When you just don't feel like doing it

[Nani]

Hello everyone, I need some help.

I'm a senior in high school and my classes begin tomorrow. I want to have a strong and successful start, but I'm afraid my procrastination habits will make that difficult. I'm pretty much an A student but those wonderful grades I get don't come without stress because I can never get myself to start on the work until the last minute.

This is really because I feel the work is a waste of time and won't teach me anything useful. I find myself thinking negative thoughts like, "this homework is so boring and troublesome...I'd rather be doing something else." I feel like I'm lying to myself when I say, "this work is not so bad" because as I do it I feel it IS that bad.

Is there any way I could learn to enjoy doing things I generally don't feel like doing? Maybe a certain attitude would make it easier? Or must I simply set aside all of my feelings and accept it as something that must be done? Instead of just enduring the pain so I could be happy afterwards, can't I be happy all the way through? I hate the thought of having to enter a state of bitterness every day while I do homework, even if it means feeling great after it's all done.

All comments are appreciated. I apologize if this question seems rather idiotic, and thus has no good answer. I've been thinking of changing myself for the better these past few months but I've taken little action. I think posting in this forum is a small step toward motivating me to act, but that also means I can't ignore real concerns, even if they sound silly.

Thank you.

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by Nani

This is really because I feel the work is a waste of time and won't teach me anything useful.

A mind is very much like a muscle... if you want it to become strong and effective... you musts work it out...

Your performance in school will have much to do with your success in later life... school is where you learn to solve problems, use logic... increase your memory and most of all establish a solid base of knowledge and information that will be absolutely essential in the future...

The world is a highly competitive place... and there is little room at the top... and those who makes it are those who have learned about discipline, efforts and perseverance... and that is what you are learning right not...

You were lucky enough to have been given an intelligence that permits you to get mostly A... don't waste it...

And don't ever forget... nothing is ever inherently good or bad... but thinking makes it so... so, when you feel that you are having it rough... just think how much worse it would be if you were a paraplegic in a wheelchair... and, thank God that you are not...

The very best of luck to you... and keep us posted on your progress...
.

[Swede]

You can ask yourself questions about your study material to make it more interesting:


* Why was this text written?

* Could this subject be interpreted in any other way?

* How does this fit in in the broader picture? In what way does it connect to our society and history in general? In what way does this "learning block" fit into your life and your journey trough knowledge?

* What could you benefit from learning it? (You always benefit from learning, more or less, but try to be specific).


These questions could also enhance your ability to understand the material since you have put in a context. You have placed it somewhere in your web of knowledge.

[Schez]

have you ever read the 7 habits for highly effective teens? ok, it sounds lame and aimed at 14 yr olds BUT i'm almost 21 and i find it much more relevant than the adult version because i'm still in full time education. It's much easier to read and it deals with stuff like homework that you dont want to do, leaving things to the last minute and making time for things you'd much rather be doing. so firstly i'd recommend reading that.

enjoying the things you don't really feel like doing...
with my homework (dissertation stuff) most of my thoughts seem to be similar to yours. there's way more things i'd rather be doing. but most of my stress comes from thinking about not wanting to do it rather than actually doing it and then not enjoying it.

there are many other things i don't really enjoy but i do them because i can see exactly why i do them. like my job, i get money i can buy stuff, i can pay my rent. there's way more things i'd rather be doing than wait tables on a friday night but doing my job will enable me to do more things in the very near future like seeing friends, buying drinks, shopping...

for me doing homework is hard to get around to because i can't see the immediate effects. i've been getting good grades very easily all my life and i can't see where it's gotten me. the university i'm at was audition only so my grades weren't an issue. had they been an issue i wouldn't have gotten my place there because i did no work for my a levels (if you know what they are). this did nothing to help me work for grades - it only reinforced my idea that grades meant nothing.

so this summer i got a big wake up call. if i didn't get my act together with my written work they were going to turn my place over to somebody else.

never had such a stressful week. and the work was so easy once i started working!! the only thing that was stopping me was that i hadn't really felt like doing it. now this wake up call is not quite the end of my procrastination habit towards my homework, my resistance to homework has become so strong that i've got to do a lot more work on myself. i've ordered self help books and cd's off of amazon, i've gotten involved here, i'm back up to date with my university work (just about)...

but it takes practice. that's what i've come to realise. you don't get a sudden scare over one summer like i did and just snap out of your reverie. you practice just getting on with the things you don't really feel like doing at every opportunity and soon enough you'll find you've gotten a bit better. and then a bit better. i don't believe that practice does make perfect actually. but it definitely makes better and thats all you want your situation to be right?

practice, practice, practice practice, practice, practice practice, practice, practice practice, practice, practice and then practice, practice, practice some more. you will get there!

[Subscreet]

I wouldn't worry about it. Without exaggeration, I didn't complete maybe 50-60% of the homework assigned to me in grades 9-11 and now I'm a senior attending college full time. If I could go back the only thing I would change is worrying about it less. I didn't see the point in doing such mindless work then and I don't now. Grades are just letters. I'm not going to waste my time earning imaginary points. Now that I'm in college the signal-to-noise ratio has been significantly lowered as far as homework goes and I have no trouble getting it done.

A mind is very much like a muscle... if you want it to become strong and effective... you musts work it out...

