How to Make Yourself Study When You Have Zero Motivation

Bạn có thể có một số nhiệm vụ đang nhìn từ lá cây của bạn từ bàn làm việc của bạn ngay bây giờ, nhưng hãy suy nghĩ về việc làm bất kỳ công việc nào trên nhiệm vụ đó ngay bây giờ là cuối cùng trong lệnh đầu cấm. bởi vì bạn thực sự không có động lực để làm nó…

If you’re feeling that you have no motivation to do something. you’re not alone. I feel that way all the time. I run into a situation where I have to do something and I have basically no motivation to do it. So this is a pretty common problem. Now within the realm of productivity, there are both long term fixes and short term fixes. And for a problem like this, a problem of motivation, long term fixes would be things like building better self-discipline or building strong habits or creating a better study space. But today I wanna focus on the short term fixes. If you have something that you need to get done today, but you're feeling completely unmotivated, what can you do? Well, today I'm gonna go through a four-step process that I go through every single time that I'm feeling this way. And through personal experience over several years, I have learned that doing these things really does help, even if my brain tells me that, this time I really am having an off day. This time it’s not going to work. When I actually take the time and put in the effort to put these things into practice, they really do help.

1. Go outside and go for a walk.

This is probably the simplest practice on the list. But it's also the one that my brain always tries to convince itself that it doesn't need to do. Because when I have a lot of work to do, the thought of getting up from my desk and going outside, seems like a huge waste of time. But every single time that I do it, when I'm feeling unmotivated or I'm dealing with brain fog, it always helps to raise my motivation levels and clear my head. I could send you all sorts of scientific evidence about why this is true. For instance, Dr. John Ratey's book, "Spark," goes into all sorts of detail about how exercise raises your cognitive abilities after you do it. And there are also studies that show that Vitamin D, which you get primarily through sunlight exposure, can help with symptoms of fatigue And there's also the Japanese concept of Shinrin-Yoku, or forest bathing, which asserts that exposure to nature, you know forests and trees can have all sorts of health benefits. But the main thing I want to share here is my personal experience with this practice. Because my ability to focus is always 100% of the time improved when I choose to go for a walk. Or to be more accurate, whenever I choose to go outside and do any kind of exercise. Could be playing basketball or skateboarding. The reason I chose to focus on walking is that it's easy. You don’t need any equipment. You don’t need a basketball. You don’t need a bike. And you can even do it if it’s cold.

2. Decide on one specific task to work on.

If you have a to-do list with multiple items on it, put it away. You need to commit to a single task and you don't want that to-do list to be a temptation to jump to something else once it gets difficult. It’s all about committing. Imagine a hamster ball with three different hamsters in it. If all those hamsters are trying to go their own little separate direction, then that hamster ball is going to go nowhere. But if they all decide to go in one direction, well they’re probably going to trip all over each other because hamster balls were not designed for multiple hamsters, but luckily your brain is not a hamster ball. And when you decide on one specific direction to go in and you commit to it, you make progress. Now you can make this commitment purely mental. But I also find that it sometimes works to pull out a scrap of paper and write down the task that you decide to work on, so that way it can be sitting next to you on your desk and constantly reminding you if you start to forget.

3. Clear to neutral.

This means to clear up your workspace, your desk, and your desktop on your computer, and setting that space back to a state where it’s prepped for that single task you decided to work on and nothing else. When your work area is organized and set up for the task that you have decided on, you are going to work on that task a lot more effectively.

4. The low effort hack.

This is a useful little mental hack that I use, on pretty much, a daily basis. Because usually when I feel mental resistance to a task, like writing a blog, that mental resistance is usually because of how difficult it is to do the task well. If I’m writing a blog, usually I feel resistance writing the next paragraph because I feel like it needs to have a wordplay or a funny reference. And when I’m researching, I know that it’s gonna be difficult to actually find the scientific studies that will back up what I’m trying to write. But, and this is where the whole low effort thing comes in, what isn’t difficult is just writing what’s on the top of my mind right now. If I can’t come up with a joke or a reference that will make the segment I’m writing funnier, that’s fine. I’ll just write what’s in my head right now and I’ll come back and make it funnier later. And it’s the exact same story when I’m referencing research. If I really don’t want to go find the exact source or that one fact that I’m trying to reference, then I won’t. In the script, I’ll put in brackets and all caps, reference that one study and figure out where it came from, and then I’ll do that later. Now doing this means that you’re creating something that you’re gonna have to come back and fix later on. But that’s okay. Remember the blank page is the enemy. It’s far easier to come back and fix an imperfect mess, later on, then it is to create something perfect from scratch on the first try. Remember the blank page is the enemy. It’s far easier to come back and fix an imperfect mess, later on, then it is to create something perfect from scratch on the first try. Even if you feel like today is an off day, just use that low effort hack and put some time in. There is a big difference between your state of mind before you start working and your state of mind once you’re in the flow state. Once you're emersed in your project. The trick is just getting yourself there.