Life is exhausting. It’s as simple as that. We are constantly finding ourselves venturing off into new activities and making new commitments, while we already have a chaotic life waiting for us at home! Adults have work and taking care of their children, while students have 8 hours in a building learning and then going home to do even more work! It gets pretty crazy, and some days can have a major toll on our bodies and disable us from doing all that we need to do. When I was in high school, it seemed like every day all I wanted to do after school was nap. My usual basketball game after-school with my neighbors turned into me putting on pajamas and falling asleep to some poorly rated movie on Netflix. Why was this happening? Why couldn’t I find energy to do my homework and necessary studying?
It took a whole lot of ignorance and zeros on my assignments to realize that I needed to knock off my new after-school rituals and come up with an active plan to keep myself awake and motivated. I started making goals for myself and rewarding myself when each of those goals was done. For instance, if I had to write a five page paper I would write 2 pages, and then reward myself by playing a video game for half an hour or going outside and playing with my friends. I found that this was a really good way to plow through my homework, because it actually made it enjoyable and I had something to look forward to. This can easily be applied at a learning center like MaThCliX also. We like to stay really focused on work for about 45 minutes and then spend just a few minutes socializing and talking about things other than school with the students. This really keeps them engaged and lively and has been really effective. I know how hard it is for some of these younger student also who just want to eat a thousand pixie sticks and run a marathon, but using this method really seems to work with them. Academic endurance is important because it keeps students engaged in their work, and we all know how hard it is to put yourself in a hole with assignments and try and climb out!
It’s as simple as making a few goals with your homework and figuring out the best way to tackle all your work before starting. This can make all the difference and can cut down study time tremendously. With a little self-motivation and encouragement from others, we can all pick up the pace with our work and get it all done!