Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to stay motivated when you
Speaker 1: feel like you're in a slump. Motivations for any long
Speaker 1: project can ebb and flow, especially in the middle. When
Speaker 1: your initial enthusiasm wears off but the end is not
Speaker 1: yet in sight, it can be tough to keep going.
Speaker 1: I was reminded of this when I received a note
Speaker 1: from a Before Breakfast listener who is currently earning her
Speaker 1: bachelor's degree in accounting online. She's excited about the subject,
Speaker 1: and she's proud of herself for making school fit into
Speaker 1: her life, but she reported that she's running into motivation problems.
Speaker 1: School work, she writes, seems to be an endless cycle.
Speaker 1: While each new week covers a new topic, the formula
Speaker 1: is the same, with the same sorts of quizzes and
Speaker 1: discussion in a short project, with her work due at
Speaker 1: midnight each Sunday. When I was in my first semester,
Speaker 1: she says, I had heaps of motivation to be ahead
Speaker 1: of schedule. Now I'm only in my second semester, but
Speaker 1: sixteen weeks of the same formulaic assignment structure has kicked
Speaker 1: my motivation in the stomach, she says. Instead of aiming
Speaker 1: to be ahead of school work, I found myself procrastinating
Speaker 1: into the last minute, dreading work and waiting until five
Speaker 1: pm the night that work is due. This listener suspected
Speaker 1: that her lack of motivation came from doing the same
Speaker 1: thing over and over again each week, and she asked
Speaker 1: if I had advice for dealing with her slump in
Speaker 1: a healthy way. I do have some advice, and I
Speaker 1: suspect other listeners will as well. My first question was
Speaker 1: whether it was possible to take a short break. One
Speaker 1: of the upsides of a traditional academic schedule is that
Speaker 1: you'd get a break between semesters, either around the new
Speaker 1: year or over the summer. This provides a break in
Speaker 1: the routine, gives you the opportunity to do something different,
Speaker 1: and by the time you return, you might starting to
Speaker 1: miss school. Many online programs, on the other hand, offer
Speaker 1: courses year round. They assume reasonably that the adults availing
Speaker 1: themselves of these programs want to get through and get done.
Speaker 1: But there's still something to be said for breaks. Our
Speaker 1: listener might consider trying to pace herself a bit as
Speaker 1: she goes through her bachelor's degree program. Second, when you're
Speaker 1: deep in the weeds, it can be easy to lose
Speaker 1: sight of your why. Our listener, no doubt, had a
Speaker 1: very good reason for choosing accounting and choosing to get
Speaker 1: a bachelor's degree. So what was that reason? She can
Speaker 1: remind herself by getting together with friends in the accounting profession,
Speaker 1: or going to an accounting conference, or reading some literature
Speaker 1: related to the topic. She can visualize herself in a
Speaker 1: few years in her new career and what this degree
Speaker 1: is going to enable. As for the day to day
Speaker 1: experience of doing her work, there are a few things
Speaker 1: she can do. She mentioned procrastinating until five pm on
Speaker 1: Sunday when the work was due at midnight, but she
Speaker 1: didn't say that she was ever late with her assignments
Speaker 1: or that she didn't get them done, So potentially seven
Speaker 1: hours is in fact a workable amount of time. She
Speaker 1: could simply accept that this is what she'd like to
Speaker 1: do the work for the remainder of this term. It's
Speaker 1: not an ideal solution, as she could get sick, or
Speaker 1: have car trouble, or have her plumbing spring a leak
Speaker 1: on Sunday night, and then she'd be behind the class,
Speaker 1: but it is a solution. On the other hand, if
Speaker 1: she's finding her procrastination stressful, then she can use some
Speaker 1: of the strategies we talked about a few months ago
Speaker 1: during our Procrastination Week. I recommend scheduling in short work
Speaker 1: sessions most days and then rewarding herself profusely when she finished. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, if she's currently allocating seven hours on Sunday,
Speaker 1: she could do one hour on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,
Speaker 1: and then maybe two on Saturday to on Sunday or
Speaker 1: four on Sunday. Either way, she could set a timer
Speaker 1: and once she's done her with her hour, she can
Speaker 1: do whatever she wants, watch TV, serve the web, call
Speaker 1: a friend, cook something fabulous, go out for ice cream.
Speaker 1: She also might want to consider when she's doing the work.
Speaker 1: A lot of people who are going back to school
Speaker 1: assume that the best time for studying is in the
Speaker 1: evening after work. But the problem is that we're tired.
Speaker 1: Then you've already done so much it can be easy
Speaker 1: to think, well maybe tomorrow. Most people have more discipline,
Speaker 1: energy and focus in the morning, so maybe our listeners
Speaker 1: should try getting up in the morning to work. Instead,
Speaker 1: studying from six thirty to seven thirty or eight am
Speaker 1: three days a week would mean she's approaching her work
Speaker 1: when mentally fresh, even if the work is repetitive. If
Speaker 1: she's got a big cup of coffee and she's spending
Speaker 1: one hour, not seven hours straight on her work, it
Speaker 1: might feel more doable. Listeners, if you've ever found yourself
Speaker 1: in a slump, what have you done to pull yourself out?
Speaker 1: Please let me know your advice for our listener at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. M Hey everybody, I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can send me your tips,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
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Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio,
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