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- Reducing Procrastination
- And
- Motivating Yourself To Study
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- The Procrastinator’s Creed:
- “Never do today what you can do tomorrow…because tomorrow you might not
have to do it.”
- “Waiting ‘till the last minute makes me feel motivated and ready to
study.”
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- What are you hoping to see? There
isn’t one!
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- 1. If I ignore it, it will go
away.
- 2. I underestimate the time
something will take and then not be able to complete it.
- 3. Mediocrity is just fine with
me – I just need enough not to fail.
- 4. I can’t study until my room is
clean, I have washed my car, and feed the hungry masses.
- 5. Just watching 5 more minutes
of TV won’t hurt.
- 6. I took my books with me…I just
never had time to look at them…
- 7. If I just get this one part of
the assignment perfect, the rest of the work will be really easy.
- 8. I can’t decide which is more
important to do first, so I don’t do either.
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- There are lots of situations and motivational issues that encourage
people to wait before acting and doing things they will need to do.
- On the next few slides, you’ll see some of the issues listed.
- As you read each one, see how much it applies to you…
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- 1. Lack of Relevance
- Things that aren’t personally important to you are often harder to want
to do.
- 2. Working On Someone Else’s
Goals
- Goals that others set for your are harder to want to pursue and lead to
mediocre performance at best.
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- 3. Perfectionism
- Believing that the only good task is a perfectly done task will make it
hard to finish anything.
- 4. Evaluation Anxiety
- A cousin to perfectionism.
Worrying about how you or your project will be judged creates
anxiety and makes it harder to work.
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- 5. Ambiguity about the task
- If I don’t know exactly what I need to do, I can’t start. I’ll wait ‘till I know more.
- 6. Fear of the Unknown
- Ambiguity’s cousin. If this is
new, I don’t have any way of telling how well I can do or if I can do
it at all. I’ll wait ‘till I
know more.
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- 7. Lack of Skills to do the Job
- I can’t do this, so I won’t try.
- 8. Add your own reason to this
list:
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- Think of the university as a big rock, rolling slowly along with nothing
to stop it.
- Whether you study today or not
- Whether you have a good day or bad day
- Whether you broke up with your partner or not
- Whether your sick or healthy
- Whether your dog ate your homework or not..
- The rock keeps moving!!!
- Your job is to stay ahead of the rock…
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- OK, so we’ve analyzed what issues prevent us from being motivated
- This is absolutely essential for being able to change ourselves to be
able to motivate ourselves.
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- Some possible reasons:
- 1. Your parents wanted you to
come and you didn’t.
- 2. All your friends came, so
you decided, “Why not?”
- 3. College beats working for a
living
- 4. Party hardy, dudes and
dudettes!!
- 5. I can’t get into
professional sports yet.
- 6. Best place to find a date
for the weekend.
- 7. Nothing else to do.
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- If you aren’t here because you want to be here to learn new things, to
be be challenged, and to be asked to do a lot of things you never
thought you’d have to do, you’re in the wrong place!
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- 1. You really want to be here
- 2. You have a positive attitude
- About taking a variety of courses
- About dealing with lots of different people
- About learning new things
- About challenging yourself
- About polishing old skills and learning new ones
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- These people don’t know what the heck they’re doing. How do they expect me to learn in this
environment?
- College is a waste of my intellect and time. Once I’m out, my talents will be
recognized for the true value they have.
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- Why do they make take this course?
It has nothing to do with my major?
- Why can’t the teacher be more entertaining? How does he or she expect me to stay
awake?
- Why do they only offer these courses early in the morning? I wake up at 10.
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- It’s my responsibility to find the relevance of each course for me.
- The instructor is here to teach.
This is not a sit-com.
- This is not a vocational school.
I am here to learn about a lot of things, not just my major.
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- Being overwhelmed is a sure way to lose motivation
- Take a course load that is consistent with your abilities during each
semester
- Balance the kinds of courses you take (math-based, reading,
memorizing, etc.)
- Always leave a little time in your schedule for unexpected events
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- Review all syllabi and get a good sense if you can do all the work
required
- Do you need to drop a class?
- Do you need to increase or learn skills?
- Can you find a good reason to be in each class every day?
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- Start the first day of class and plan how you will spend your time.
- You may need to adjust things based on experience in class the first
few days/weeks.
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- This is a critical part of time management
- Plan ahead and start big tasks early
- It’s perfectly acceptable to be finished before the deadline
- It’s easier to study 5 hours worth of material by studying one hour a
day for 5 days than studying one day for 5 hours.
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- Remember, the rock is rolling…
- Go to class every day
- Read what’s required for class and do any other homework assigned
- Participate in class discussions
- You will learn more if you are active and thinking about what’s being
taught.
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- This is college
- Instructors may not require you to be in class
- But, they expect you to be if you want a good grade
- They won’t check to see if you are keeping up or doing your homework
- You are responsible for doing what you need to do to be successful
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- Being perfect is great, but usually unattainable.
- Be reasonable with personal expectations
- Unrealistic expectations often lead to anger, stress, and anxiety – all
of which undermine your ability to perform.
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- When you attempt to succeed, you are willing to take risks and learn new
things
- This will help you be more active and engaged
- You will have relatively high expectations
- When you try to avoid failure, you get cautious, lower your standards,
“play it safe”, and settle for average
- Trying to guess what average is will put you closer to the failure
point.
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- Set reasonable goals and reward yourself for completing them
- Entice yourself to do what you need to do
- This is the carrot method
- Waiting for motivation or enough fear is a harder way to do things
- Beating yourself up for the things you haven’t done is the stick
method
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- Using good time management also means building in time to relax
- Taking a little time to relax here and there makes it easier to attack
more difficult things
- Build in time to “chill” after a big project or test
- Find a way to reward yourself for having done the best job you could
- Then, go back to work!
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- Having a long-term goal can be motivating
- It requires breaking down into smaller parts
- Most students come to college convinced they know what to have as a
major
- Two thirds of all students change majors at least twice.
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- It’s OK to be undecided about a major
- Almost two year’s worth of courses are required of every student (core
requirements)
- Use the resources you have to make a good choice based on the best
information you have
- Visit the Career Services Office
- Visit the Counseling Center
- Get some help choosing a path for yourself
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- Career Services 898-3850
- Write Site Writing Lab 898-2341
- Learning Assistance Center 898-2046
- Science Learning Resource Lab 898-2553
- Disability Support Services 898-3835
- And last, but not least…
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- Currently enrolled campus-based TWU Students may call or stop by the
Counseling Center for an appointment.
Counseling is free and confidential.
- Denton: West Jones Hall 940-898-3801
- Dallas: Parkland, Room
120 214-689-6655
- Dallas: Presbyterian, Room
16 214-706-2416
- Houston: North Residence
Hall 713-794-2059
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- Visit any of the TWU Counseling Center waiting areas to pick up handouts
about being a good student and other topics of interest.
- Denton: West Jones Hall
- Dallas: Parkland, Room 120
- Houston: North Residence Hall
- Some handouts are also available on our web site at: http://www/twu.edu/o-sl/selfhelp.html.
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- This presentation was created by Donald Rosen, Ph.D., Director, Texas
Woman’s University Counseling Center.
- This presentation was created for educational purposes only. The TWU Counseling Center does not
provide on-going counseling via the internet, telephone, or e-mail.
- Comments and suggestions about this presentation may be sent to the
author at drosen@twu.edu.
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- Thank you for stopping by to visit this site. We hope you found it useful.
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Notes
