Surviving year 12

[psych lover]

Hey guys, i'm a newbie so I'm unsure if this is the space where i can ask questions, if it is then yayyyyy....but if it isn't can someone please direct me!
anyways....
Does anyone have any tips to stay motivated during year 12 and to avoid distractions??
also, i'm having trouble sticking to a daily study routine.....any suggestions???

thanks !

[pi]

Struggling to stick to a routine? Ditch the routine! Routines aren't for everyone, I personally preferred having a "to-do" list every day and just slugging through it and not sleeping until it was all done. If I procrastinated one day, then I'd suffer the next with less hours of sleep, so I learnt for next time

[rosecookiie]

Whenever I could not be bothered to study I would always just watch motivational videos on YouTube and that would usually get me in the zone to want to do well.

[Maz]

google ur dream course...like just look it up every time u don't want to study...that motivates me
u need a solid reason to study...give yourself a reason and remind yourself of it 

[tashhhaaa]

google ur dream course...like just look it up every time u don't want to study...that motivates me
u need a solid reason to study...give yourself a reason and remind yourself of it 

this worked for me
I usually procrastinated on the uom website for a bit but it reminds you why you need to study

[JellyBeanz]

this worked for me
I usually procrastinated on the uom website for a bit but it reminds you why you need to study

This is actually exactly what i do haha. Glad i'm not the only one.

[heids]

Once upon a time, I wrote this spiel, essentially a loooooong expansion of tashhhaaa's comment   I probably don't agree with it anymore, but then again, once upon a time I also had a little motivation to study (and I'm hardly going to read it to check)

Spoiler

Find Your 'Why' For Studying

It’s simple.

If you honestly don’t have any reason why you want to study, then don’t. Give up today. Go for it. There’s still demand for tradies.

… But I’m guessing that you’re reading this because you actually do want to study.

So why are you struggling to feel motivated to study?

The issue is that most people just leave their reasons for studying floating vaguely round in their head, and hope they’ll come to the rescue at the right time.

It’s destined for failure.

If you haven’t given yourself concrete, super-clear reasons why you want to study, then in that moment when you’re choosing between a crazy-boring-and-super-long-and-absolutely-incomprehensible-history-task-your-idiot-teacher-forced-on-you and snuggling into that tantalising couch in front of Game of Thrones – then Game of Thrones will win every time.

So in this post, we’re going to look at how to nail down that ‘why’, and how you can channel it to boost your motivation at any time!

Step 1: Find Your ‘Why’ In 15 Minutes

Sit down with a pen-and-paper or blank Word document, and write out all the reasons why you want to study.

Write whatever comes into your head; don’t cull it, don’t judge it, just write it. No matter how stupid or self-evident. Heck, no one’s ever going to read this but you.

It’s fine to start off with ‘I want to do well’ or ‘I want to get into a good course’, but they’re so vague that the sight of a Youtube cat video will send them flying. To get deeper, just keep asking ‘why’. You wrote ‘To get a score good enough to get into Commerce’? Well, why do you want to get into Commerce? Maybe for the income? Okay, but why do you even want that money? And why else do you want Commerce?

Most important, it’s about what motivates YOU personally, not what you think should motivate you or what motivates others. Sometimes it even takes a ‘bad’ reason – like what people will think of you if you fail or wanting revenge on someone – to actually fire you up. That’s totally okay!

So just write and keep writing for 15-30 minutes. Then stop and read. Highlight anything that stands out and really ‘clicks’ for you.

Step 2: Create a mission statement

Now condense this into a few powerful sentences that encapsulate the reasons, YOUR reasons, why you’re studying – your ‘mission statement’.

This is part of a mission statement I had at one point:

    I want the people I admire to respect me and see me as a smart and hardworking person. I want to become a self-disciplined, driven, productive individual – one who’s always learning, growing and pushing herself to her limits.

[And my subconscious but far-too-egotistical-to-write addition: I want the thrill of seeing my name at the top and feelin’ like I’m smarter than dem all.]

It doesn’t matter how long it is, or what it talks about, as long as it’s specific, razor-sharp, and makes you zing. It’s going to be your anchor for the next few months, so spend a bit of time refining it! You’ve got to really care about achieving that mission. Like, really care.

