Motivation

Post here any questions, problems, information regarding general motivation to learn, going to classes, doing projects...

This first post will be updated with any useful material that we come up with.

Im writing on my master thesis. This involves meeting a professor for guidance ca twice a month. The rest of the time Im writing and learning by myself. Im expected to be finished in 4 months and have written 3 pages. Luckily I have read a lot and have much knowledge about what Im supposed to write about.

My biggest advantage at University is my ability to work hard and write a lot when I in "work modus". I'm a smart guy, but I don't always take advantage of it. I'm very good at delaying things I have to do. Sometimes I don't write on my master thesis at all for more than a week. Needless to say, that is the cause of why my education is delayed.

When I work many hours for 2-3 days in a row, I reach "work modus" and its very easy for me to stay focused and motivated for weeks. But its very difficult for me to do the first days needed to get in the working mode.

So far I have discovered it is easiest if I;
1. Write down a strict schedule about what I'm supposed to do.
2. Make sure I have food nearby so I don't have to spend much more than 30 minutes lunch brakes with my mates.
3. I have slept enough (8 hours).

My worst enemies are;
1. Online news, forums, buisness, etc
2. oversleeping and starting the day way too late.
3. Not having good enough routines. Living my life like I do on Holiday.

What is your best advices to stay focused and to actually work EVERY day a week?

What I do when I get to a point where I haven't done any work for a while, or I'm not in the "work mode," is I make a simple daily list of things to do, like a routine, writing down say an hour for school work, an hour for internet surfing, an hour for sports, etc.
I don't plan my whole day, I just write down specific activities I want to accomplish during the day. Then I go for about a week and check off the things I do every day. At the end of the week I look at the list and see what I did do and what I didn't do, I then see how much I did, and how much more I have to pay attention to doing the things that I lacked on.
Also, it's usually a good thing to reward yourself for doing something. Give yourself a treat after working for a day, or a treat after working for a week. Any kind of treat will do, it could be food, or a movie, or something that you find fun.

My problem with motivation is that I don't find going to class of very much use anymore. I am most likely going to be out of college after this semester, however I want to get through this semester still with good grades. I went from having to get an A before last semester, now I'm fine with getting a B, and I'm afraid soon I'll be fine with getting a C or failing my classes, which doesn't sound good to me. I need to find a reason to go to class and do the homework, otherwise, it may not look too good!!

Motivation is also a problem for me. Something simple that usually works for me, is asking myself why I am doing something when I'm doing something I didn't plan to do that day (like watching television, forums etc). If I don't have a good answer, I'll stop and do something more useful instead.

Something else that worked for me is keeping track of my time. We could actually do this with the whole group together. For example, we could first record how much time we spend on homework for a week, then try to slowly increase that amount to 40 hours a week or whatever seems reasonable. This would probably help me.

I think that I may have just figured out how to get motivated to learn European History. This is doubly difficult, since I'm not actually enrolled in a class, so I have to do it all on my own. Furthermore, I hate the subject.

Anyway, I was trying to get better at thinking. I wanted to be able to hold a thought in my head, or pursue a train of thoughts without any interruptions of other thoughts for at least 30 minutes, so that I could be more efficient. Anyway, I was trying to do this by repeating a sentence in my head and pulling myself back to it whenever I strayed. I thought "This is stupid. Being able to do this will not help me at all when I have to do something that requires actual thinking."

Then it hit me: I could use European History as a way to get better at thinking. If I use it like that, hopefully the idea of thinking more efficiently would make me forget how much I loathe the subject. Furthermore, if I learn to think of history and nothing else for a good amount of time, there won't be any room in my head for thinking that I hate it.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.

@Snok

I think it's great that you already understand what your cause for distraction is. All you have to do now is figure out how to eliminate those things. You say that once you get in the process of working that you are fine and that you can remain in that process for long time. So you situation is pretty good.

My worst enemies are;
1. Online news, forums, business, etc
2. oversleeping and starting the day way too late.
3. Not having good enough routines. Living my life like I do on Holiday.

1. The internet and computer in general can be a big problem. I have experienced that because internet is such an easy escape for real work. It makes you fell you are doing something and you don't have to put any real effort in doing it. So it is critical to be in control of that thing.

I have tried an extension called Leech Block for firefox. It gives you the chance to limit your browsing time. You can set specific time when to block any access to some web sites or the internet in general. The best way to use this program for me was to set an maximum allowed time on specific sites like youtube or facebook.

Technically I can cheat using internet explorer but because I hate to use it I don't cheat. But of course if you only use ie then you will have to find a similar program.

This is a great solution for firefox. But the point is even if you don't use this extension there are ways in which you can control your internet usage. So check that out more.

2. Oversleeping was and sometimes still is a problem for me. You have to figure out why you oversleep (that's normally because you go to sleep later) and fix that. Or that you need a better technique for getting up. My solution is to have some music to wake me up, and to try to sit on my bed. If I just keep lying the chances of really waking up are much smaller.

As for getting to sleep earlier, my problem was what I used a lot the messenger in the evening and that was on of my biggest reasons for staying up late. I resolved that problem by deleting the shortcut from my desktop and any other places were it would remind me of chatting.

So the idea here is the same: figure out the concrete problem and eliminate it, or at least try to control it better.

3. Setting up some general to do list could, but doesn't mean that it will, help you. Try to get to the core reason why you behave like that and experiment.

@mulbrich

My problem with motivation is that I don't find going to class of very much use anymore.

Not going to classes was my biggest mistake that I've made in university. I see that very clearly now. I didn't find the classes much useful so I figured out that the best way to learn was from my textbook and spare time by not going to the lectures.

Now as I see it, attending lectures is the best way to learn if you are active during that time. Meaning you have to be taking notes. That's something I almost never did and because of that I felt bored and of course didn't learn anything there.

So I would try to make the classes more useful somehow. I don't know if taking notes can help you like it helped me. Maybe that's not your problem so you need to figure out the reason why you don't like classes.

My problem like I've said was feeling bored and not concentrated. I know now how to change that.

Something else that worked for me is keeping track of my time. We could actually do this with the whole group together.

This is an interesting idea. But I don't know how efficient it really is. I'm saying this because I kept track of my learning time for couple semesters and while that showed me that I didn't invest as much time as I wanted, that wasn't the main problem.

I had to figure out a better way to learn, a way that wouldn't be boring and a way that would really teach me something.

So the idea is good but only if you are sure that the amount of time spent is the real problem, not the way you work.

Some good suggestions in this thread already. Im glad so many take part in the discussion.

One suggestion I will give much more thought is "I think it's great that you already understand what your cause for distraction is. All you have to do now is figure out how to eliminate those things."

Just the concept of habit change its fascinating. I guess I haven't focused enough on the simple idea of avoiding having problems in the first place.

Instead of thinking; " I must work" and doing work like activities like online forums, I will for some time try to avoid forums. Just not enter them while I'm at school. Not even access firefox before my studying make me.

I will try this for a while, because if Im actually work while Im at university, I will automatically be motivated enough to get up early and develop good routines.

Also the reward suggestion is something I will take advantage off. I haven't found out with what and how often yet, but I will for sure use it!

I will report back how it goes.
Thanks all!