Read: Perseverance & Staying Motivated

Overview

College is a marathon. It is not a sprint, and it is not easy. But, it is entirely manageable with the proper motivations. This lesson will cover how to learn new things, how to set goals and motivations, how to create checkpoints, how to ask for help, and generally how to just keep going through the challenges of college.

How to Learn New Things (Whether You Want to or Not)

One of the biggest challenges students face when transitioning to postsecondary coursework is the lack of instructional, family, and/or community support they receive with regard to studying. Successful college/adult learners know that studying and learning requires perseverance and self-motivation. This is particularly true when asked to study a subject that holds little or no interest to the student. If every class we took was interesting to us, we probably would have no problem learning the material! As we know, this ideal situation is not the case. Finding a support network of people in classes with you will help you to learn. Accountability and support is vital to the marathon of college.

Set Goals

When facing an uninteresting class or material, goals can make it a much clearer path to an A+ in the class. A goal is an objective you want or need to meet for a project, task, or assignment. Goals can be as simple as finishing an expense report by Friday or as complicated as using a multi-tiered system to accomplish a large project in incremental parts. Effective goal setting is one of the most important things a leader can do. This section will outline the steps needed to maximize your group’s effectiveness in accomplishing its goals.

First, identify the problem that needs to be addressed. This is the only way to know what you need to do and figure out how to do it.

Second, set the overall goal and develop a clear statement of intent. Identify exactly what your team will have accomplished when the task is complete. A clear statement gives everyone guidance about what goal they are working toward overall.

Third, section it into smaller, more easily managed tasks. A large goal can be daunting. Segmenting the goal into smaller, bite-sized chunks that can be accomplished more quickly will help team members stay motivated as they work through their individual tasks. Fourth, set timelines and follow through. It isn’t good enough to know what your team is supposed to do. They need to know when it should be done. Have a deadline for the overall goal and deadlines for the smaller tasks so that everyone knows when they need to finish their specific assignments. Without these timelines, you run the risk of delays when someone needs the work from another task that is not yet complete. This kind of delay can affect the different moving parts of your overall goal. Hold the members of your team accountable. Once the plan is in place, it needs to change as few times as possible. Following through with the plan of action will help to ensure that everyone contributes to getting the goal accomplished.

List Goal Motivators

Goals alone are fine, but often there is something behind a goal that can help give students a push during trying times. Maybe that motivator is a nice job, making family members proud, or something else. Whatever the motivator, it is just as important to list it as it is to list the goals themselves.

Write those motivators down and put them somewhere visible daily. The reminder helps make things easier when classes get hard. Additionally, if those motivators are people, let them know so they can motivate you to push on. This will open an opportunity to add that motivating person to a growing support network. When people know they are motivating a student, they can go out of their way to help encourage the student even more.

Checkpoints and Rewards

If a goal has been crafted as suggested above, the goal should have clear checkpoints. After one small, manageable task has been completed, reward yourself! Remember, this reward should be proportional to the task completed. For example, reading one chapter of a textbook probably does not warrant a three-day vacation from homework. Maybe after each paragraph of the textbook, the reward is a small treat. Be sure to schedule time to study, but also include these short breaks because they are very important to keeping on pace and not burning out.

Knowing When to Ask for Help

College cannot be accomplished alone. The trick is knowing when to reach out and ask people for help. The first sign of a need for help is when a student first begins to feel overwhelmed. Do not wait for things to get worse. The sooner you ask for help, the sooner the problem can be solved rather than growing unnecessarily. Next, it is important to ask for help in the middle of the semester. Ask friends how they are doing, offer to help them, and reach out to get help. This is a very difficult part of the semester, and building a support network is necessary in order to pull through it.

Tip for Persevering

Often, we start much more motivated to complete a big goal than when we are in the middle of the goal. The middle of a semester for most students is the hardest. This is the time when many assignments and midterms are due, and also when students often hit a plateau in motivation. Because we are all motivated by different things, persevering is different for all of us.

If it helps, think about your final goal. Visualization can be effective when trying to complete the goal. Visualize yourself getting a good grade in your class, walking across the graduation stage, or earning a job you would not be able to obtain without completing this goal!

Another way to persevere is to recharge. Recharging will look different for each student depending on how much time a student has. This might be just a ten minute break to take a walk, do some jumping jacks, or meditate. If possible, a longer break to recharge is recommended. Spending time alone, or spending time with people who charge you, could help boost motivation as well.

Expand: Scheduling Motivation

Discover

Motivation is not something that just grows on a tree. It is something that must be made internally by the student. Building a schedule can help create times of motivation and productivity to ensure the student can finish all that is required of them.

Building a Schedule

The hardest part of building a schedule is knowing when to be productive. Not everyone is able to be productive at the same time. Some people might wake up ready to face the day. Others might need a few hours before their productivity kicks in. Some people are most productive in the evening. When a student is able to identify the times of day they can be most productive, it helps to boost motivation by scheduling work times when it is easiest for them to work.

The schedule should not just contain boring things though. It is vital to schedule in breaks, down time, and fun. If a student knows they just need to push through thirty more minutes of studying before game night with their friends, it becomes much easier to push through those last thirty minutes in a productive manner.

Study sessions should also be planned around taking reward breaks. Do not build the schedule in such a way that it requires an hour of solid working. Instead build a schedule that allows twelve minutes of work and three minutes of break repeated four times. Having small break times allows the brain to recharge and reset and avoid becoming burnt out.

If there is a class or assignment that is enjoyable, consider using that as either a reward item or a motivator to keep going. For instance, break up studying for the favorite class and use those smaller sections between study sessions for a less fun class. Or, put all of the studying for the fun class at the end of your study session to give you something to look forward to while studying for the not-as-fun classes.

At the end of the day, studying is a vital skill for a successful learning experience. On average, a student should expect to spend two hours studying or working on class material for every one hour they are in the classroom during the week. If a student’s schedule can accommodate those time frames, the student can expect to succeed in the class.

Module 3 Lesson 2 of 5