Motivation

promise yourself a cookie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but, seriously, i'm not the best person to ask.

have u tried setting goals for yourself, to try and space out your work?

 

I just set goals for myself.

"I'll have ______ done by xx:xx PM."

Then I can relax and I feel better knowing nothing's hanging over me.

 

I find that if I try and do work on my laptop in my room I won't be very focused. However if I work on the computer downstairs I find myself quite focused.

Enviroment is a great help when trying to complete homework.

and your bedroom actually is not a good enviroment. Your body associates your bedroom as a place to sleep...and although you may not study on your bed...you may find it hard to get some work done still.

Best to study in a study or office of some sort. Something with a "Okay I gotta work" buisness setting.

 

just have a freind over specually your best friend have him/her do their hoework and just talk and lough while doing HW and if you dont get it just ask for their help and time will pass by fast
thats how i do it cuz i just never do HW i allways say ill just doing before school or before class starts and i never do it so do the work while you have some fun

 

Do it as soon as you get home because you're still in the "school" cycle.

 

Im a lazy boy Im just like you, I really want to keep up with my good grades but before Im abou tto do my jomework, i wanna do something else more fun

My mom told me that just think about when you recieve good grades on your quizzes or report cards, taht'll make you proud of yourself, that can make you wanna do the homework

You should think homework as something entertantment to, like turn on the music while doing it, I always do it, it dose help, especially with math XD

Stop yourself from doing anything else, being distracted by them like games, internet

Dont take it seriously, homework is your friend

 

I need similar help.

I have just one more thing to do and then I'm done with university, but I have no motivation to get started and it has to be done on 15 January.

 

Right now I'm supposed to be doing homework :whistling:

I always study in my room however, it's all about the environment

 

Finding motivation is really difficult. I've struggled with this, I used to be able to sit down and work with no problem, but now I'm getting distracted all the time. My grades really started slipping a couple of years ago until I failed a bunch of exams last year. I knuckled down and did really well in resits (most of them) so only just got into my final year.

Basically try doing different styles of studying to see how you work best. Try doing it in different environments, try with or without music. If you do listen to music it does force you to do about 50 minutes of work while you listen to an album so that might help. But set clear times for studying, and take regular breaks, either 15 minutes or half hour to an hour breaks depending on how much work you've done. Also take a day or a few evenings off a week to reward yourself.

Hopefully this advice will help you, but I myself can't find the motivation to follow it, so I'm probably gonna fail again.

 

This is kind of a tough one. Forgive the long post, but I think it's worth giving you the long explanation rather than just tossing off an idea or two. If you understand the problem more, I think you'll be better equipped to understand the solution.

If you're like every other person on this planet, you've looked at your homework or school work and thought, "Why are we studying this stuff, anyway?" You don't see most adults using algebra or chemistry or Shakespeare on a daily basis. So why this stuff? You're not going to use it, are you?

Here's the secret answer: nope. You're not going to use it. Hardly ever.

But before you throw your textbooks in the trash, let me explain.

Perhaps you're on the football team, but if not, you still probably have seen the team practice. One of the things they do is running through those tires they have laid out on the field. You understand why they're doing that, right? It's a drill. They're getting their legs in shape. During a game, there's no tires on the field, but there may be a defender down there that they'll have to step over while running. And that's when the drill pays off.

Your classes - and your homework - are precisely the same thing.

No, it's not necessary for most adults to know the US Presidents, in order. But it IS necessary for us to read and remember lists of things. Learning the US Presidents is just a drill for your brain - the equivalent of running your brain through a set of tires. So why are you stuck memorizing the order of the US presidents, and not (say) the order of levels on Super Mario World? Two reasons. First off - most of the stuff we need to read and remember is stuff we're NOT inherently interested in, so it helps to have whatever it is you're memorizing in school be something you don't care much about. And secondly, there IS a side benefit to learning about US history, as it provides some background and some context to events happening today. Not so much with Super Mario World.

It's like that all through school. As an adult, you won't need to give an oral report on "Our Friend, the Beaver", but you WILL have to give presentations in front of a group of people. You won't need to write a three-page paper on Romeo & Juliet, but you will have to write a proposal for your boss. The stuff you're doing now in school builds up your skills so you can survive better in the adult world.

And it actually goes deeper than that. You're moving away from "kid problems" and moving into "adult problems". And almost all "adult problems" can be summed up as "freedom vs responsibility". As you get older, you'll have more and more freedom to do what you'd like. However, with that freedom comes the responsibility of your choices. You have the freedom to not do your homework, but you'll also have to face the responsibility (low grades, mad parents) that comes with that choice. Your teacher, in giving you homework, is giving you another "tire drill" - one where you can practice the whole freedom/responsibility thing.

