How to motivate yourself to study?

Study motivation for students

Scientifically speaking, the word motivation refers to the internal psychological energy that drives a
person to do something. Our everyday life is dependent on this particular aspect of our psychological
makeup. But here we are going to discuss motivation in terms on studying specifically. Before we talk
about how one can motivate himself to study, we will look into when and how we are motivated, and
then work out the ways, that can be sought to change our attitude towards study.

When a person picks up a book and begins to read, what is it that keeps the reader hooked on to the
book? It is interest. The more interest-arousing a book is, the more you will want to read. Maybe you
have had that experience when you are not in the mood of studying or reading and you randomly start
to turn over pages, but going through pages you find something that is catchy, relatable or something
that you were curious about knowing. From there you keep on reading. All of a sudden you are
motivated to read! Why does it happen? Human beings basically seek rewards, the feeling of satisfaction
when come to learn something they wanted to, because they know in their instincts that someday this
knowledge is going to benefit them in the future.

Many of us have also felt that slight anxiety during or while preparing for exams, which is normal and
nothing to be worry about. Without slight anxiety and this feeling of adrenaline rush many things in life
would be less possible. A person would become an emotionless dull robotic machine thereby. Those
who are well prepared also feel it let alone those who spent their complete years playing games,
watching movies and hanging out with friends, and at the end of the year they want all the syllabus to
be magically crammed and stored in their brains somehow, which is a proof that even if you are not too
much fond of studying, you will still be pushed to prepare for the exams at least. In this case, the low
amount of time left for the exams is what motivates you.

What your brain basically seeking is the reward. Reward does not have to be material thing but can be
satisfaction of passing, or of getting good grades. In the language of psychology, the promise for the
reward that your brain gives you is called the incentive. It is basically the incentives that drive people to
do something. Incentives can be good and also bad. It is indeed these incentives that drive addict people
to carry on with their drugs and also other addictions like game addictions etc. The addict is basically
seeking pleasure even though he knows for sure that he won’t feel the pleasure he felt the first time
indulging in it out of curiosity, but still he does it and gives in to the false promises of the brain. So he is
kept motivated to do the bad things.

However we can make use of this particular aspect of our brain to do the good things. Since we know
that our brain seeks satisfaction and that if we start reading from the part of the book that is more
interest arousing, there is a bigger chance that we will keep on. So indeed the advice is to rummage
through and start from the most interesting part.

Besides motivation one should work upon changing his or her routine for the best. To understand the
point here is an example from chemistry for those who are keen to learn science. Motivation works like
a catalyst in the chemical reaction, but if there are no reactants, or not enough reactants, there is no or
limited reaction. Our daily routine should be such that we have slept enough things are balanced
enough that we do not feel lack of energy or lethargic, otherwise we will only be motivated to lie down,
and recover enough energy in the hand only to pick up a gadget and watch Netflix and whatnot.
 One needs to be brave enough to touch a book and overcome the constant fear that he is not going to
be able to cover the book in time anyway. Some people enter denial phase by ignoring their problems
and rather spend their time scrolling down Facebook posts or watching auto-play Youtube videos one
after another as to forget they have other things to do in life which they are not doing because they
deem those things to be “boring” and “difficult”. They think they are overcoming the problem but the
reality is these defense mechanisms are adding fuel to the fire. When they are done with procrastinating
habits they realize had they utilized the time more productively, things would have been better, when it
is too late and regretting is to no avail. So what needs to be done is to keep your brain relaxed also
because brain can get tired too, and also the strain on your eye muscles can cause them to run out of
energy if you are constantly into using mobile phones or games etc. When you revive your energy after
rest, don’t touch your smartphone, rather hold a book and rummage through pages until you find
something interesting. When you have done so, just start reading and then switch on to the chapters
you need to prepare well. Simple!

Take your time and think about the consequences.

The last but not the least advice is that one should take his/her time and ponder upon or write down
what is going to happen if his or her time is wasted and things are not ready enough before exams, and
what will be the benefits and how satisfied will he or she be to prove himself standing out, if he or she
studies better. This thought itself would be a motivation for one to at least give it a go, because this will
work as an incentive, then once, following the advice given earlier, if a student starts from the parts
which he or she is more curious to learn about, things will get a lot easier, and learning will be fun.