Try pairing it with images of your dream home, your dream career, or your dream ATAR-calc screenshot.

But it’s useless if you don’t read it when you need it. So how can you make sure you keep seeing it?

-    Make it your home screen on your phone or laptop.
-    Turn it into a huge poster for your bedroom wall and school locker – if you can add inspiring images, even better!
-    Laminate a little wallet-sized card to stick in your wallet or phone cover.
-    Turn it into an alert so that sentences from it will pop up a couple of times a day on your phone or laptop.

You’ll get ‘numb’ to it over time, so remember to update the statement when it loses its zing!

Step 3: Visualise it

So next time you can’t muster up the motivation to hunker down to that history homework, stop and pull out your mission statement.

Close your eyes and live the achievement of that mission.

Picture yourself at 7:01 am December 14, staring in unbelief at those numbers. Picture that triumphant moment of looking into the eyes of your vanquished competitor. Picture finally living that dream job and clocking that 6-figure bank account.

Step 4: Be brutally honest

Then look yourself straight in the eyes (figuratively, or a mirror would do ) and say:

‘If I veg in front of the TV right now, then I will FAIL [to get that score and make people respect me]. But it I just spend a bit of time on that history right now, then… I WILL achieve it!’

Seems overdramatic? It’s not. If you think “just this once, tomorrow I’ll…”, you’re kidding yourself. If you made the TV choice today, chances are you’ll make it tomorrow. It’s the tiny, compounding choices that make or break success.

So don’t water it down. Be brutally honest. Think of this moment as the defining moment. Your choice right now will achieve that success, or it will achieve that failure.

And if you really care about reaching that success, then you’ll do the study.

Teaming up with other people who are motivated and hard-working can also work.  Or just for a taste of what works for the (...slightly warped) Heidi [strictly in private]:

Spoiler

Put on this massive grin and try shouting in a super-enthusiastic voice, complete with crazy hand waving and triple italics: ‘I can’t wait to get on to this essay! I get to expose the trickery of this evil author that’s trying to manipulate meeeeeee! This is just going to be awesome!!!’ Join it with a mad sprint to your desk and a flying leap onto your chair as you pull out your essay question, and it’s a killer.  Those exclamation marks just do the trick every time.  For ten minutes at least, anyway, and by then I've got over the starting hump that's the hardest.

About distractions, two key things that work for me:

- Website blockers: Cold Turkey, Self Control, Leechblock for Firefox (this is my personal saviour that, for instance, keeps me off ATARNotes), or StayFocusd for Chrome.

- A distractions log - you've got to promise yourself that any time you feel the urge to do something else (change tasks, start internet browsing, phone etc.) you'll just write it down in a doc/piece of paper and then move back to work.  It works... when I remember to do it.

[Maz]

legitimately the only website i would need to be blocked from is ATAR Notes as far as procrastination goes haha

[psych lover]

This is actually exactly what i do haha. Glad i'm not the only one.

Yesss I also do the same thing, that makes 3 of us!! It actually works to spark up motivation but I spend soo much time doing it coz I get excited for uni hahaha

Struggling to stick to a routine? Ditch the routine! Routines aren't for everyone, I personally preferred having a "to-do" list every day and just slugging through it and not sleeping until it was all done. If I procrastinated one day, then I'd suffer the next with less hours of sleep, so I learnt for next time

Thank you so much!! And I agree, schedules aren't for everyone...definitely not me!

legitimately the only website i would need to be blocked from is ATAR Notes as far as procrastination goes haha

Hahahah yesss I agree! I just registered yesterday and I'm always on it now. It's such an awesome space to share advice...and we can all stress together also haha 

[tashhhaaa]

Once upon a time, I wrote this spiel, essentially a loooooong expansion of tashhhaaa's comment   I probably don't agree with it anymore, but then again, once upon a time I also had a little motivation to study (and I'm hardly going to read it to check)

Spoiler

Find Your 'Why' For Studying

It’s simple.

If you honestly don’t have any reason why you want to study, then don’t. Give up today. Go for it. There’s still demand for tradies.

… But I’m guessing that you’re reading this because you actually do want to study.

