How to Get Stuff Done (Even When You Don't Feel Like It)
You thought you had it bad during the last few months of your senior year of high school, but this is much worse. You still have weeks before spring break, and you can’t seem to get yourself to care about anything.
If freshmanitis is a thing, you definitely have it. You feel entirely unmotivated to do anything, even though your grades should be better. You could be healthier, but you just can’t seem to shake off your bad habits.
How can you get stuff done, even when you don’t care? Use one or more of these tried-and-true methods to get your work done, regardless of how you feel.
Method #1: Identify and address why you don’t care.
Start here. You may be struggling with motivating yourself, because you need to adjust something in your life. Take the time to assess what is causing you to feel so burnt out. Asking yourself a few questions and stopping to think through the answers can make all the difference.
Start with the simple question “why?” This question can quickly cut to the core of the problem. For example, you know you need to start writing that paper due in just a few days, but you cannot seem to muster up the motivation. Ask yourself “why?” Why are you so unmotivated? Find somewhere to talk aloud to yourself or write down your answer on paper.
You probably actually know why you are incredibly unmotivated, but you probably won’t realize it until you express it in words. Your problem may have a quick fix or it may take more work, but you won’t know how to solve your problem until you identify it.
College freshmen typically struggle feeling unmotivated due to several different reasons. One reason may be poor eating habits. Most people don’t think of their food as medicine for their bodies, but it is. If you constantly fill your body with low quality food, your body will produce low quality energy. As much as you may dislike vegetables and fruits, try to eat at least one serving with every meal. You will feel more energized.
A second reason may be poor sleeping habits. If you’re the average college freshman, you probably feel exhausted even after sleeping in over the weekend. You can never seem to get enough sleep.
After months of depriving your body of sleep, your body will struggle to function well. Getting quality sleep each night sounds impossible, but it isn’t. Make sleep a priority each night. Determine a time you will get to bed by and stick to it.
A third reason may be not taking time to relax. Most students have more time on their hands than they think they do; however, that doesn’t mean that they actually schedule time to relax. This is an important skill to develop! Going and going without taking time to recharge will lead to a costly burnout.
Figure out how your body recharges, because no two people are entirely alike. If you’re more extroverted, you probably recharge by spending time with friends. If you’re more introverted, you probably recharge by spending time alone.
A fourth reason may be dealing with difficult friend or home situations. While school can be incredibly busy, family or friend problems make college even more stressful. Take charge of what you can. If you are the one at fault, take action to make things right. If you are not at fault, realize that you cannot control other people but you can control how you react to them. Take steps to do right on your part, address the behavior you can and cut your losses where you can. (This is much easier to say than to do, but try your best.)
A fifth reason may be missing home. Even though you’ve been at school for a while, you still miss your parents, siblings, or friends from back home. You wish you could stop feeling so homesick, but you can’t. Spend some time to Facetiming and calling home. If you live close enough to home, consider going home for a weekend. Before you know it you’ll be home for summer break, so hand in there!
A sixth reason may be feeling behind in your schoolwork. When you are so behind that you think no amount of effort can make a difference, don’t give up! You still have months left to the semester. You can still bring your grades up substantially. Take the time to calculate how much you can bring your grades up. You will see that in time your hard work can pay off, big time.
Method #2: Focus on doing one thing at a time.
The idea of preparing and giving an entire presentation is overwhelming. This process takes an incredible amount of work! By focusing on the whole task, you are demotivating yourself. Instead, focus on merely taking the next right step.
The proverb “how do you eat an elephant?” has a simple answer—“one bite at a time.” As gross as that image may be, this truth still resonates today. Tasks are not completed in one big step. Instead, they require many small steps.
You are probably feeling overwhelmed, because you haven't taken the time to plan properly. The presentation due date is looming ahead, only getting closer and closer, but you can’t seem to motivate yourself to start preparing.
Don’t think about completing the whole presentation right now. Remove that idea from your mind, and instead think of what you need to do to get there. First, you need to pick a topic. Your professor may have given you some requirements and guidelines for this already. Great! This narrows down your options and saves you time.
Second, you need to decide what your topic will include—aka do some research. Some simple googling and textbook reading can give you a better idea of what to specific topics you will cover within the broader topic. You can do more specific research as you go.
