I’m sure we all have those days, weeks when we just wish we were done with a course. When the motivation to read those chapters just won’t come. Last week was that week for me this semester. I just couldn’t get myself to read a whole chapter in one sitting or type up my notes. It was like every time I opened my book my brain just shut down, or I got distracted by the smallest thing…as long as I wasn’t reading my text I was happy to go clean the kitchen or walk the dog (even if he didn’t want to). So what to do, how do you get out of the funk?
I’ve found that when I get like that the best thing I can do is to get up and change the scenery. I moved took my note book and books outside and worked there. Or I’ll head to the coffee shop downtown and work there for a bit. When that stops working, I do some yoga or go for a quick walk to take a break. Typically when I’m studying or taking notes I listen to my Hannibal Pandora station, but when I get in that funk I change it up to something a little more motivating. Now I don’t go full on house music or anything, just step up the tempo to some Daft Punk….No music with vocals though, otherwise I end up singing along and never get anything done.
Sometimes all that takes is a small change, sometimes you need something bigger. You’ve just got to find yours.
Annah, what works for me is break up those chapters into small chunks. You know, 5 pages here, 7 pages there, and so on. This also helps when reading chapters that are full of technical details that create pages of notes from just a page read. 🙂 Changing scenery helps too. Head to the library, your coffee shop, or where ever, but take your book and read 3 pages more. Cool post, thanks!
I have a lot of physical pain and it gets worse when the weather gets colder. So as summer winds down and all my friends are excited for Fall I get down. I live near Pittsburgh Pa and Oct 2 its on 54 degrees outside.
I try to meditate and go to the warm sunny beaches I vacation at. Its a nice break to also count down to the semester end. I think as I finish the work for each week I only have x amount of weeks to go till a break.
Calling a friend or just looking back and talking about a fun vacation trip can usually pick me up and motivate me to move on with my work.