So why are you struggling to feel motivated to study?

The issue is that most people just leave their reasons for studying floating vaguely round in their head, and hope they’ll come to the rescue at the right time.

It’s destined for failure.

If you haven’t given yourself concrete, super-clear reasons why you want to study, then in that moment when you’re choosing between a crazy-boring-and-super-long-and-absolutely-incomprehensible-history-task-your-idiot-teacher-forced-on-you and snuggling into that tantalising couch in front of Game of Thrones – then Game of Thrones will win every time.

So in this post, we’re going to look at how to nail down that ‘why’, and how you can channel it to boost your motivation at any time!

Step 1: Find Your ‘Why’ In 15 Minutes

Sit down with a pen-and-paper or blank Word document, and write out all the reasons why you want to study.

Write whatever comes into your head; don’t cull it, don’t judge it, just write it. No matter how stupid or self-evident. Heck, no one’s ever going to read this but you.

It’s fine to start off with ‘I want to do well’ or ‘I want to get into a good course’, but they’re so vague that the sight of a Youtube cat video will send them flying. To get deeper, just keep asking ‘why’. You wrote ‘To get a score good enough to get into Commerce’? Well, why do you want to get into Commerce? Maybe for the income? Okay, but why do you even want that money? And why else do you want Commerce?

Most important, it’s about what motivates YOU personally, not what you think should motivate you or what motivates others. Sometimes it even takes a ‘bad’ reason – like what people will think of you if you fail or wanting revenge on someone – to actually fire you up. That’s totally okay!

So just write and keep writing for 15-30 minutes. Then stop and read. Highlight anything that stands out and really ‘clicks’ for you.

Step 2: Create a mission statement

Now condense this into a few powerful sentences that encapsulate the reasons, YOUR reasons, why you’re studying – your ‘mission statement’.

This is part of a mission statement I had at one point:

    I want the people I admire to respect me and see me as a smart and hardworking person. I want to become a self-disciplined, driven, productive individual – one who’s always learning, growing and pushing herself to her limits.

[And my subconscious but far-too-egotistical-to-write addition: I want the thrill of seeing my name at the top and feelin’ like I’m smarter than dem all.]

It doesn’t matter how long it is, or what it talks about, as long as it’s specific, razor-sharp, and makes you zing. It’s going to be your anchor for the next few months, so spend a bit of time refining it! You’ve got to really care about achieving that mission. Like, really care.

Try pairing it with images of your dream home, your dream career, or your dream ATAR-calc screenshot.

But it’s useless if you don’t read it when you need it. So how can you make sure you keep seeing it?

-    Make it your home screen on your phone or laptop.
-    Turn it into a huge poster for your bedroom wall and school locker – if you can add inspiring images, even better!
-    Laminate a little wallet-sized card to stick in your wallet or phone cover.
-    Turn it into an alert so that sentences from it will pop up a couple of times a day on your phone or laptop.

You’ll get ‘numb’ to it over time, so remember to update the statement when it loses its zing!

Step 3: Visualise it

So next time you can’t muster up the motivation to hunker down to that history homework, stop and pull out your mission statement.

Close your eyes and live the achievement of that mission.

Picture yourself at 7:01 am December 14, staring in unbelief at those numbers. Picture that triumphant moment of looking into the eyes of your vanquished competitor. Picture finally living that dream job and clocking that 6-figure bank account.

Step 4: Be brutally honest

Then look yourself straight in the eyes (figuratively, or a mirror would do ) and say:

‘If I veg in front of the TV right now, then I will FAIL [to get that score and make people respect me]. But it I just spend a bit of time on that history right now, then… I WILL achieve it!’

Seems overdramatic? It’s not. If you think “just this once, tomorrow I’ll…”, you’re kidding yourself. If you made the TV choice today, chances are you’ll make it tomorrow. It’s the tiny, compounding choices that make or break success.

So don’t water it down. Be brutally honest. Think of this moment as the defining moment. Your choice right now will achieve that success, or it will achieve that failure.

And if you really care about reaching that success, then you’ll do the study.

