Vilnius Tech psychologists Gintė Gudzevičiūtė and Gabija Čeledinaitė

As the second exam session under lockdown shows, studying during the pandemic did not get easier. On the contrary, more and more students have expressed difficulties to concentrate, anxiety, tiredness and general lack of motivation. Some of the students are preparing for the exams step by step throughout the year while for others the time before exams becomes more tense than ever. How to ease it? Where can the motivation to finish the necessary tasks come from?
 
Work – life balance under the lockdown

One important thing to keep yourself motivated is not to become exhausted. Take care of your wellbeing: create yourself such environment and routine where it would be easy to find some time for resting.

Breaks and exercise. Have a few breaks during the day: at least once every hour of studies get off your chair, do some stretching, look out the window. When you move, your blood flow is boosted, you feel less sleepy and your brain can operate in bigger capacity. Even 3 minutes is enough – after a break you will feel less tension in your body, and it will be easier to concentrate.
 
Plan your time. Planning your work is important. Make sure you set a realistic deadline for each task. Knowing the real deadlines you can make up your own ones a couple of days earlier to avoid the last-minute anxiety. In addition, planning helps you to get better at prioritizing. So at first ask yourself how many hours a day you can be productive at mental work, and then put the most important tasks on your calendar. Only then, add the tasks that are of second or third importance. 
When planning your days and weeks, pay attention not only to the work that has to be done, but also plan some rest time for yourself. It is important to get enough sleep, so set the consistent time when you wake up and go to bed every day. It is recommended to sleep for 7 to 9 hours every day. You might feel sleepy and tired when sleeping too long. Also, add some activities that are pleasant for you: online party with friends, reading a book, meditation, sports, etc.

Motivation. Most of the students say that it is impossible to study when they do not feel motivated. In fact, waiting for the motivation (or the right moment) to come to start something in your life, is a bit mystical. Motivation is not something that you can enhance by waiting for it. And it is common for the motivation to diminish when there is an overload of tasks, to-do lists and anxiety.

We can help ourselves by simply starting. If you have a long list of tasks due tomorrow, take the easiest one and do it. A sense of accomplishment works as a great motivation boost. If you have a task that you have been postponing for a while, tell yourself that you will do it the first thing in the morning, and leave yourself no choice the moment you wake up. This method is called “eating the frog”. After you get your most undesirable task off the list, everything else will seem easier, and even the task you did will not seem as scary after it is done. 

When a student has a big paper to write or has to devote many hours for studying, it might be scary to even start. One exercise can ease a situation: if you have a big job to do, give yourself only 15 minutes to do it (for example, 15 minutes for reading your notes or a book, 15 minutes to spend on solving math problems). Working for only 15 minutes does not seem to be that scary, therefore will be easier to bring oneself to start studying. During these 15 minutes of “warming up” a person usually grows some curiosity and interest that help continue studying. 

Reward. Think about something nice that you can reward yourself with after completing the task. It can be a tasty muffin, going out for a walk while the sun is shining, a phone call with your cousin or literally anything thet brings you joy. Allow yourself to feel the pleasure after you complete a difficult task, and next time your brain will remember that it is worth it.

Another way of thinking about the reward would be reminding yourself of how this time spent on studying might be useful and helpful for your future. Maybe you are studying because you wish to learn new skills? Maybe new skills and broad knowledge will help you be a better specialist in the future, get your desired job or internship placement? Things that inspire us to try harder and pursue our dreams can affect our attitude towards work and studying. Think of things and dreams that inspire you. Try to remind yourself, what your long-term goal was when you were choosing to invest your time and resources to study.