How to Stay Motivated for the School Year

Welcome back students of Open Door! The school year is going to be long and it may be difficult to stay motivated but this post is meant to help you always be ready for homework, projects, and papers assigned to you.

1.Make a Plan
If you are overwhelmed with a large amount of assignments it can help to make a list to get a picture of your workload before you attack it. Arrange your assignments in order of importance and put most of your time and energy towards those at the top of the list. Knocking out the most daunting tasks first is a great way to feel more energized and ready to take on the rest of the list.

2.Create New Scenarios
When a teacher assigns you a project or a paper try writing about or creating something new. For example, if an English teacher assigns you a book report and you always write about history books try something new like a biography or fictional book. You will probably learn something new and the information will probably be more interesting to you.

3.Set Reasonable Goals
If a teacher assigns a 10 page paper or 25 slide presentation, don’t focus on the giant final number, instead break the assignment up into smaller parts and spread it out across a longer time span. This way will make sure that you don’t procrastinate and knock out larger assignments with much less anxiety.

4.Try and Get Plenty of Sleep
There is nothing that will make you want to zone out in the middle of class or blow off an assignment like not getting enough sleep the night before. That’s why getting a solid 7-8 hours of sleep compared to 5-6 can make all the difference. I know that sometimes life becomes incredibly busy and you might have to pull off a late night study session but a majority of the time you are in control of how much sleep you get. You can also improve the quality of sleep by following the same sleep schedule every night, turning off devices 30-45 minutes before bed, and not eating before you go to sleep.

5.Try a New Study Style
If you are getting tired and bored of the same way of studying for every assessment try a different method. For example, if you always study alone in the same location, try meeting up with some friends and at a place that you’ve never seen before.

6.Reward Yourself
A great way to relate positively to your assignments is by rewarding yourself after a day of hard work. Spoil yourself with some ice cream or go do something that you enjoy like fly fishing.

That’s all of the motivational tips I have to offer. For more editorials from the fascinating mind of Noah Eck be sure to subscribe to odcspress.org