Staying Motivated

This semester I’ve been working on writing up my MGeol project which is worth 50% of my fourth year. I don’t have any taught modules this semester, so other than meetings with my supervisor I have very little scheduled contact time. This means that I’ve had to keep myself motivated to work on my project. Of course there’s been some points when it’s been hard to stay motivated, but generally I manage to stay on track using a few simple strategies.

Get into a routine. If you have no scheduled contact time it can be easy to waste time, so it’s good to get yourself into a daily routine of when you work and when you do other things.

Choose where you study best. I find that I work best in university, so do most of my work in the geology 4th year computer room, but other people prefer to work at home or in the library. You’ll get more work done in an environment where you’re comfortable.

Set yourself deadlines. Having one big deadline at the end can seem a bit daunting, so it helps to set yourself smaller deadlines throughout the project to have smaller things to aim for.

Write to do lists. Making a list of individual tasks that need doing as part of the bigger project is helpful. I also find it very satisfying to cross things off the list when they’re finished.

Give yourself breaks. It’s impossible to work 24/7, make sure you take regular breaks. It’s fine to have a day off every once in a while and it will make you more productive afterwards. I find working little and often is a lot better than leaving everything until the last minute.