In the beginning of the semester, you are all pumped about how this will be THE semester, the BEST one, how EVERYTHING will change, how you will actually LEARN in your classes. You will make new friends, find that close-knit group of friends, get promoted at a job, and perhaps discover a new cool hairstyle.
This is basically how my level of productivity/motivation has trended this semester.
In the beginning you are filled with hope, because you have all the time you need ahead of you. You attend every single class or activity rapt with attention, just imagining all the glorious knowledge you will gain. When people ask how your classes are, you say "They're really interesting! I'm excited." (True story)
But as time passes, you begin to miss one class, and then suddenly you've missed it twelve times. By then you're so behind on the material that there's no point in going back to class. You realize that the super-fun class that you were taking for fun used superb advertising materials to entice you in.
For me, at some point I just get so overwhelmed that I become incredibly lazy, not even bothering to go out to hang with my new group of close-knit friends. Learning becomes memorizing names for tests, fun classes turn into tedious useless work that I try to finish as soon as I can. I haven't gotten a better job, and I even got the same haircut I've been getting for two years. noes.
Don't become lumpy and boring and lazy like a potato.
But not to worry, kids! I am here to remind you that, however late it is in the semester, you can still decide to up your motivation and productivity. You can still decide to pay attention and go to class and get your work done. Don't flake out now - there is hope yet! For example, just today I stayed awake for 2/3 of a 1.5 hour class, when I only stayed awake for 1/3 of it the week before.
While for some things it may be too late, like joining a club, there are still a few weeks to the semester, and I challenge you to make the most of it! What a cheery and cheesy message - but it's true! Suck it up, be a man, be responsible. Sit down and think about all the things you want to do and all the things you still can do, then find the union of the two lists. Then do it.
Here's a motivational poster to get you started:
"When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story."
3 comments:
For me over the last six years, if learning is rain, then it's been occasional two-week downpours interspersed into a background of fine mist.
That's partially due to motivation, but also largely a random response to what I'm working on.
Sometimes classes were a huge help, and I gained knowledge that I come back to over and over. But lots of them were time and effort that have simply disappeared.
It's reading one particular book or working on a certain project that provides huge gains, while the rest of the ostensibly-similar studying activities wind up being essentially as useful as those endless dittos we did in elementary school.
The trick must be to figure out how to get more of the good stuff and avoid the useless crap, but I can never predict which a certain activity will be until it's done.
You best not be talking about HoME, girl!
"In the beginning of the semester, you are all pumped about how this will be THE semester, the BEST one, how EVERYTHING will change, how you will actually LEARN in your classes."
I never think this
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