How do you motivate yourself?

[evilstonermonkey]

I'm coming to the end of my first semester of university, assignments are piling up, and the problem with online assessment pieces is since you're already on the internet it is so tempting to stop for a minute and youtube something, or check your facebook every 13 seconds, or log onto a game. I know I'm not the only student here, and I'm sure there are more than a few people in the same position as me, just in terms of work deadlines or the like. So how do you get yourself to keep working? Do you find it easier to just power through the work in one go and get it out of the way? Do you set goals, give yourself incentives, ignore the problem until the deadline means you have no option but to do it NOW...?

Personally I've found that setting milestones where I can stop for a minute takes away the temptation to stop halfway through doing something. This afternoon I have been working through an online quiz made up of 20 fairly long physics questions. Once a question is completed I let myself watch an old LRR video. The comedy stops me from getting bored and gives me something to look forward to, whereas the brief nature of the sketches means I don't waste too much time or break out of the puzzle-solving mindset.

 

[Tautology]

Turn on some Dio or Jorn and I'm set to power through anything. That stuff defies you to procrastinate.

 

[ApeShapeDeity]

Oh, man. I've done a couple of degrees. Keeping focused is the big fish...

Keep a cadence with music, preferably non-lyrical. Take breaks, it's truly important. Oh, and you know what? Keep rewarding yourself... you have to! Student life is full of poor(ity) he he. So, keep yourself happy, however that works for you. Mostly, remember why you're doing ths to yourself. The goal. It makes all the shit you have to deal with worth while!

 

[tzimize]

I dont. I dont know how to motivate myself for anything but having fun. And its seriously impairing my ability to...do stuff...and get somewhere in my life. I suffer from extreme apathy :|

 

[RuralGamer]

In the words of George W. Bush "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure"... duh; basically I remind myself that failing is not what I want to do and so work my ass off to avoid it. Fear of failure is a pretty powerful driving force and because I'm an awesome procrastinator, I end up doing everything a few days short of the deadline; I end up using the fear of failure because little else works as strongly.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Down a NOS or some other energy drink. I'm an art student, so most of my big projects are paintings or drawings which require massive time investments. I find that the ridiculous caffeine overdose does wonders for getting me really involved in my projects.

 

[Kilo24]

I visit the Escapist.

...wait, I'm not very good at this "avoiding procrastination" business, am I?

 

[Xixikal]

I bribe myself. Or get someone to bribe me. Chocolate and game time usually works.
I have next to no ability to motivate myself, unless it's something I enjoy.

 

[StormShaun]

Think about my past, my intentions, my morality, the people I want to protect and other then that the animes and visual novels I watch..

 

[manic_depressive13]

I'm coming to the end of my first semester of university, assignments are piling up...

Oh, me too! I don't really motivate myself at all. I had a major assessment due today which I didn't end up handing in. Granted, I was actually sick yesterday, but it's still my fault for leaving it 'til the night before. Not sure if I'll get away with this one. Not that I really care.

 

[Boletes Net]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR44oOYjvOw

 

[Deus Encarmine]

That depends on what I'm doing - well, I'm all for taking short pauses, I think "relaxes" the mind and makes it easier to proceed at a slower, more comfortable pace. For example, when I draw per every fifteen minutes of work I tend to have a 5-10 minutes of pause. Maybe walking 'round the room, or something else - doing anything but doing the work I set out to do in the first place - pure distraction. I tend to work at my own pace.

When under pressure I just tend to work poorly, especially if the work is creative. I loathe pressure of any sort. That earned me some notoriety amongst my teachers (and bad grades, more often than not ), because when I start doing an assignment I'm very entusiastical about it and tend to work impulsively and energeticaly, but after some time I return to my "default" pace - which is neither impulsive nor energetical, but it suits me best and I stick with it. Fear of a bad grade or being scorned by the teachers has had absolutely zero effect on me. Each and every task I've seen through to the end (admittedly, some of those assignments I submitted behind the deadline - but nonetheless, they were finished)

So, how do I motivate myself to stay inside the deadline? Simple. I think of the pride I will feel when I'm finished, I try to enjoy the task as much as possible, I try to take regular pauses (to help clear the mind), and I know that I will have to start working early, because I work pretty slow. I'd argue that fear is a bad motivator, because it makes you work hurriedly and thus sloppily. Now I'm reminded of something that I've heard in M.A.S.H. from Charles after being hurried so many times, which also applies for me:

"I do one thing at a time. I do it very well, and then I move on."

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Motivation? Think about what will happen if I don't do the task I need to do. Usually works.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

Leave it to the last day and do it all. I'm motivated by the fact that if I don't do it I'm gonna fucking fail. It works, I have an essay due in for Monday, guess what I'm doing Sunday.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

I set deadlines for myself, as well as an appropriate amount of free time and breaks. Plowing through the work to music, while said before, is extremely helpful. I also find that I do work a lot more efficiently if I say that I want to get it done by a certain time before taking a break.

 

[Nerfherder17]

I think about the negative consequences of not doing it, and the positive ones of actually doing it. taking it easy seems to be better than powering through. if i have the sopranos or the x-files (etc) DVD on, i can alternate my attention between the two, makes it less unbearable.