Beat procrastination: How to motivate yourself to study during self-isolation

The latest events have made social distancing and quarantine commonplace worldwide as governments make rigorous efforts to fight and prevent the spread of coronavirus outbreaks. All these sudden changes can be detrimental to your mental health, let alone finding enough motivation to keep your study routine going.

Adapting from your old habits to a new working and studying environment, which doubles up as a study/live space with housemates, can be troubling. A recent survey from the medical journal The Lancet states that the psychological effects of quarantine and self-isolation can be huge, resulting in a wide range of concerns in mental health, from anger, anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances.

However, as more and more individuals have to face the prospects of many weeks of quarantine and social distancing, people should sort out their own ways of preserving mental health.

Luckily, with abundant information within your reach and additional time, finding the necessary motivation should be possible, especially if you already have well-rooted goals.

If you find it challenging to get started or sustain your already devised plans, here are some tips on boosting your motivation and keeping your study routine going in these trying times.

Manage Your Time

The way we use our time matters more than you’d think. A sure way to beat procrastination and regain your motivation is to stay committed for some time. Remember a few months ago when all you’ve ever wanted was a bit more time in the day. Now that you have plenty, where are you going to use it?

Plan specific times for studying and for breaks. Your brain doesn’t require more than 25 or 30 minutes to study and only 5 to 10 minutes for a break, depending on your needs. Additionally, to your study routine, if your brain works better with rewards, don’t forget to use them. This is considered to be one of the best ways on how to get motivated and maintain focus while studying.

Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer-prize winner reporter and author of The Power of Habit, a book about habit formation or motivational speaker agency, mentioned in one of his chapters that the best way to form a good habit and stay committed to specific goals for a certain amount of time is to use cravings as rewards. Thus, when planning your studying schedule, using your favorite beverage, sweets, or activity as a reward after you’ve completed a task can inspire you to perform better and longer. 

Track your progress

Many fall victim to procrastination and loss of motivation because we often forget how to reward and track our progress. If you’re not already doing it, record all the topics you have covered in your study program.

You can use notebook apps such as Evernote, Google Keep, or Dropbox Paper to note and save everything you do daily related to your study routine. Whenever you start losing motivation, review your notes and appreciate how much you’ve already achieved.

If you’ve studied every day or a couple of days every week, you’ve achieved a lot during this time. Learn to appreciate your efforts no matter how small they are because, at times, doing something is way better than doing nothing.

Get in touch with those who have the skills to support your efforts

This might come in handy if, during this period, you’ve lost both your energy and motivation to keep up with your study plan.

Unless you ask for support, those uncertain feelings will harm your motivation. Getting professional advice during this can be essential for assimilating information and maintaining your study schedule.

The good news is that even though the latest events have caused over 29 countries to close schools nationwide, e-learning companies and experienced online tutors have filled the educational hole, helping hundreds of students to prolong their studies while in self-isolation.

Stay Committed to Your Goals

Whether your overall goals are to improve your skills or to score better grades, try to visualize your aim whenever you feel overwhelmed by the complexity of a task. Goals can be pretty lofty and often take years, so staying inspired and committed can be difficult.

You get what you focus on, so focus on what you want

Often, we live to accomplish that one thing. Maybe that’s a published book, a doctorate, a new car, or simple things like reaching the peak of Mount Everest. These are all great goals to accomplish, but if you change your aim too often, you lose your progress and never reach the finish line. Focus on a goal until you achieve it.

Nourish Your Passion

The primary drive to accomplish a specific task may be based on environmental and genetic conditions. Still, for some individuals, the fulfillment of achieving a particular goal is what drives them to improve. You are halfway there if you have already fallen in love with your goals. It goes without saying that a person with a passion can wake up every morning with enough motivation to do what they want in life.

Procrastination or the silent killer is one of the biggest limitations to our goals. We all talk about accomplishing something, but when managing our time more efficiently, we simply can’t accomplish those things.

However, a great way to maintain a rigorous study plan and curb procrastination is to become completely aware of what needs to be done. Thus, if you establish clear goals, learn to prioritize your time better, and organize your stuff, you’ll destroy any inclination to procrastinate.

The hardest part is simply getting started. But if you learn to properly allocate time for your study and reward yourself after every achievement, you’ll most likely keep going.