• How do you motivate yourself to study?
    8 replies, posted
First, in short, my problem. I am studying on Czech Technical University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Bachelor program of Cybernetics and Robotics. At least at national level it's generally referred to as one of the hardest studying programs you can sign onto. I am in third semester of that, currently in exam period, I still have three final exams to go, the nearest on this Friday (Probability, Statistics and Theory of Information), so I have today and tomorrow to prepare. I have pretty solid understanding of the subject in general, but, having access to the older exam tests, I know that I really need to get more stuff into my head to have a good chance of passing on first try. Now, I try to study, I have all the materials ready, I know where to look up everything I need, and, I just can't bloody keep my attention on the thing. It's not that I would be grossly disinterested in the subject, it's not that I have hard time understanding the materials, it's just, I open the script, read three paragraphs, understand everything... and three minutes later I realize I am browsing Facepunch again (no, don't ban me please, I would have asked for perma if I thought it gonna help my studies but I can always find another distraction, Facepunch is just my go-to time waster). I always had ADD-like issues but all the way through the schools up to until the University I just winged everything without the need to really prepare, just based on what I caught by ear at the lessons or looked up out of sheer curiosity. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work at University anymore, and I have three subjects I failed last semester hanging and which I will have to retake eventually. I [I]want[/I] to go through the school, because I [I]want[/I] to pursue career in the field. I [I]want[/I] to live a moderately easy and profitable life (yeah I know engineering ain't easy but it ain't factory labor either). Hell, I [I]want[/I] to know and understand the very subject because it's actually kinda interesting, but, despite all my conscious intentions and positive motivation, the immediate subconscious peace and order of mind required to keep my brain on the admittedly quite complicated and comprehensive subject never last more than a few minutes or a couple hours at the very best. I had people recommend me Amphetamines but I would really prefer to not to get into that kinda thing, even tho I don't judge anybody who does; it's just more of I really don't trust my willpower to keep me from ruining myself with abuse of that stuff. What do [I]you[/I] do to ensure immediate focus? What do [I]you[/I] do to really get what you need to get the immediate kick from your motivations? [editline]14th January 2015[/editline] PS. I have considered to put this into Fast Threads, but I hope it's ok to have it in GD as it's something I believe warrants actual discussion and bit deeper posting than FT usually allows for. Even though the title is a question and I am technically asking for help, I just feel like the topic is simply slightly outside of the scope of FT.
I guess it upends on how much you yourself truly want to succeed, both consciously [i]and[/i] subconsciously. To ensure immediate focus, just remind yourself that if you fail you'll be in your moms basement/on the streets/etc.
I force myself to not go on sites that will be considered distractive. And I use my college network to distract myself not going on FP but right now I have been distracting myself haha. What you can try and do without the need to p'ban yourself is to not go on the forums you frequent and not run Steam. You can set yourself a target to reach in a period of time, which is what I do and I also set reminders for study-time. These are all the things I do, now. And it does kind of change my attitude. You just have to force yourself to study.
[QUOTE=Dermock;46929934]I guess it upends on how much you yourself truly want to succeed, both consciously [i]and[/i] subconsciously. To ensure immediate focus, just remind yourself that if you fail you'll be in your moms basement/on the streets/etc.[/QUOTE] Well of course I am aware that's how it's supposed to work, but it just simply doesn't. I don't understand why it simply doesn't work for me, but let me assure you it's not because I haven't experienced the discomfort of failure, physical hardships, and such. I just feel really disconnected from the reality of these possibilities, or just don't really feel that they really threaten me so much, as in, I think part of me just feels like "well living on the street can't be THAT bad, right?". [editline]14th January 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Digimutant;46929951]I force myself to not go on sites that will be considered distractive. And I use my college network to distract myself not going on FP but right now I have been distracting myself haha. What you can try and do without the need to p'ban yourself is to not go on the forums you frequent and not run Steam. You can set yourself a target to reach in a period of time, which is what I do and I also set reminders for study-time. These are all the things I do, now. And it does kind of change my attitude. [/QUOTE] I forgot I have LeechBlock and turned it off for the Christmas break, oh well, that should work at least a bit, thanks for reminder. Brb in 4 hours.
I basically put loads of websites up relating to the work, shut down steam, Skype and anything else people try to talk to me on. I write a preliminary paragraph, just skimming over what sections I'd want to do work on, and divide it by hour/word limit. I find that by the time that paragraph is over I'm pretty much ready to move onto the real thing.
I motivate myself to study by going on Facepunch and reading threads to give me ideas on how to motivate myself to study Nah actually I usually go to the university library so I can't play games and then I'm usually pissed off enough by all the fucksticks who hog PCs all day long and just browse facebook that I study for a good few hours at a time
Utilize your weaknesses. I've got ADD myself and I know it's a bitch to live with, however just learn to use it with you. Whenever you're reading your studies, and you hit your wall, your personal limit, go google what you're researching. Rather than lurking through Facepunch, lurk through the material on extras that you're reading. I know nothing about robotics so giving an example's difficult, tho' say you're researching gears and you fall over a guy called Alfred Horner, instead of heading onto Facepunch, explore the guy and his background story. It's always good with general knowledge, and I'm sure that if you throw a few names about at an exam then you'll get a bonus for impressive additions.
Create summaries. Then create summaries of summaries. You will often lose attention because you may have like ten pages of material in front of you and you start to question why you should bother. When you take notes in lectures, don't copy the lecturer word for word. Summarise the key points that the lecturer says which you were otherwise unsure about.
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