining motivation isn’t straightforward. In this blog, we’ll discuss several strategies to ensure you can maintain motivation to complete your study. We’ll discuss ways you can take care you are not working too many hours or putting yourself under more stress than is
necessary. We’ll also look at ways that you can make time for classes, exercise, and, just as importantly, that you are making time for socializing and fun.

What is motivation? Motivation is commonly defined as that which explains why people or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a certain behavior at a particular time. It is a very complex concept that is extremely difficult to measure, predict or control. We know in our own lives when we feel motivated to do something, we don’t feel quite as tired, we are more clear-headed, and the task in front of us seems easier. Conversely, if we don’t feel motivated, the task at hand feels impossible to complete, hundreds of other jobs suddenly seem more important, and brain fog descends. So, what can we do?

Start to plan your days. A rigorous schedule will improve productivity and motivation. Perhaps use a calendar app on your phone? A weekly timetable will not only ensure your work is done but will improve the smooth running of your entire life. It’s also an opportunity for you to design how your own most rewarding and effective life might look. Start by putting your lectures, seminars, and lab time in right away. Now put in your mealtimes, make sure you have a one-hour break at lunchtime and that you eat properly three times a day. Next, put in your social time. Events, hobbies, and socializing. We now know when the gaps are we where we can plan our study time. Plan this time at the beginning of the semester so you will be able to timetable study and writing time weeks in advance. It will also mean that you can keep those work sessions to a reasonable length and should mean that you don’t need to put yourself in a position to have to work through the night to achieve a deadline.

To support the schedule that you are going to put in place, it is helpful to keep a routine, particularly Monday to Friday. This doesn’t have to feel like a strict or oppressive thing. It should replicate the natural rhythms of your day while also reflecting your wishes and desires for how your life might
look for you to achieve your goals. For example, get out of bed at the same time every day. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at similar times every day. Make sure you make time for exercise; this doesn’t mean you have to get in the gym every day or train for a marathon! It is making time for yourself, so a simple walk in the morning before you start work can help. Whatever your chosen activity is, make sure you organize time for it. When you are designing your schedule, it’s always worth making time for mindfulness or quiet reflection time. Again, whatever works for you, perhaps you like to sit quietly with a cup of tea? Make the time to consciously enjoy that activity.

Now we have our schedule. We are going to have time to attend our lessons. We have plenty of manageable sessions to get our work done. We are eating, sleeping, and playing properly, and everything is beautifully set out in lovely colors. Job done, right? Not quite. Now comes the trickiest part. You must make the decision honestly to buy into the schedule and commit to your new way of working. Because getting the best out of your schedule will require self-discipline to implement and maintain. Once you have made this agreement and commitment with yourself, there are a few more details to consider and organize.

Make certain you set yourself achievable goals to complete within your designated study time. Having a lengthy to-do list might feel like you are working hard, but if you are constantly failing to achieve small goals, you will become demoralized and will likely lose motivation. When you make your to-do list for the following day, break big jobs down into small bitesize pieces and make sure there is enough there to keep you busy but not too much that it is impossible to complete. You will get better at doing this. But you will find that being able to complete your to-do list everyday will feel like a significant achievement. Break down your substantial, seemingly unachievable goals into small pieces so you can make progress towards the top of the mountain every day. When you complete your to-do list for the day, reward yourself. For most of us our phone is the biggest cause of lost and wasted time. Therefore, perhaps plan social media time into your schedule. It’s also likely that your laptop will be connected to the internet, which can be incredibly distracting. You are just a few clicks away from YouTube, and the risk will need to be managed. Again, there will have to be a certain amount of self-discipline to mitigate this, but depending on what you are doing, perhaps turn off the Wi-Fi on your laptop while you are writing or reading. Or use social media time as a reward at different points in the day.

Lastly, the most important thing is to not keep feelings of being overwhelmed to yourself. If you are feeling completely consumed by the amount of work you must do, make sure you speak to friends, family, or engage the support that the university can put in place. Look after your mental health as a priority. Try to tweak your schedule if you are finding you don’t have enough time for certain things or too much time for others. There will inevitably be periods where you must put in more time with work as deadlines approach. Try to schedule this time and ensure you get a reasonable amount of time away from your desk. A circle of like-minded study friends is a good way to keep motivated. You might find that your social friends do not like to work like you do or in the way that works best for you. Either studying too little to make us feel that we are doing more than them, so it must be fine. Or working so much we assume we aren’t doing enough and start to work more and more to keep up with this unrealistic expectation. Always remember you are not competing with other people; you’re competing with yourself. It’s very important that you are honest with yourself about how much time you are spending studying and the quality of your work. Your teachers will be happy to give you feedback on the latter point. You can then tweak your schedule to address this.

Motivation is a delicate and intangible quality, and we all experience the peaks and valleys of it differently and can all mitigate it differently. Arranging your time and being disciplined when it comes to observing your new schedule is a great way to make sure you achieve what you need to. But it shouldn’t be a tyrant. This is a tool designed to help you, if it isn’t helping, then change how you use it. Make sure you plan for mistakes, the unexpected, or things not going as smoothly as anticipated. So that when these things happen it does not completely derail your day. Once you get into the swing of living to your routine, you will find that everything becomes easier to achieve, and when things feel easy to achieve, it becomes much more likely that you will sit down to do them. You don’t need to isolate yourself to be a good student. You can have all the rewarding experiences and wonderful friends you want but don’t neglect one side of your university experience for the other. As always, the message is one of balance.