Wednesday Wisdom: Staying Motivated

"But HOW can I stay motivated?" you ask...

Here's the secret: Nobody is motivated all the time. That's it. Nobody wakes up every morning just dying to read a textbook and write a paper for some random elective they didn't want to take.

How can you overcome this? By doing the work anyways. By building habits so the work gets done a little more automatically and you don't have to rely on WANTING to do it. By focusing on the end goal and recognizing how each tiny (and sometimes tedious step) leads towards it.

And I'm definitely not immune to this! Remember, I'm a PhD student so I'm right there with you. I've been slowly chipping away at my dissertation proposal for months. But I just want to get it done at this point, so I've set a goal to have my draft complete by the end of October. I don't want to work on it all the time, but I've built a few routines that help me:

I joined a couple of virtual writing groups through my university, so I'll show up and write on those days.

I read at least one article most mornings while I drink my coffee and add notes to my proposal.

Sometimes I bribe myself to read just one more article or do just one more round of edits before I watch a tv show or go out with friends.

I check in with a friend by text every few days to see how much progress we're making (and I'm competitive so I never want to say I haven't done anything).

If it seems to overwhelming, I pick one small task and just do that. Sometimes it's "read one article and add notes to your paper," or "review a chapter and make grammatical and stylistic edits."

If this is something you struggle with, an academic coach can help! We can start building habits and overcoming the obstacles that are stopping you from studying. Hit reply if you want to chat!

I've also written a blog post on overcoming a lack of motivation which you can read here!

Resources

• If you're a high school student planning to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), and your desired university is one of 20 partners, DEFINITELY check into the Schulich Leaders Program. There's 100 massive scholarships available.
• I enjoyed this Medium post on quickly studying one chapter that also reviews a number of note-taking techniques.
• I've been sooo absorbed by this podcast on serial liar Coco Berthman, following along as journalists try to decipher fact from fiction. It's not related to studying, but we all need to take a break sometimes!

ChooseYourUni News

I was recently speaking to a handful of grade 12 students who were all very good students and quite entrepreneurial. They all wanted to go to university but had questions about scholarships, so let me share what I told them:

• The biggest scholarships in Canada are usually entrance scholarships, which are provided by the universities themselves to really outstanding students. For example, if you head to the University of Waterloo entrance scholarship page, you'll see awards from $1500 right up to $120,000! Many universities also have these for elite athletes.
• Otherwise, there are only a small handful of REALLY BIG scholarships out there that students can take to any university. If you're an outstanding student and you're having trouble finding these, hit reply - I can definitely help!