When You Just CAN'T Motivate Yourself to Study, Consider This - College Info Geek

Key Takeaways

I got a question from a student recently that I think really highlights a problem that a lot of us have and the problem is this we think that we can't get the motivation to do something when in reality we're simply not willing to get the motivation to do it so I want to read you this question real quick and give you my thoughts on it and hopefully it'll help you if you're having your own motivational problems so he says one of the biggest problems I've been having is the struggle to see the consequences of not studying or not doing an assignment until the last possible second and by last I mean really last I really need to be getting on to these things earlier but I just can't bring myself to do it I try to imagine the way it would feel to have it done or even the consequences of not doing it which is always a lower grade than I want I just find myself lying around doing nothing or literally doing anything else that I could possibly do besides actually working so one thing he also mentioned in his email is he liked the method I use to force myself to wake up in the morning how I schedule a tweet to go out at 6:10 that'll give people $5 if I don't wake up on time to delete it but he said also that he's not willing to put money on the line and that he doesn't have Twitter and it's really highlighted to me that he has the ability to set these systems up it's very easy to set up a Twitter account and it's very easy to Pony up $5 to do something that's really going to benefit your life but at this point he wasn't willing to actually do it so really in my mind this highlights the difference that I mentioned earlier it's not that he can't motivate himself to do something it's that he's as of yet been unwilling to set up the systems to create that motivation now your motivation to do something that will help you in the long term has to compete with with your impulses to do other things at the same time which means that motivation is determined by a few different factors mainly there's the desire to get the reward for doing that thing you want to get a good grade in a test so you have to study for that test but there's also the possible consequences for not doing that thing the pain that you'll bring upon your future self if you don't get this thing done but there's also the impulse to get into other activities to go on Reddit to go on Facebook to hang out with your friends or go on a Netflix binge these are always competing with your motivation in the moment so essentially you have to find ways to tweak each of these values in order to generate the right amount of motivation to get yourself to do whatever it is you're not currently doing and here's the key Insight here you can build systems to create that motivation you can build a system that creates heavier consequences for not doing what you're supposed to do or you can build systems that give you ancillary rewards in addition to the main reward that's given by the task you can also set up systems that make it harder to get into those distractions you can find apps that will block the websites that you don't want to be distracting yourself with or you can go to the library so you're not near your friends when they decide they want to go bowling now all these are things that you can do so the problem isn't that you can't to motivate yourself it's that right now you're unwilling to lay the groundwork and build the systems in order to generate that motivation the pain or discomfort of not doing what it is you're supposed to be doing has not yet become great enough that you've decided to make a change in your life this reminds me of a comment that I got recently on that video about my wakeup system somebody said that basically it's ridiculous nobody should have to threaten themselves to to get up on time or to pursue their goals and yeah in an Ideal World I agree with that ideally we would be able to generate the motivation we need to do the things that are going to benefit us in the long term that's what long-term thinking is all about but we don't live in a perfect world we don't live in an idealized world where we're always looking to the future we live in the real world we live in a world where our impulsive Desires in the moment are often the things that rule our minds so we have to work within those parameters work within those limitations and create systems that can help us overcome those impulsive desires so the question to ask yourself is simple have you actually done all that's in your power to create systems to generate motivation when you tell yourself that you just can't get the motivation to study or do your homework are you being honest with yourself or in reality are you just not willing to put in that groundwork are you not willing to build those systems to create the motivation if that's the case then look at what you've been doing in the past to create that motivation if it's not sufficient then it's time to make a change hey guys thanks so much for watching this quick video on motivation now if you found it useful leaving a like can really help this channel out and you can also get new videos every single week on being a more effective student by clicking the big red subscribe button right there I also wrote a book on how to earn better grades which also includes some more tips on how to beat procrastination so if you want to get that it's absolutely free just click the picture of the book and I'll send you a copy you can find a summary of this video along with some links to extra resources at the companion blog post which you can access at the orange logo right there and if you missed last week's video we talked about how I organize my files notes and other school projects so if you want to see my folder system click the thumbnail to watch it if you have questions or want to connect with me I'm on Twitter @tomfrankly or you can leave a comment below thanks for watching