Not much to the title, but it's self-explanatory. We all deal with laziness every now and then, but I feel like mine is a constant thing. Even now I'm putting off AP work, and as much as I'd like to stop, my motivation to do school related stuff is just nowhere near as much as it should be (I have a trip that I've desperately dreamt of for the past year riding on my currently passable grades). I'm a junior: it's crunch time when it comes to academics. I have two AP courses, two honors courses, a course I'm taking virtually to make up for a credit I need, a film I'm helping my tv teacher with (to help promote a statewide test) for which I will have to do sfx/edit (still have to learn the sfx bit) and a film I'm doing ON TOP of that for a program that's chosen our school -- again, I'll have to edit, though I have someone helping me out on that one -- plus I have to worry about my community service requirement for NHS (five per quarter) and I have bowling on Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings (though I've been sick so I haven't gone in a while) and I have to prep for the SAT and the AP exams (Language and Composition and American History) and I have PreCal tutoring on Wednesday afternoons. Needless to say, I've got a lot on my plate and a lot more coming up within the next month or two alone. And yet, I have zero motivation to do ANY OF THIS CRAP! i've wanted to just edit but whenever i get any free time i have no inspiration & vice versa ;-; We've been reading a lot of thought-provoking stuff in AP Lang lately, especially now with the Scarlet Letter and its endless religious allusions/metaphors/similes/symbolism; I went to [hypocritical] Christian schools for ten years, so I was essentially indoctrinated with Biblical values. Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins, and I feel like it's slowly killing me. Every time I have a project, I leave it to the last minute. Every time I have research to do, I spend every waking minute on the computer here just refreshing the homepage and wasting time. I can't take it anymore; I feel like a failure for being at this level (had a conference with my APUSH teacher and she said I was "brilliant," maybe even "borderline genius") and not being willing to put forth the effort, whether or not I enjoy the work. Is there any way to help with the motivation [or lack thereof]? Any words of wisdom? Just something.
My goodness! You have a lot! :O I think that when we are buried to our necks in work, our bodies just decide that it's too much and so they shut down for a bit. And of course, it's killer trying to get back into it all after lazying around for a while because we do what it wishes. We keep saying to ourselves "I HAVE to get my work done" but our bodies refuse and our motivation dies. I felt this way my senior year in high school. One thing you could do is to set daily goals for yourself. Make a list, considerably a weekly list of all the work that needs to be done that week. Break it down so that each day you have but so much to do. And once it is all done for that day, reward yourself. Think of it like "if I get all of this done, I have free time the rest of the day" That free time could be put towards the video editing projects and community service if necessary. Things that don't need to be done ASAP but still need to be completed in time. Think about your teacher. She said you were "borderline genius!" That compliment could be your motivation. Get all of your work done and keep those good grades so that they still think that way. So that that comment sticks with you until graduation.....maybe even the possibility of graduating to "genius" as well :D She expects great things from you! Avoid procrastination! Soon as you think of something that needs to be done. Do it soon as you think of it. Don't let your mind fool you into "I'll do it later" cause most likely that later could be a little too much later and make you feel even more stressed. Do all of your "easy" and less time consuming homework first. That way when you get onto bigger assignments, your little ones will already be taken care of so a lot more is done. "In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result" "Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself." "A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work." "Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work." With all of those hard classes and all the work that you have, I can see that you are a very smart and hardworking person who will truly make great things of themselves in the future. It will take a lot of hard work, but, even if I haven't spoken to you much, I know you can do it! I can see that motivation coming to rise when you say that you "want motivation". The fact that you are seeking it. I wish you the very best! Hope this helps you out a little! ^-^
I understand completely what you're talking about Cat. I also have this problem but I think it comes from something a lot less "sinful" (we'll get to that later) than laziness--being a workaholic. You take on so much, for whatever reason, and when it all piles up, it seems insurmountable... so you kind of just fall to pieces. And that's okay. You're ambitious and hard-working and those aren't bad traits. But you need to learn to control them. Right now, halfway through junior year, it's a bit late to drop any classes or what have you--but when you make your schedule for next year, keep this in mind! I learned with college, where you have more flexibility in scheduling, that I would rather take four or five classes and maybe not graduate as soon as I could if I took six, but I would be able to focus on the classes I am taking and take it a little easier. The first step is realizing these traits in yourself and learning how to work them to your advantage. But that's in the long term. Let's talk about what you can do now: take it one step at a time, budget your time. Get a big calendar, one that will let you do hour-by-hour scheduling (computer programs work well for this!); first, write down all of the scheduled events that you have to do (bowling practice, tests, etc.). Next, I want you to give yourself relaxation days. Days where you can sleep in or kick back and play video games all day, eat copious amounts and just chill. Ideally you'll have one of these once or twice a month. The key to these days is not letting yourself feel guilty for taking them. You're working hard and that's awesome. but your mental health is important too (I used to take off from school in the name of a "mental health day"). After that, write in due dates, but here's a major point--write them in a day or two before they actually are. After all that, it's time to do some crazy scheduling. Set aside a few hours every day to do your work--e.g. 6:00 to 7:00, edit essay. Give yourself breaks throughout that time, like a 30 minute TV or internet break. Make sure you have an hour or two after school free to unwind, and an hour or two before bed to relax (which, make sure you're going to bed at good times!). Start with the assignments that are due the soonest, estimate how much time you'll need to work on them (always overestimate!), and schedule it out that way. You can make them strictly time-oriented ("spend an hour on essay") or set goals ("write introduction paragraph"). Do your best to stick to the schedule, but don't let yourself feel guilty if you fall off it either. Maybe something took you longer than you thought it would, and that's okay. Your due dates are written in early so you will have some time left to crunch if your allotted time wasn't enough; likewise, if you finish another assignment early, you can either get a head-start on something else, or just chill out! And when you start going crazy, take a mental health day. It sounds crazy but it's what helps me. I'm still perfecting keeping to those schedules, but it really is so helpful. One day at a time. Slowly but surely, you'll chip away. As for the "sloth" business, I don't think anyone who is looking at all you do can possibly accuse you of that. Furthermore, the idea of deadly sins is, in my opinion, horrific. I don't believe there is any action that you cannot repent and rise from. Seeing in such extremes is a dangerous way of life. Following my obligation as a future English teacher, I want to also commend you for looking at literature and relating it to an examination of your own life. excellent work 8) best of luck Cat, if you need any help or just to talk feel free to IM me.