So you find it hard to get motivated to do your homework. (I bet you thought I forgot what the problem was!) This is mainly because you're "new" at the whole freedom/responsibility thing. Most adults tend to be better at budgeting their time, simply because they've done it for many years. We've already "built up those muscles", if you will. It's going to be harder for you, no matter how many suggestions you're given, simply because you're new at it.

Here's what I'd suggest.

Mindset
This is really the most important. Resign yourself to the fact that you will have to take time out of your day to do the homework. Accept it as an unpleasant but necessary thing. But think of it as practice, just like the football players. As you solve your algebra problems, you're running through the tires. You're getting your brain in shape. And as dull as it might be, and as much as you'd rather do something else, realize that the practice is necessary, and resolve to stick with it.

Time
How much homework do you have on an average night? Let's say an hour. Pick a time to do your homework, and stick with it. If you have baseball practice from 4-6 on Thursdays, don't make your homework time during that time any other day of the week - do it at seven. Doing it right after dinner isn't ideal, as you tend to be a bit slow then. The best time for me was right before dinner. We ate late (my father worked late), so I'd do homework from 6:30-7:30, and then go to dinner. Yes, sometimes I'd have more HW, and have to pick up where I left off after dinner. But usually most was done by then.

Also, pick a day and time to do your weekend homework. I preferred getting it out of the way on Friday, so I wouldn't have it hanging over my head Saturday and Sunday. But yes, sometimes I was lazy and put it off. Best to do it Friday night, at the same time you do it the rest of the week.

If you end up getting all your work done before the hour is up, resolve to spend a bit of time - at least five minutes - going back over anything that you're a bit of trouble with. Starting to get a few more wrong answers in math? Reread your math chapter. Starting to forget the Civil War causes? Pull out the history book. That five minutes can make all the difference.

Location
The best place to study is somewhere without any distractions. My room had all my music and stuff in it, so it wasn't good. I found the dining room to be ideal. Nothing to look at, nothing to do but the homework. If you need a computer to do some of your homework, and you don't have a laptop, resolve to spend only the absolute time necessary in front of it. Unplug the internet cable if you don't need to be online for homework - it's far too tempting to start thinking, "Well, I'll just check my e-mail as long as I'm here", and away you go.

I personally study better with music. If you start dancing or playing air-guitar when songs come on, you'd best stick with either silence or classical. You want something that'll help move you along, but that will slip into the background as you work.

Get all your supplies set up first. Pens, notebooks, textbooks, anything else you're pretty sure you'll need. Grab a glass of water or a soda, and go to the bathroom before you start. You don't want to find reasons to get up and leave. Turn your cell phone off, and keep it in another room. If you find yourself totally stuck on a problem, don't over-frustrate yourself. Put a Post-It on it, scribble down where you're having trouble, and move on. Come back to it if you've got the time.

Stick with it. The first few days or weeks will seem really odd and artificial. That's because you're doing it for the first time. Your mind will start wandering, you'll start thinking "I can do this later", you'll decide you don't really have much homework so you can skip a day. Don't. Resolve to stick with it for at least two weeks. Ask your parents to lean on you a bit if you think it'll help.

At the end of two weeks, evaluate. Is the work getting done? Is the time good? Do you keep finishing too quickly, or do you need more time? Do you like studying this way? Is it still really difficult? If so, scrap this plan and try another.

Sorry for the excessively long post, but I'm assuming others are having this problem, too. Give it a try. You can do it.

Lex

 

Here's an idea. Take the ethernet cable out of your computer/unplug the wirelss hub and get someone to hide it.

 

I was horrible in school. I hated the day to day boring work, just give me the test and get it over with. I did good on tests, but daily work, I just ignored. I didn't even take homework home. I had a 10th grade English teacher, who I had been friends with for 2 years prior to her class, and when she would pass homework out, she would just skip me, knowing I was going to throw it out once I left the room.

Then, I realized, if I do want to achieve my goal of getting a nice job, I had to do better in school.

I find that listening to music, or having a fan on, to cover any noises that might distract you are good, lots of light so you can't go to sleep, and I had to do everything without the computer, because if I am on the computer, I am chatting with friends, surfing, and homework is forgotten almost instantly.

Friends are very helpful too, my best female friend Emilie was the type that would do someone else's homework for fun, so having her in the room assured I would not stray off course, and would get it done. Then we could spend the rest of the day talking about guys