It’s easy to lose motivation when you have competing priorities and the fatigue of juggling these priorities sets in, especially if you’re not completing a professional experience placement that semester to remind you of your ‘why’. We recently asked a panel of preservice and new teachers for their tips on how they beat study procrastination to stay motivated throughout their degree.
Find your crew
The old saying 'birds of feather flock together' has never been truer than when you’re studying, and this is certainly the case for Annette and Kelly who say it is critical to find a good study team.
Annette, 3rd year preservice teacher
‘Surrounding yourself with people who want the same things out of their study as you do will help you to stay on track, give you an outlet to talk through assignments or prac experiences and provide you with support in those moments when self-doubt begins to creep in,’ Annette said.
Kelly, 3rd year preservice teacher
‘Within my online study group, we keep each other motivated by encouraging, nagging and, sometimes, racing each other to complete assignments!
My biggest tip is 'find your people'. Open up to the people in your lecture or online tutorial. Be assertive. Set up a Facebook page or a group chat with like-minded students. The 8 other women in my study group have become an extension of my family in the last 2 years. They are my favourite part of study and I know that we will be together in our journey towards teaching and beyond,’ Kelly said.
Set a timer
We all know that getting started on any task can often be the most challenging, especially when feeling overwhelmed. Preservice teachers Isabella and Ann-Maree have 2 very different but effective ways of working.
Isabella, 3rd year preservice teacher
Self-proclaimed procrastinator and third-year preservice teacher, Isabella will bake, binge TV and do anything else except her assignments when she feels overwhelmed.
‘I find setting up timers and breaking down my workload a good way to avoid procrastination. I typically set a time to start and finish my assignment work for the day and then give myself allocated ‘me’ time. I find that by working this way, I get more assignment work done, and don’t burn out as easily,’ she said.
Ann-Maree, 2nd year preservice teacher
On the other hand, second-year preservice teacher Ann-Maree has found success with the Pomodoro technique to curb her procrastination.
‘This is a simple technique where I set the stopwatch on my phone and study for a solid 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break before getting back into study for another 25 minutes. This works for me because I feel overwhelmed thinking about the time I’ll be sitting at my computer to study. If I know I have a scheduled break (and soon!), I find it easier to get started and stay on task.'
Immerse yourself in the profession
Bronte, 2nd year preservice teacher
First year preservice teacher, Bronte’s advice is simple, and we couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
‘Immerse yourself in the profession (whether that’s in-person or online). I have met and follow many inspiring teachers who remind me why I chose this wonderful path!’ she said.
Celebrate your successes
Daniel, recently graduated
Former online student and now graduate-teacher Daniel knows all too well how difficult it can be to stay motivated while studying. For him, concentrating on achieving the small steps has been a successful strategy.
‘If you manage study, content and assessment in small blocks throughout the day and intertwine ‘mini-breaks’ or small rewards, it can counteract fatigue and cognitive overload. Find that little reward system to look forward to and allow yourself to it for staying on task and keeping on schedule.
I never looked at the overall scale of how much needed to be done to finish the degree but rather at a day-to-day and week-to-week scenario to stay on-top of everything and not get overwhelmed by an entire workload,’ he said.
We hope these tips help you to have a successful semester. If you need some inspiration to keep you going throughout the semester, check out
James’s story.