Teaming up with other people who are motivated and hard-working can also work.  Or just for a taste of what works for the (...slightly warped) Heidi [strictly in private]:

Spoiler

Put on this massive grin and try shouting in a super-enthusiastic voice, complete with crazy hand waving and triple italics: ‘I can’t wait to get on to this essay! I get to expose the trickery of this evil author that’s trying to manipulate meeeeeee! This is just going to be awesome!!!’ Join it with a mad sprint to your desk and a flying leap onto your chair as you pull out your essay question, and it’s a killer.  Those exclamation marks just do the trick every time.  For ten minutes at least, anyway, and by then I've got over the starting hump that's the hardest.

That was actually really good i'm going to do my own statement

Ok so I'm gonna tell you guys something I've never told anyone but if it helps someone even a tiny bit I don't care

Spoiler

I actually have my old Dr. Barbie on my desk. Not because I play with dolls at 18 years old lol but because it reminds me that ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to do medicine. Every time I don't do my work I sort of glance at it and remember why I need to get my act together -- because if I don't, I'll never be that toy or achieve that dream. I feel like I owe it to my childhood self to fulfil her dreams. Even if I don't get there, I want to at least feel like I tried. I am a serial procrastinator (one of the worst actually) but I have to keep reminding myself that whatever I'm wasting my time on isn't more important than trying to be a "baby doctor" as I would have said 15 years ago

*drops mic*

What I'm trying to say is that if you need to do something like ^ to motivate you, it's okay. Do literally anything that works.

[psych lover]

Once upon a time, I wrote this spiel, essentially a loooooong expansion of tashhhaaa's comment   I probably don't agree with it anymore, but then again, once upon a time I also had a little motivation to study (and I'm hardly going to read it to check)

Spoiler

Find Your 'Why' For Studying

It’s simple.

If you honestly don’t have any reason why you want to study, then don’t. Give up today. Go for it. There’s still demand for tradies.

… But I’m guessing that you’re reading this because you actually do want to study.

So why are you struggling to feel motivated to study?

The issue is that most people just leave their reasons for studying floating vaguely round in their head, and hope they’ll come to the rescue at the right time.

It’s destined for failure.

If you haven’t given yourself concrete, super-clear reasons why you want to study, then in that moment when you’re choosing between a crazy-boring-and-super-long-and-absolutely-incomprehensible-history-task-your-idiot-teacher-forced-on-you and snuggling into that tantalising couch in front of Game of Thrones – then Game of Thrones will win every time.

So in this post, we’re going to look at how to nail down that ‘why’, and how you can channel it to boost your motivation at any time!

Step 1: Find Your ‘Why’ In 15 Minutes

Sit down with a pen-and-paper or blank Word document, and write out all the reasons why you want to study.

Write whatever comes into your head; don’t cull it, don’t judge it, just write it. No matter how stupid or self-evident. Heck, no one’s ever going to read this but you.

It’s fine to start off with ‘I want to do well’ or ‘I want to get into a good course’, but they’re so vague that the sight of a Youtube cat video will send them flying. To get deeper, just keep asking ‘why’. You wrote ‘To get a score good enough to get into Commerce’? Well, why do you want to get into Commerce? Maybe for the income? Okay, but why do you even want that money? And why else do you want Commerce?

Most important, it’s about what motivates YOU personally, not what you think should motivate you or what motivates others. Sometimes it even takes a ‘bad’ reason – like what people will think of you if you fail or wanting revenge on someone – to actually fire you up. That’s totally okay!

So just write and keep writing for 15-30 minutes. Then stop and read. Highlight anything that stands out and really ‘clicks’ for you.

Step 2: Create a mission statement

Now condense this into a few powerful sentences that encapsulate the reasons, YOUR reasons, why you’re studying – your ‘mission statement’.

This is part of a mission statement I had at one point:

    I want the people I admire to respect me and see me as a smart and hardworking person. I want to become a self-disciplined, driven, productive individual – one who’s always learning, growing and pushing herself to her limits.

[And my subconscious but far-too-egotistical-to-write addition: I want the thrill of seeing my name at the top and feelin’ like I’m smarter than dem all.]

It doesn’t matter how long it is, or what it talks about, as long as it’s specific, razor-sharp, and makes you zing. It’s going to be your anchor for the next few months, so spend a bit of time refining it! You’ve got to really care about achieving that mission. Like, really care.

