School is over. You know you should get to work on homework and college applications, but you just don’t feel like doing it. You feel worn out and lazy. You scroll through Instagram, send some snaps, watch a couple episodes of a TV show…all of a sudden it’s 10 pm and you haven’t done anything significant. You feel a wave a disappointment crashing over you as you realize that it’s going to be another one of those late nights again.
Since senior year started, I have found it increasingly difficult to find motivation, like many other seniors. It’s really easy to be caught in a cycle of procrastination with the struggle between balancing sleep, social life, school, college applications, and premature senioritis. I end up getting a lot less sleep than I should be getting with low productivity with a pile of homework assignments and college essays yet to be finished, barely getting by.
This needs to change. Not only are you constantly stressed from a list of unfinished obligations, but you are living a disappointing and unhappy life. The solution? Finding the right strategy. This is key to increasing productivity and satisfaction.
I think its really important to find little something that motivates you and keeps you focused on work when you feel distracted. This can be a small incentive or reward or possibly some sort of inspiration. Today, I want to talk about my method to find my motivation, essentially a review of one of my favorite Instagram/Youtube accounts.
A while ago, I started to look into bullet journaling. I was already trying to use a planner to organize my life, but it still seemed pretty difficult to transition to bullet journaling. Essentially, a bullet journal is a dot-grid journal in which you create your own customized planner from scratch. It is specifically tailored to your personal needs, something that planners don’t really provide freedom for.
One of the first Instagram accounts I discovered primarily for inspiration in bullet journaling was @studyquill. The owner of the account, Jasmine, is also currently also a senior in high school. Her account is a studygram, which is an Instagram account dedicated to note-taking, bullet journaling, and calligraphy. Through her posts, I found that I really love her style of taking notes, which became a personal motivation.
As a person obsessed with creating an aesthetic lifestyle, her notes became an inspiration for me to focus on note-taking. Instead of taking it as work, I see note-taking as a way of incorporating creativity and experimenting with art. By turning note-taking from a tedious task to a positive task I enjoy, I became more motivated to take notes.
For those that may not be as interested in using the aesthetics of note-taking, Jasmine also has a Youtube channel under the same name. Her channel features helpful academics-related videos on how to study, college talks, reviews on stationary, bullet journal layouts, and much more. The variety of videos range from more serious studying videos to videos to watch for fun.
I really enjoy her videos about academic advice, study tips, and also bullet journal planning. These videos are short, concise, and simple, perfect for a short study break. She breaks down the video content into easy-to-follow steps that make the topic of the video seem very achievable. You end up thinking “hmm…I think I can do that. It doesn’t seem too difficult to try.” and consequently form a mindset motivating you to take action to improve your lifestyle and study habits.
One of my all-time favorite videos on her channel is the video “How to Stop Procrastinating”. Jasmine breaks down techniques to prevent procrastination in concise and simple steps. By providing this clear structure, she makes these strategies seem very attainable, given you have the desire and drive to stop procrastinating. As you watch her video, the simplicity in which she describes techniques really motivates you to take action and change your habits.
Out of the entire video, my favorite strategy she describes is the two-minute rule. Basically, you set a timer for two minutes and you try to work as best as you possibly can for the two minutes. If you still are distracted, you try the same method on another task. However, you will most likely want to continue working. Jasmine mentions that this is because of psychological barriers such as overthinking the difficulty of the task, but once you get started, you realize that the work wasn’t as bad as you thought it was in the first place.
In addition, Jasmine also talks about common mistakes and reasons why you procrastinate. I feel like this especially helps procrastinators like myself gain a stronger understanding of this problem we have. She also gives simple and easy strategies to motivate you to overcome these specific difficulties.
How will you overcome procrastination? If you want to learn more about procrastination and additional strategies on how to effectively overcome it, here is Jasmine’s video linked below:
Additionally, here is a link to studyquill’s Youtube Channel for more of Jasmine’s videos.
Happy Studying!
ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
Works Cited
Shao, Jasmine. “How to Stop Procrastinating.” YouTube. 8 September 2017, youtu.be/qbgnmDNyheU.
Shao, Jasmine. Photo of statistics notes. Instagram. 28 September 2019,www.instagram.com/p/B29RJ3sg-qM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link.
I’ve only heard of creating a bullet journal a couple times but when you touched on it it seemed like a useful tool for procrastination prevention. The habit breaking ideas will be very useful! What were the most helpful tools for you?
Hi Sophie! I found the most helpful tool for me to prevent procrastination was to kind of scare myself with my workload. So basically, I would list out everything I had to do when I got home: homework, studying, college apps, chores, basically anything (but prioritize). By listing things out, I would realize that I needed to get things done. To get myself moving, I would use the two-minute rule I mentioned in the post and reward myself with little treats as I got things done. The habit trackers are a physical representation of my progress, and they would also motivate me because it would really show if I slacked.
This post summed up my entire senior year thus far. Every night my backpack was abandonded on the floor until about 12:30, at that point I wrote out everything that NEEDED to get done and then cross off half of it. After doing maybe 2 assignments I called it a night promising I would get up early.
Spoiler: I never did!
This is not only relatable to me, it is also a problem that as you said, most seniors have. I too have had to look to the internet for solutions and came across a different method. No tech periods.
For 2.5 hours a night (5:30-7 and 8:30-9:30)I now do my home work with no tech. No phone, no computers, no TV, no tablet, no kindle, no radio, NOTHING.
And honestly it is amazing how much more I have gotten done by prioritizing. I will definitley hve to look into that 2 minute idea and finding different ways to organize my life.
Hi Haley! I relate to you so much! I can never get more than a couple of assignments done each night, so I totally understand your struggle. I like the idea of the no tech periods, but the unfortunate part is when you have to use your laptop for homework, which kinda ruins it. I hope the 2-minute idea was helpful and I wish you tons of luck on fighting procrastination!
I love the beginning of this blog and it really grabbed my attention because I feel like, unfortunately, I can extremely relate to this! The way you went about tackling the issue of procrastination I think was very creative and I love how you were able to share this awesome influencer who really gave you tips for procrastination to your audience. I think one critique would be, while it is great to hear about this girl’s tips, to maybe summarize less of her “How To Stop Procrastinating Video” and spend more of your time somewhere else. It’s fairly easy for your reader to click on this girl’s video(thanks for linking it!) and watch the video and basically skip past everything you wrote about because they heard it in the video. I really love the topic and creativity though and I think the general idea is great for your intended audience!
Hi Gabby! Thanks for your feedback! I’m glad you liked the post!