Third, you need to organize your information. Here, again, your teacher probably gave you some guidelines, which saves you time. Huzzah! Figure out how your topic will fit into a specific organizational pattern. Create a rough outline, then a more structured outline.
Fourth, you need to do more research to find examples and illustrations. Google and your textbooks can help you out here, but also just taking some time to think about your topic may give you plenty of ideas.
Fifth, you may need to create some visual aids (e.g. handouts, PowerPoint presentation, etc.). Your professor probably gave some requirements and guidelines for you to follow, so don’t reinvent the wheel here. You just need to keep it simple and informative.
Sixth, you need to revise your work. Go back through and check that your flow makes sense. Be sure you met all of the requirements. Make edits to your outline, visual aids, and speaking notes.
Seventh, you need to practice your presentation. Depending on how comfortable you are with public speaking, you may not need to practice for hours. However, the more you practice, the better your presentation will go. If you get a chance, rehearse your presentation inside the actual classroom you will use with your visual aids.
Your one big task is really seven steps, but the key is to get started. Don’t wait for your feelings to show up. If you plan ahead, you can kill that presentation. Instead of cramming all seven steps into one night (aka the night before), give yourself at least a day for each step. You will find yourself much more motivated to get things done, because you’ve broken down the task into more manageable steps.
Method #3: Figure out how to motivate yourself.
Some students are extremely motivated by good grades, but others do not care about earning good grades. Some students are extremely task-oriented, while others are more people-oriented. Every student is different.
At this point you are probably fairly aware of what motivates you. While you don’t want to rely gimmicks to help you complete every task, you need to identify what motivates you and use it to your advantage.
Ask yourself: what motivates me? In a general sense, it may be your faith, a humanitarian cause, or getting a degree, but make yourself answer more specifically. What motivates you to get your work done today? Narrow down your specific motivation with the following questions:
Do I enjoy checking things off of lists?
Do I enjoy meeting a deadline?
Do I enjoy earning positive recognition or good grades?
Do I enjoy making a final product?
Knowing how to channel your motivation can help you complete tasks regardless of your feelings. Start by forming goals that will help you stay motivated. For example, if you enjoy checking or crossing things off of lists, end each day by making a to-do list for the next day. Keep this list easily accessible and at hand at any time of the day. Mark each item you complete. Then, at the end of the day look back over everything you’ve accomplished.
Try to avoid only motivating yourself with external rewards like eating special foods or buying things. While these motivators can definitely work, they can also definitely backfire quickly. Besides, you don’t want to gain the freshman 15 and you don’t have money to be buying yourself things all of the time. Occasionally, do reward yourself, but don’t rely on this method on a daily basis.
Use your feelings to motivate, not to control, your actions. Your feelings can come and go, but at the end of the day you need to get things done regardless of how you feel. Figure out what motivates you, use it your advantage, and get going!
Method #4: Eliminate draining tasks.
The reality is that sometimes you will have to do things you hate in your college classes. Maybe you dislike public speaking, reading, or writing papers. At some point you will have to do each one of those tasks.
Some tasks, however, are not required or necessary in college. You may be feeling pressure to do them, but they drain your energy. Avoid these tasks if possible.
For example, maybe you’re not an incredibly social person. However, people expect you to hang out with them in large groups each weekend. While you don’t mind doing this every now and then, you find yourself drained after parties and social gatherings. Then, you struggle to find any motivation to complete your homework for your Monday classes.
By eliminating tasks that drain you, you will find yourself much more motivated to complete what does need to be done. So, how can you identify what drains your energy? Ask yourself these questions:
After what specific activities do I feel exhausted?
When do I feel the least amount of motivation to get stuff done?
What tasks cause me to feel stressed?
Avoid these tasks if possible. Instead, focus on the tasks that energize and motivate you. These tasks can give you an extra boost when you need to get your work done. To figure out what energizes you, ask yourself these questions:
What tasks make me feel like I’m “alive”?
What do I enjoy doing so much that I would pay money to do it?
What can I do for hours without checking a clock?
You cannot always eliminate draining tasks, but avoid the ones you can. You also cannot always do energizing tasks, but do them when you can. Use these tasks to your advantage to get your work done!
Getting stuff done is challenging especially when you don’t feel like it. Figuring out how you function and knowing how you can get things done is an important part of your college experience. You will not regret taking the time to figure both of these out!
