Slacking off on schoolwork...

[RaDeuX]

My last thread got semi-ignored, so I'll try to see if rephrasing myself will net better and more responses.

I currently go to a community college. I dropped my calculus and physics courses this quarter since I didn't study enough and was left behind in lectures. I'm planning on changing this bad habit of not studying by going to the library instead of studying at home. I'm anxious that this might not work, and I'm pressured by my parents to do well.

I've always studied to avoid getting beat up by my parents. Now that I'm more than two decades old, that method doesn't work anymore (I learned aikido, karate, and boxing as a counter-measure against school bullies back in the days). Now I try to study for my own sake, but I fear failure and never reaped the benefits of hard work in academics as well as sports due to various reasons both personal and political.

 

[Ambi]

My last thread got semi-ignored, so I'll try to see if rephrasing myself will net better and more responses.

I currently go to a community college. I dropped my calculus and physics courses this quarter since I didn't study enough and was left behind in lectures. I'm planning on changing this bad habit of not studying by going to the library instead of studying at home. I'm anxious that this might not work, and I'm pressured by my parents to do well.

I've always studied to avoid getting beat up by my parents. Now that I'm more than two decades old, that method doesn't work anymore (I learned aikido, karate, and boxing as a counter-measure against school bullies back in the days). Now I try to study for my own sake, but I fear failure and never reaped the benefits of hard work in academics as well as sports due to various reasons both personal and political.

You want advice on how to motivate yourself to study or how to study more effectively?

 

[RaDeuX]

My last thread got semi-ignored, so I'll try to see if rephrasing myself will net better and more responses.

I currently go to a community college. I dropped my calculus and physics courses this quarter since I didn't study enough and was left behind in lectures. I'm planning on changing this bad habit of not studying by going to the library instead of studying at home. I'm anxious that this might not work, and I'm pressured by my parents to do well.

I've always studied to avoid getting beat up by my parents. Now that I'm more than two decades old, that method doesn't work anymore (I learned aikido, karate, and boxing as a counter-measure against school bullies back in the days). Now I try to study for my own sake, but I fear failure and never reaped the benefits of hard work in academics as well as sports due to various reasons both personal and political.

You want advice on how to motivate yourself to study or how to study more effectively?

Both would be awesome, but motivation is the bigger issue of the two.

 

[RaDeuX]

Motivation to study:

Pick a videogame, preferably something level based, any game works but open world games may be a distraction, and not a reward.

Then make it a fixed ratio or variable reward system:

Fixed Ratio - Do 5 problems, do 1 puzzle.

Fixed Variable - Do 30 minutes of work, do 10 minutes of play time.

That's helped me tremendously. I'm in High School but regarding AP (Advanced Placement, college level) Psychology I did 5 assignments in 30 minutes though I left DJ Hero 2 in Party Play mode (autoplay so I didn't actually do anything but the music and graphics helped) as my reward system.

I think I saw this same post elsewhere. Probably in the "Can't study" thread on this forum. I'm currently addicted to GT5, so I'll try this out by studying for 45 minutes and playing for 15 minutes (championships take a while...)

 

[Stuberfinn88]

To help with motivation, you have to know what are some of your triggers that shoot your motivation down.

I was in a similar situation, doing well during classes Acing tests, but as soon as the tests were done, any motivation I had was wiped clean, The school I was going to was very big on the idea of giving out huge assignment/homework loads on a daily basis, and my grades would suffer because I would hardly do anything with it. Eventually, after getting held back, and then changing schools unless I wanted to get held back again...I went to a new school. I learned that one of my major demotivators was my boredom, I'd easily get bored of assignments and find myself day dreaming a lot, or doing some kind of game on a piece of paper that I dubbed "Boxes." At home I would find it even harder to concentrate with more distractions than you can shake a stick at. At this new school they would let us listen to our own music while we worked, and for me, it worked, I graduated 1 year and 6 months early.

I don't know what trigger is causing your motivation to drop, but if one of them is Boredom, I can at least help you with that. Music was what brought me back, it might seem condescending to have a distraction while you work, but if there is one thing that did it, its Music. For me, it made doing work more interesting, I would phase the outside world out, and all of my attention was focused at what I was looking at. Most of my boredom was counteracted by it, which allowed me to keep going undistracted. It might not be the best way to study, but the major thing is to find something that will keep you studying, from there its all about improving on that by working on better study habits.

it might not work for everyone, since everyone is different, but all it takes is to experiment to see what helps!

