Motivation(?)

The COMM:PAKT tip of the week: Change your routines!

I will probably never forget the question I was asked when I lost the motivation to continue my term papers. The question was: What will happen if you hand in the term papers now? Will you pass? And the answer was “Yes, I would probably pass.”

However, I am a perfectionist and therefore, I could not hand them in. Yet, I did not know how to motivate myself.

So, I’d like to ask you: How do you motivate yourself when you need to do something and you just don’t want to do it? Where do you get your energy from? What is your secret?

Well, I can tell you mine. Change your habits! Don’t stick to every routine. Be open to something new. Try out new strategies.

For instance, I learned about the Pomodoro technique and thought “well, let’s give it a try” and voilà it worked quite well. It allowed me to have fixed time slots to work in and others to dance a little bit (or to just get up a little bit and move around). But I haven’t stuck to this strategy. Now, I have another way of doing my tasks: I plan my whole day and include longer breaks in which I can go for a walk, do some yoga or ride my bike. And what’s new in contrast to last semester is that I’ve changed the position of my working place. The desk has been rearranged so that I work now in a different location somehow.

Sometimes it’s only the little changes. But try it out and you will see that those adjustments often make a huge difference! Let us know what you do and contact us if you are interested in learning more about this topic.

Check out the author: About Nina Grzybowski