Have the past few months seemed really long to you? It’s only been four months since the year started but it already seems like 2024 has had a year’s worth of schoolwork and events. Maybe it’s because the spring semester has more weeks and fewer breaks, or maybe it’s because we know the end is so near, but this last stretch of school can sometimes be the hardest month or two of the entire year.
I was just talking about why this is with one of my friends, and we seemed to come to this conclusion: when you feel like you’ve worked so hard all year and summer is just around the corner, it can be hard to concentrate on the tasks at hand. They seem exhausting, tedious, and sometimes unnecessary.
I think part of what makes it so hard is that it seems like summer should be our motivation to get things done. After all, it’s almost here, so shouldn’t that drive us to finish well?
Unfortunately, I think that instead of motivating us, the thought of summer usually just wears us out. We’re so ready to finish all our studying, homework, and tests that we essentially give up. And of course, this doesn’t help as we’re trying to prepare for final exams, AP exams, SATs, CLTs, and all the other seemingly overwhelming things that might be happening around this time of year. So how can we find the motivation to finish?
Let Your Previous Work Motivate You
First, remember that you’ve worked hard this year. Remember how many classes you’ve gone to? Or that one time you spent five hours on your biology homework? Or the number of times you revised and practiced and then revised again while working on your presentation?
You want your hard work to show on your last assignments. You have spent almost nine months learning new information, practicing skills, and pouring your time into these subjects. Don’t let the grades you’ve worked for go out the window. Find motivation in keeping up your grades and the desire to do well on your final exams.
Motivate Yourself with Smaller Daily Accomplishments
It can also help to be extra diligent in your planning this next month. Write down each and every assignment and if you don’t have much work for a certain subject, don’t forget about it. Even if you don’t have an assignment, it’s a great idea to get ahead in your studying for the upcoming exams!
Make sure to budget time for breaks so your brain can refresh. Ultimately it doesn’t help you to get an extra hour of studying if you’re not retaining any of it because you’re too tired.
Sometimes the satisfaction of being able to cross things off and seeing how much you can accomplish in a day can give you the motivation to do the smaller things. Write down even the tiny things: when you see how productive you’ve been, it can encourage you to be more productive.
Let the Lord Motivate You
Finally, remember that in all things, you’re working for the Lord, not men. While of course, we all want to make our teachers and parents proud, ultimately, we shouldn’t only be trying for them.
God has created each of us with our own abilities and as long as we use them well and follow His commands for our lives, He is proud of us. Even when your work seems tough, and you’re exhausted, and you can’t find motivation in anything, God wants you to be driven by love for Him.
Let God’s love for you and His desire to be praised by your actions motivate you to finish this year strong.
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