 

[RaDeuX]

To help with motivation, you have to know what are some of your triggers that shoot your motivation down.

I was in a similar situation, doing well during classes Acing tests, but as soon as the tests were done, any motivation I had was wiped clean, The school I was going to was very big on the idea of giving out huge assignment/homework loads on a daily basis, and my grades would suffer because I would hardly do anything with it. Eventually, after getting held back, and then changing schools unless I wanted to get held back again...I went to a new school. I learned that one of my major demotivators was my boredom, I'd easily get bored of assignments and find myself day dreaming a lot, or doing some kind of game on a piece of paper that I dubbed "Boxes." At home I would find it even harder to concentrate with more distractions than you can shake a stick at. At this new school they would let us listen to our own music while we worked, and for me, it worked, I graduated 1 year and 6 months early.

I don't know what trigger is causing your motivation to drop, but if one of them is Boredom, I can at least help you with that. Music was what brought me back, it might seem condescending to have a distraction while you work, but if there is one thing that did it, its Music. For me, it made doing work more interesting, I would phase the outside world out, and all of my attention was focused at what I was looking at. Most of my boredom was counteracted by it, which allowed me to keep going undistracted. It might not be the best way to study, but the major thing is to find something that will keep you studying, from there its all about improving on that by working on better study habits.

it might not work for everyone, since everyone is different, but all it takes is to experiment to see what helps!

I enjoy listening to music when I do programming or math homework. With physics, it depends on whether or not I'm reading material. I can't listen to music while I read in plain English, so I'll pause it if I have to go through a word problem in calculus or something.

A de-motivator? My mother, probably. She expects me to study hard and go to a university while she highly doubts I can get in. Thanks mom, you really rack up my self-esteem points. Hence is why I'm moving into an apartment or dorm room even though the campus is only 30 miles away from my place (it's along one of the state's most dangerous highways). Fear of failure is probably another good one. I've worked hard previously and never really reaped the rewards. Last but not least, I'm always low on energy. Recently, I've been trying to fix this by attempting to maintain a consistent sleep schedule, as well as not viewing a computer screen an hour before bedtime (studies show that the light coming off of screens can stimulate your brain, thus keeping you awake for longer than you should).

Thanks for your input guys. This thread is turning out a lot better than my previous one.

 

[RaDeuX]

My last thread got semi-ignored, so I'll try to see if rephrasing myself will net better and more responses.

I currently go to a community college. I dropped my calculus and physics courses this quarter since I didn't study enough and was left behind in lectures. I'm planning on changing this bad habit of not studying by going to the library instead of studying at home. I'm anxious that this might not work, and I'm pressured by my parents to do well.

I've always studied to avoid getting beat up by my parents. Now that I'm more than two decades old, that method doesn't work anymore (I learned aikido, karate, and boxing as a counter-measure against school bullies back in the days). Now I try to study for my own sake, but I fear failure and never reaped the benefits of hard work in academics as well as sports due to various reasons both personal and political.

I think the best way to motivate yourself to study is to weigh out what you've done in order to get into the school, and what you want to do a year from now, two years. If something is holding you back specifically, try to limit it with that mindset. For example, putting aside everything else that may be naming you anxious or pressured, you are putting time and money (I assume) into the college courses you are taking, and you shouldn't waste those for any reasons that may be things you can do later or at a different time. Want's vs Needs basically. Set a time for studying, and just apply yourself for that given time and gradually increase it as needed. If you discipline yourself into these steps, I believe you can get a healthy study habit going without compromising anything else you may do too much. <3

That's true. I did study for three years. I just have one more year to go.

I'd like to be able to graduate within the two years that I'm in university, but since I still need some core classes, I don't think that will happen. Maybe I'll spend 2.5 years there, I don't really know for sure. I'm not sure what I want to do after graduation either. Maybe it's because I don't know what kind of opportunities are out there, or whether or not game companies will scout me after getting a computer game design degree.