How to Stay Productive When You're Unmotivated

How to Stay Productive When You're Unmotivated

Lacking motivation is a common problem that just about every student suffers from. This could be caused by being overwhelmed, going through hard times, or simply just a disappearance of motivation to do work. It's okay to not be motivated to do work, but the river of life keeps going no matter what. Here is how I get some work done when my motivation is low.

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Making a List of Things To Do

Create a list of all the assignments you need to finish. It is important that you know your enemy before you try to conquer it. There are many ways to do this. I would recommend you rank the assignments based on subject, difficulty, the time needed to complete, or importance.

Making a list makes these assignments seem less intimidating. When you keep assignments in your head, they can get pretty overwhelming. This can happen to the easiest assignments.

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Make a Schedule

Balance easy and hard subjects. Don't try to do all the hard assignments first and then all the easy assignments, or vice versa. You might put an easy assignment between your lab report and your English essay. This method is very effective if you are behind on assignments. Schedule the assignments, so that you can get caught up.

After making a to-do list, you need to do the things on the to-do list. I know this has been the part you've been avoiding, but it's going to be all good. By making a schedule, you are setting aside a time and order in which you must complete your assignments. This can help you avoid overload, like working on an English essay and then moving to a lab report.

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Add Breaks

Add breaks If all you have is difficult, long assignments. This is very important because when making a schedule, it might seem like you can finish everything in one go, but it is very unlikely. I do this all the time, and it is counterproductive. If you don't follow your schedule, you will feel like you failed since you couldn't finish everything on your schedule. Then, you're right back to where you started. Moral of the story is to add relaxing periods to your schedule.

Yet, breaks can be a double-edged sword. If you take a break for too long, you might never return to your schedule. Again, if you don't take enough, you might lose even more motivation to do work. Eventually, you'll learn to make a schedule that fits you.

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Set Daily Goals

Setting daily goals can also help you get work done. I often set daily minimums for myself. I'll tell myself that I can't do something other than work until I finish a certain amount of my tasks.

Daily goals can easily be used with a schedule. Your daily goal might be based on the assignments you have in your schedule. You might even schedule the assignments you want to complete on a certain day. This is the method that I like to use, but if you put a goal that is too high, you might not be able to achieve it.

One day, I put way too many assignments for my daily goal. I wanted to finish all these assignments and do all these things. I got so overwhelmed looking at the list that I didn't finish anything. A smarter idea might've been to take on that work over a couple of days instead of piling all the stuff on one day.

Base your daily goals on subjects or topics. For example, on Monday, you can focus on your Biology class and get as much work done for that class. Then, on Tuesday, you can focus on AP World History.

Now, this is on top of the homework that might be due the next day. On this schedule, the hope is that your assignments are done ahead of time on the day you focus on that subject.

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You Can Do It

Although your motivation might be lacking, you can get it done. I know it seems hard because everybody might keep pushing things on to you, but keep fighting. Try your best to use these strategies.

Another thing to remember is to bite the bullet. This means you need to get down to work no matter how 

much resistance you have against doing those assignments. Sometimes, this means sitting down at your computer, putting in your earbuds, and getting to work.

In the end, you got this!

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