How to Stay Motivated at Home

Have you ever woken up with the feeling that you didn’t want to get out of bed due to a lack of motivation to do anything?

Or, perhaps you felt the opposite: you might have felt really excited to do lots of things but ended up getting distracted? Maybe your friend sent you a meme and now you find that you’ve spent the whole day scrolling through Instagram or watching TikToks. Sound familiar?

As the day passes by, your motivation for that task, especially if it’s school related, may fade away.

Despite the pandemic, I still have coursework and exams to prepare for and sometimes it can be difficult to stay motivated, especially while you’re stuck at home. Yesterday, I sat at my desk trying to write an essay and managed to write 2 sentences before I started to spin around on my chair looking at the ceiling for 30 minutes!

Here are 3 of my top tips on how you can stay motivated:

1.     Create a routine. Try to organise your week and the tasks you would like to get done. Be flexible with this too, it’s ok to change your routine to adapt to how you’re feeling that day. I also like to set myself one goal for the day (e.g. write 250 words for my essay). It may seem small at the time but by the end of the week I will have achieved 5-7 goals. A little work each day goes a long way!

2.     Get others involved. FaceTime your friends and do things together! My friends and I divide topics between us, create revision resources for them, and share this with each other. It can help to reduce your workload and motivate you to help others who go to school with you.

3.     Make time to do the things you enjoy! Whether it be playing games, watching films or spending time with your family. Try to use this as a motivation for you be productive or to learn something new. For example, I enjoy dance in my free time so I try to learn a new routine each week that I can show my family.

I know it’s hard, and it may take some time, but motivation is still possible! I hope that these top tips can kick things off for you.

Stay safe and motivated! :)

Paula Kastrati, CoachBright Academic Coach