Try pairing it with images of your dream home, your dream career, or your dream ATAR-calc screenshot.

But it’s useless if you don’t read it when you need it. So how can you make sure you keep seeing it?

-    Make it your home screen on your phone or laptop.
-    Turn it into a huge poster for your bedroom wall and school locker – if you can add inspiring images, even better!
-    Laminate a little wallet-sized card to stick in your wallet or phone cover.
-    Turn it into an alert so that sentences from it will pop up a couple of times a day on your phone or laptop.

You’ll get ‘numb’ to it over time, so remember to update the statement when it loses its zing!

Step 3: Visualise it

So next time you can’t muster up the motivation to hunker down to that history homework, stop and pull out your mission statement.

Close your eyes and live the achievement of that mission.

Picture yourself at 7:01 am December 14, staring in unbelief at those numbers. Picture that triumphant moment of looking into the eyes of your vanquished competitor. Picture finally living that dream job and clocking that 6-figure bank account.

Step 4: Be brutally honest

Then look yourself straight in the eyes (figuratively, or a mirror would do ) and say:

‘If I veg in front of the TV right now, then I will FAIL [to get that score and make people respect me]. But it I just spend a bit of time on that history right now, then… I WILL achieve it!’

Seems overdramatic? It’s not. If you think “just this once, tomorrow I’ll…”, you’re kidding yourself. If you made the TV choice today, chances are you’ll make it tomorrow. It’s the tiny, compounding choices that make or break success.

So don’t water it down. Be brutally honest. Think of this moment as the defining moment. Your choice right now will achieve that success, or it will achieve that failure.

And if you really care about reaching that success, then you’ll do the study.

Teaming up with other people who are motivated and hard-working can also work.  Or just for a taste of what works for the (...slightly warped) Heidi [strictly in private]:

Spoiler

Put on this massive grin and try shouting in a super-enthusiastic voice, complete with crazy hand waving and triple italics: ‘I can’t wait to get on to this essay! I get to expose the trickery of this evil author that’s trying to manipulate meeeeeee! This is just going to be awesome!!!’ Join it with a mad sprint to your desk and a flying leap onto your chair as you pull out your essay question, and it’s a killer.  Those exclamation marks just do the trick every time.  For ten minutes at least, anyway, and by then I've got over the starting hump that's the hardest.

About distractions, two key things that work for me:

- Website blockers: Cold Turkey, Self Control, Leechblock for Firefox (this is my personal saviour that, for instance, keeps me off ATARNotes), or StayFocusd for Chrome.

- A distractions log - you've got to promise yourself that any time you feel the urge to do something else (change tasks, start internet browsing, phone etc.) you'll just write it down in a doc/piece of paper and then move back to work.  It works... when I remember to do it.

OMG YOU ARE AMAZING!!!! Thank you so much! These are great ideas, I'm going to start working on my mission statement now! Honestly, this is such great advice. Thanks again!!! 

[psych lover]

That was actually really good i'm going to do my own statement

Ok so I'm gonna tell you guys something I've never told anyone but if it helps someone even a tiny bit I don't care

Spoiler

I actually have my old Dr. Barbie on my desk. Not because I play with dolls at 18 years old lol but because it reminds me that ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to do medicine. Every time I don't do my work I sort of glance at it and remember why I need to get my act together -- because if I don't, I'll never be that toy or achieve that dream. I feel like I owe it to my childhood self to fulfil her dreams. Even if I don't get there, I want to at least feel like I tried. I am a serial procrastinator (one of the worst actually) but I have to keep reminding myself that whatever I'm wasting my time on isn't more important than trying to be a "baby doctor" as I would have said 15 years ago

*drops mic*

What I'm trying to say is that if you need to do something like ^ to motivate you, it's okay. Do literally anything that works.

That is pretty cool! And you're studying at Melbourne now...my absolute dream!!! Are you still interested in medicine???

[tashhhaaa]

That is pretty cool! And you're studying at Melbourne now...my absolute dream!!! Are you still interested in medicine???

yeah of course, I'm probably doing the wrong undergrad but I'll try to make it work

good luck, study hard and you'll
be at Melbourne too