Staying motivated and focused during exams can be difficult. Sometimes there’s just so much work to do and you don’t know where to start. Facebook just happens to keep popping up or people keep sending you snapchats with the typical “#procrastination” caption which leads to you start procrastinating and then not getting work done and from there it’s just a downhill spiral.
Some top tips for avoiding these problems include planning your time. If you can’t stay away from your phone for more than 30 minutes, try scheduling a break in between sections of study. You can work for 20 minutes and have a 5 minute break to reply to all those compulsory #study snapchats or like your best friends Instagram pic.
Ainsley Barrett, a residential advisor at CSU Wagga Wagga suggests splitting up your work load into segments to avoid being overwhelmed “break it up into smaller sections, don’t try to tackle it all at once. It’s a lot less daunting that way.”
This advice synergizes well with Grace’s advice of “doing something everyday that my future self will thank me for,” including working on small sections of an assignment so that you can have it handed in on time with little to no stress.
Granted, all of this advice is a lot easier said than done. How do you get the motivation to start an assignment earlier than a day before it is due? How do you maintain that motivation through two solid weeks of exams? Pam thinks about how relaxing her family holiday will be and how rewarding all of her work will be once it has paid off.
If you are struggling with a particular assignment or exam study, you can talk to your fellow classmates about it. James Craven says to “talk to your friends who are doing the same course as you because they are probably in the same position”.
If all of this isn’t working for you, you can consider talking to our ALLaN team who provide free support services seven days a week for both online and on campus CSU students. Learn more about ALLaN.
