Absolutely no one wants to sit down and do homework, but it’s a necessary evil. It can be extremely hard to motivate yourself to get it done, especially if you’re a chronic procrastinator like me. Luckily, I’ve devised a few ways to trick myself into doing homework, which I will share with you now. You are a dog, your homework is the pill, and these tips are the cheese wrapped around it. Does that make sense? Here goes!
- Start homework the day it’s assigned
This is a great way to trick yourself into getting ahead! You don’t actually have to do the thing yet, but it feels good to convince yourself you’re ahead of the game. if you outline your paper or do one of your readings, then in a few days when it’s actually time to work on it, you’ve given yourself a nice little head start.
- Set reasonable goals for how much you’ll get done
Trick yourself into feeling good about what you’ve accomplished by accomplishing less than what you actually have to do! It’s tempting to write out all 25 things you have to do by the end of the week and plan to knock out as many as possible by the end of the night. However, that’s an easy way to overwhelm yourself. Don’t do it! Write out MAX 4 things you think you can realistically get done by tomorrow, and you’ll feel great when you accomplish them all. I also suggest knocking the easy stuff out of the way, and/or doing little bits of larger assignments.
- Set a timer for 20 minutes
My friend and I were having a study bool and we absolutely could not focus, so I decided to set a timer for 20 minutes where we’d totally focus on our work. When the timer hit 15 minutes, I turned it off, but we were so focused that we kept working for another hour (she totally forgot we ever set a timer.) This is a hard trick to pull on yourself when you’re alone, but you’ll find that even if you leave the timer on and it rings, you’ll be so focused that you won’t want to stop.
- Plan to reward yourself when you finish
Promise yourself that as soon as you get everything done, you’ll do something fun. Get some mochi ice cream from Whole Foods. Have your friends over for a movie and face masks. If you’re looking forward to something at the end of your study session, you’ll be way more motivated to get your work over with.
Happy (ish) studying! 😉
