Getting Motivated & Handling Stress
Things on this page:
Making things feel less overwhelming
Your teachers actually want you to do well, even if it means you are turning things in late or need extra help to understand something they've already explained (I promise). GO TALK TO THEM! ( or if it's too scary, ask your Counselor so they can help you talk to them😊)
Is your brain feeling so full that it just doesn't want to think about it at all? (click here)
Write it ALL down
No really- I'm serious... take a minute to write down every single thing you need to do. The fun things, the not-fun things, school stuff, family commitments... EVERYTHING !!
A big part of what makes having a million things to do feel so overwhelming is that it becomes tangled together in your brain and hard to keep track of.
Have you ever tried to untangle headphone cords or holiday lights? That's what trying to keep track of everything using only your mind feels like.
Write down what you're already doing about it. For many of your To-Do's you probably already have plans or things you're doing about them. If you have a plan, write it next to it.
Cross things off when you're done with them. Physically crossing things off on paper helps you cross them off in your brain as well. Being able to see things taken off your list and visually see your progress helps to decrease your stress.
brain hack: If your to-do list is long and overwhelming, re-make it with the most important things at the top (worth a lot of points/due soonest), and then use a post-it or a piece of paper to cover up everything except the top three
How to: Make things LESS stressful
Organization = less thinking 😱
If you only have so much attention span, spending a lot of time trying to:
find things
remember what you need to do
get your materials together
It uses up the energy you would've used for getting things done- so let's do ourselves a favor and give ourselves less work.
1. Picking Where to start
When everything feels important, what do we prioritize?
Well... What is due soonest? What's worth the most points? What class do you need to pay extra attention to right now?
2. Start with an easy goal... (aka Break Big tasks into Little tasks)
Is 'write the essay' too overwhelming as a goal? Set a smaller/easier goal to help you begin.
Try "I'm going to write the introduction" or "I'm going to put all of my information into a basic outline"
Get specific
Don't leave your to-do list at 'Do Science Project.' What things do you need to do to get your Science Project done?
Don't forget the best part... Crossing things off when you're done!!
Motivating your Stubborn Self
2. Set a Time to Start (& be flexible, but not TOO flexible)
We all fall victim to it... We say, "I'll start at 3:30" but if, by the time we look at the clock, it's 3:32, we decide to pick a new time to start- a later time- because we 'missed' the time we originally picked.
set an alarm for a minute or two before your start time- give yourself a notification that it's almost time so that you can mentally prepare to get started at your chosen time and be aware that it's coming up!
Don't have a phone to set an alarm on? Use an alarm website
brain hack- pick a weird time to start, like :23 or :37; they make it less likely that we'll feel the need to 'try again' to start at a specific time
brains love the idea of starting on the hour or half-hour mark, but when we pick those times, we are more likely to want to wait for the next one if we miss the exact time
3) If I _______, then I can ________. also known as... bribing yourself 😎
Make deals with yourself- Is there something you know you want to do? Something you know will help you get things finished faster? Use it!
P.s. If you don't know how to do something, your next step is to ask about how to do it.
Email your teacher and/or school counselor and tell them you're confused. That way, they will know that the reason something didn't get done was because you needed help.
"Inside the Mind of a... Procrastinator" 🧠
"Do the Thing! A Pep Talk Song" 🦸
"How to Stop Procrastinating"
⏰ Staying Focused
Staying focused on things we aren't excited to do is hard.
Brains are wired to seek out the things they find most enjoyable, and in a world full of videos, games, and instant searches, math homework isn't usually what our brains want to focus on.
SO sometimes we need to give them a little help to keep them focused on those less preferred tasks.
1) Using Visual Reminders
Getting distracted happens, having things we can reference so we remember what we're working on
Keep a list of what you're working on and when it needs to be done before to help you prioritize.
2) Dedicate a place for you specifically to work in that's low on distractions (and isn't somewhere where you relax or sleep)
Keep what you need (i.e. computers, pencils, chargers, etc.) close to where you do it so you don't have to interrupt your work to go get them.
Having separate working and relaxing spaces will also help make sure you don't feel like you're at school when you're in your relaxation zones, making it easier to stay less stressed
Understanding the Breakdown
Sometimes it can feel hard to care about assignments because, as much as we know they make up our grades, it can be hard to visualize how they do.
For those of you who like video games, try thinking about the points you earn in your class as your health points. If you miss an assignment, you lose points. By making up the assignment, you can heal back some of your points!
It can also be hard, when you're told you have a certain percentage in a class (ex: 75%), to know what that means in terms of what grade you're currently getting. SO here is a handy dandy chart that says what percentages fall under what letter grades!
The Usual Grading Scale
A 90-100%
B 80-89%
C 70-79%
D 60-69%
F 0-59%
Pay Attention to Your Grades
This one seems like an 'of course,' but for many of us, it's not our first impulse to check and look at how much our grades go up and down every week. By practicing checking how we are doing in our classes often (like once a week), it helps our awareness of seeing how our hard work can impact our grades and can help us know if what we're currently doing is working or not.
Knowing when things are happening and setting MicroGoals
When you have a certain date in your brain that things need to get done by, you are more likely to getting around to doing them, especially if you're someone who relies on that last-minute procrastination panic to get things done. Being aware of timelines can be a great motivator.
Unfortunately, leaving EVERYTHING up to that last-minute panic can make us shut down or make it so that the work we do isn't very good (just very fast. That's where setting mini-deadlines aka Micro Goals for yourself can be helpful.