The Best Ways to Motivate Students

Being a student is never easy, so much work to do, deadlines to keep eyes on and so many distractions nowadays. There will not be many students across the globe that would rather do homework than watch another show on Netflix or one more video on You Tube, but with deadlines quickly coming around, it will be time for students to really knuckle down and get their work done.

But with so many distractions and not many incentives, what ways are there to motivate students to do their work? After all, the work that you do ensures that you get the best grades that you need to excel.

Prioritise Certain Subjects

Nobody loves every single subject that they are taught, that is just a way of life. But students often prefer one subject above all else. You should encourage this and steer into this, become an expert in your specialised subject, research deeper within topics that you feel a connection with. Yes, some other subjects will suffer because of this but the one subject that you are prioritising will become the best out of the class.

You can set up a private blog for your specialised subject, dependant on what it might be. If the subject surrounds history and ‘World War II’ that would be easier to create a blog about than if your passion was art. Either way you can make it work and delve deeper into the subjects you care about.

Become Competitive

Teachers often assure you that there is no competition within school but some students will thrive more if they feel they are competing. As long as it is friendly competition, of course. The best way to do this would be during homework assignments, create a competition for the best work, full with a prize.

“Competition can create motivation for students and can inspire others, working as part of a team can help this and ensure that it makes the work fun above anything else. If a student finds the work fun, it is immediately going to feel less like work,” says Lorri S. Davis, a Motivational Coach at Write My X.

Reward Yourself

Like with any work based activity, you shouldn’t sit at a computer screen for hours upon hours. You need to take regular breaks and give your brain a chance to rest before starting again. This is a vital importance in doing good work. You should give prizes or rewards once you have completed a task or completed a section of your work.

This can be in the form of watching one episode of your favourite show or getting to have a snack and a 30 minute break. Once you go back to your work then you will immediately feel happier and you will work more professionally. You should set little reward stages throughout big assignments to break up the task and make you think that you can do it.

Question Why It Is Important

One of the best ways to ensure that you are motivated for your work is by asking yourself, what is the long term goal here? Good grades are obviously important for your future but why is a good grade in this specific subject important to you? Is it helping you towards your dream job or maybe you are using it as a reflective subject to compliment another subject that will help you achieve your dream job?

These are good questions to ask before you start to study, this will motivate you immensely and see clearly what you want to achieve out of the project. “Another way in which you could practise this method is by writing a list of phrases why you want to do well academically. You could include anything on this list such as; ‘I want to make my parents and family proud’ or ‘This subject is going to be important in reaching your goal at university.’ This list will always be good to keep near you as you can refer back to it at any point that you are feeling unmotivated,” suggests Josephine R. Tower, a Life Goals Consultant at 1Day2Write and Academicbrits.

If you follow these simple steps you will excel within your projects and be the best possible student you can be. Remember motivation is the key to success. At the end of the day, as long as you do your best and have no regrets that will always be enough for what you are trying to achieve.

Joel Syder is motivational tutor and writer at Originwritings.com. He enjoys helping people to realize their potential in exciting field of human resources as well as creating articles about things that excite him.