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Motivation
I am struggling with motivation. I went back to uni last summer and am literally two months from being able to walk away with a masters degree, but I cannot for the life of me manage to find the impulse to start my dissertation. We're half way through the five months given to work on it and I haven't written a word. I feel too spent to do anything on my days at work, and on my days off I just end up getting drunk or waste the time doing other useless crap. I'm so pleased with all the grades I got throughout my course and I know if I just do this last piece then I'll be set, but I feel so uninspired. I guess I'm kind of a pessimistic person. Sometimes I think there's no real point or meaning to anything and that puts me in a rather unhealthy 'why bother' sort of mood. This is the most unmotivated I've ever been in my life and time is getting on now so I really need to sort it out. Does anybody have any advice? How do you get motivated to tackle something rather formidable, or to start something that's going to take a lot of time and effort?
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first and foremost think of the income you will generate into your bank account, secondly get this over with and have a break after and spoil yourself (not just materilisticly) and thirdly, do not give up, whatever you do. do not give up. show us how powerful you are so we can congractulate you in the end.
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I personally don't believe in creative block, or motivation. At least not in the way people tend to use this word for, as this magical and unexplained stuffey that is triggered into our mind and keeps us temporarily euphoric enough to begin something new without having thoughts that shall interrupt our productivity
All the creative pieces of work begin with a mental kick in the ass because, no matter how much you love what you do, something prevents us from giving the first step, specially because most of people believe that they need to be somehow "ready" beforehand, which makes them to wait.
Things get a lot easier once we painfully begin to produce (generates a temporary discomfort), like the weird seconds it takes until we're 100% used to the shower temperature and how everything happens naturally after a while, idk. It's a feedback effect, the more we do, more we do; the less we do, less we do
Good luck Chris
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Thanks, guys. I spent the last week doing research and have devised a work plan I'm hopefully going to stick to. Usually I work best under pressure and tend to leave things until the last moment, but I can't really do that with a piece of work this important. Hopefully once I actually start writing, it'll all flow out. In my undergraduate course I used to write and research pretty much concurrently, but for recent essays I've found it much more ideal to split research and writing. I just wish I had started sooner!
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How's it going? Whenever I feel uninspired, I listen to music or watch a movie. It helps a lot.
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I've been doing research and have completed a rough draft of my introduction and started my literature review. Feel like I need to do a lot more analysis before I can tackle the bulk of my dissertation, though. I wanted to get a lot done today, but kind of zoned out. I have at least thirty full days in which I am totally free before the deadline, so I should be able to get it done. Reading has been the best way to get inspired for me. Since postgraduate level is so dependent on analysing and implementing theories and methods and molding them into your own research, I find that if I just start reading about something relevant to my work, ideas and talking points come quite naturally.
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I'm about to start an MA in october after 3 years of amazing but struggling life at university! I feel you, i've been there! so many people have. I've discovered my way of motivation - it might not help you but it really helped me -
I have a whiteboard in my room and every night i write a list of things i HAVE to do tomorrow, if i dont do it then i have to do it twice the next day. For example, i even include the smallest things (dishes, shower, 300 words writing, clean shower). It motivates be because i think about how if i don't do something on the list for 4 days, i have to do it 4 times on the 5th day! - i once showered 3 times in a day and went for a run 3 times and i learnt my lesson -
I also think having a VISUAL motivation aswell as mental helps! like reading the words on your whiteboard, can maybe draw on it too if you have the talent!
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I figure if you start something you should finish it. You may not need something now but it might be useful later as for motivation I just take things day by day and stay organised. Visual motivation like LidyaWillows has written is definitely the best theirs things visual learning gives that regular stuff don't. Always do research into what your put to do and try it yourself in your free time, might motivate you more as your actually tried it out.