Dear students!
We encourage you to read the article written by our school psychologist Ms Karolina, who explains what motivation is and why do we need it.
Get some motivation!
What motivation exactly is and why do we need it? Let’s try to reflect on this together by looking at the few steps presented below.
#1 Does it make sense to you?
Do you know why you are actually studying? Probably not all subjects are your favorites, so learning them can be frustrating. However, it is worth remembering that each subject, apart from knowledge, also provides other, equally important skills – e.g. in math you practice analytical / logical thinking, in Polish or English you stimulate abstractive and critical thinking. These are very important skills that should be developed from an early age.
Perhaps you also see other benefits of learning? Activities that make sense to us make us more willing and ready to perform them.
#2 Set priorities and create a plan
Perhaps you have felt tired and overwhelmed with school duties on many occasions, which definitely made it difficult to study and significantly reduced your motivation.
Start learning by creating a to-do list. Think about how much time you need for each item on the list – this will make it easier to get started, and reaching the goal and checking it off the list will become more realistic.
#3 Reward yourself
Have you checked an item on your to-do list? Great, so you can move on to the next one and get closer to your final goal.
However, before you move on, it is worth rewarding yourself for your effort so far – for example, take a nap, go for a walk, meet friends. Giving yourself rewards is a good motivator, especially when the task is associated with a reluctance (e.g. learning a disliked subject). Thanks to this, completing the task, apart from satisfaction, will be associated with a pleasant ending. Besides that, the faster you finish, the sooner you will get over it and enjoy the reward :)
#4 Take breaks
The human brain is not able to work at the same high level all the time. Taking breaks is particularly crucial here, because in this way we protect ourselves against information overload and excessive fatigue – both physical and mental.
Remember! Watching movies or playing games during your break is not the best thing to do. It’s very easy to lose track of time and it is easier to get tired. A much better way to relax is to rest or exercise.
#5 Take care of your surroundings
The conditions around us have key importance for the efficiency and comfort of work. It’s hard to motivate yourself to study in an overwhelming, unpleasant place. If your room / study area is a mess that bothers you – it would definitely be a good idea to tidy it up. Feeling comfortable and well-being is a great value to the learning process.
If you find your usual place of study uncomfortable, boring, and hard to concentrate, it may be worth looking for something new. There are many places, such as cafes, parks, libraries, where you can find a lot of inspiration.
#6 Invite your friends
There are many benefits of learning with friends. First of all, just comparing your state of knowledge can be motivating. Additionally, you can share your memorizing methods and insights. Perhaps you will also be a support and help for each other in case one of you has difficulties with a specific item.
Just remember that catching up with social stuff should be postponed to the end of schooling – maybe it will also be a good motivator? :)
Good to know!
One of the criteria divides motivation into internal and external one.
External motivation is, for example, a reward or a good grade obtained from a test, as well as the willingness to meet the expectations of parents, teachers or a way to join a group of peers. The problem is, that if the source of external motivation disappears, it will be more difficult to motivate.
Internal motivation is a much better source. It is a specific type of motivation, based on the fact that learning, gaining knowledge, gives us pleasure and satisfaction, and the desire to discover newer and newer facts makes us willingly learn our favorite subject.
However, we will not acquire internal motivation if we do not start gaining knowledge earlier (to know that we like something, we first need to know it). This type of motivation will also not be helpful with the things we don’t like – in this case rewards and outside sources will be a better motivator.
Written by: Karolina Ciesielka, Psychologist.