Your performance in school will have much to do with your success in later life... school is where you learn to solve problems, use logic... increase your memory and most of all establish a solid base of knowledge and information that will be absolutely essential in the future...

Aye, the first part is true but doing busywork for several hours nightly certainly isn't the optimal way. I totally disagree with your assertion that those who perform well in school have success later in life. Correlation does not equal causation. School's not the only education.

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by Subscreet

Aye, the first part is true but doing busywork for several hours nightly certainly isn't the optimal way. I totally disagree with your assertion that those who perform well in school have success later in life. Correlation does not equal causation. School's not the only education.

You cannot separate what you do and how you do it... from what and who you are... a person who does sloppy work in school is a sloppy person... and a person who is a mover/shaker and go getter in school is a mover/shaker and go getter...

When you enter the workplace... you are not automatically transformed into someone else... you are who you are no matter what...

I will agree with you that there is no correlation between academic success and success in later life... but, the character that you will build in school will have a tremendous influence in later life... School is the preparation... you can use it or waste it... the choice is yours... but, you will also reap what you have sowed...
.

[uttara]

That problem seems similar to mine as well. and now i think i am doing little progress.The first step was to arise curiousity .I related my homework and unwanted school stuff with my surrounding, sometimes make up a story , may be wierd and try to make it interesting .The simle task seems more boring and so i try to see it from entirely new angle , may be hypothesis.

try once.And good luck .

[Livgivare]

Just to tell a little tiny bit about my story. I am an University student that have put a thing to the future in 2 years, mainly because I thought I could not handle the task. You see I have had a long time in my life when I have not liked anything to do with the Middle east and I think that the situation over there is overwhelmingly hard to understand. I may have thought that I was not smart enough to handle the task. This week I sat down and did it - I have almost finished the task by now - and the task made all the situation fall into the right place like a puzzle. The task was about the 6-day war which is such a vital peice of history in the middle east.

What I say is to try and find as important gaps into your knowlegde in the different fields you study and set off a minimum time of the day when you shall study and do homework. Read/study the whole time, even if you have to dictate your old personal notes from the lessons. This is a good thing to do because it makes you push abit forward. You can't jump over a day because that makes you do all the time the day that comes.

Don't know if this helps but I guess it makes the studying a bit more fun and a bit more pushy...

Love Leelene

[Luna]

Try to change the way you study. If it involves a desk and a blue pen, go outside and use a violet pen, for example. Read books/notes out loud in a funny voice, sing them, try to read faster or slower. Replace boring terms with random objects, like flying pink elephants (make sure you remember what you replaced with what).
If you need to memorize something really well, involve as many senses as you can in the learning process (visualize it, write it down, read it out loud, maybe record it and then listen, associate some kind of texture, smell and taste with it).
It's still going to feel like a waste of time, but maybe it will be less boring.

[Stargirl]

Luna's suggestion is good. It sounds crazy, but it's not.

I just went through that. It's really common for seniors to realize these things.
In my school, seniors
a) remained grade-obsessive and worked crazy hard until the end
b) worked enough, but pursued other interests as well (reading a book a week, PD, working out, etc.) - Me
c) totally slacked off and then had to struggle around finals time to bring up their D's to C's.

So many people follow path c) and it's the most stressful of all. How can you learn a semester's worth of material in a few days?
And going on myspace instead of doing homework, sleeping in class instead of paying attention, doesn't add anything to your life.

Some tips

1) Mindmap! - that saved me in government class. Making mindmaps is SO much more fun than writing notes word for word off a powerpoint. I not only paid attention (there was a circle of sleeping students around me by the end of class ), but had fun. And gov. class was pretty dull...

2) Talk to teachers - I had never talked to my teachers much, but they became my favorite people senior year. They were so much more interesting than my classmates. And knowing the teacher makes you feel obligated to do well in their class AND more interested in what they have to say.

3) Spin things and make them a challenge - Do things creatively. Put your heart in your writing assignments.

It's all about the attitude. Care about learning, not grades. And have some fun with your friends senior year.

[oberlee]

Hi Nani.

Anything that's a "should" immediately gets put on the back burner. For instance, I have to take my car to the mechanic and I'm procrastinating, even though it's right down the street!

Anyway, just know that there's nothing wrong with you, it's totally normal, and while I know it stresses you out, it's really NOT a big deal. Actually, if you stopped stressing about how you procrastinate, you'd procrastinate less.

I think it's hard for a lot of people to be motivated in school, especially before 12th grade, because you don't really know why you're there. I mean, you do, but you don't feel it. You didn't choose it, you didn't choose the school, and maybe you didn't even choose your courses. I was like you in high school--A's and B's until senior year when I got to choose cool classes and then I got A's, but I still procrastinated. I would have to read 400 pages of history and know it for a test the next day. I started incorporating history texts into my dreams.

When I got to college, I realized that if I just read everything when they said, it really wasn't that hard. And choosing the school, and paying for it (if you are) is a good motivator.

Anyway, don't beat yourself up. If you want to procrastinate and not do work, let that happen. It might clear up a lot of energy around it, thus making the work easier to start on.

Maybe that doesn't help, but lots of people have other great suggestions...I'm sure some will help you! Good luck!