How to motivate yourself to study: 12 tips from psychologists + motivation for Harvard students + real story+ 10 Hollywood stars with brilliant education.

Studying is not your strong point, because on the bookshelf a textbook on English language, abstract on world history magically turned into a bag for fried seeds, and a brochure with the rules traffic went to grandma's oven.

Are you covered in dust yet? That's definitely not going to work for you. So let's get our act together and find out how to motivate yourself to study.

12 golden tips from psychologists on how to motivate yourself to study: your IQ will simply go through the roof!

Proven advice from psychologists will help you motivate yourself to study:

Think about your erudite friends and acquaintances.

Well, do you really want to gasp for air again when your friend Vasily starts talking about the structure of the solar system?

How can you not suffocate with envy when a friend tells you that she is marrying a white-toothed American just because she mastered spoken English in a couple of months? But studying at school wasn’t particularly good for her!

Study with someone who is as hungry for knowledge as you are to motivate yourself to study.

And try to show off your successes to each other, because healthy competition in this laudable matter has never harmed anyone.

A competent, authoritative mentor can also motivate you to study.

And ask the teacher a thousand and one questions if you don’t understand something: this way you motivate yourself to study even more. It’s not for nothing that they say that appetite comes with eating.

To motivate yourself to study, you need to always see the “horizon” - in fact, what you are “dying” for over notes and books.

Do you want to become a kick-ass plastic surgeon? Then be prepared to cram until you faint the names of muscles, bones and tendons, as well as other medical terminology. But somewhere out there, millions in fees from pop stars are already waiting for you for neat noses and gorgeous busts.

Create a clear study schedule and reward yourself with something in between.

Have you learned three exam tickets out of six planned for today? It's time to take a walk for half an hour, eat a couple of your favorites chocolates or call your laughing friend.

But remember: the reward should be equivalent to the effort spent on studying, so “giving up” on overnight barbecues just because you learned 10 is clearly too much.

If studying is a drag, mortal boredom and melancholy for you, the sketchnoting system will help you motivate yourself.

Its essence boils down to making not just notes while studying, but “mental maps” that are understandable to you - with funny drawings, “crazy” quotes from teachers and emoticons. You can read more, for example, in Mike Rohde’s book “Sketchnoting. A Guide to Visualizing Ideas."

True aesthetes (and we are sure that you are exactly like this) are motivated to study by ideal order in the workplace, beautiful stationery, and even a bouquet of their favorite flowers.

That’s right: it’s hard to enjoy studying if you’re taking notes with a stub of a pencil on an old newspaper, and there’s “chaos and anarchy” all around you.

“I have dreamed of visiting London all my adult life. And starting from the fifth grade, all my notebooks for studying were with Big Ben or red double-decker buses, and the British flag hung above my desk.
When you wanted to howl from repeating the wrong English verbs, these little things helped motivate myself for further study. And guess what? In September I'm going to London on a student exchange program. Dreams Come True!"- says Lyudmila from Kyiv.

1. Ideal study conditions will help you motivate yourself to new achievements:

   • no tight skirts, falling trousers and bangs in your eyes while studying– provide yourself with maximum comfort, even if for you it consists of your favorite pajamas with owls;

   • make sure that nothing distracts you from your studies: no shouts from the “Italian” family living next door, no calls to mobile phone, nor the invitingly flashing ICQ window.

     If necessary, wear earplugs, plug your ears with cotton wool, or study while facing the wall. You are gone - you “died” and will “resurrect” for the world only when you memorize this damn theorem!

     place a bottle of water near you drinking water and some snack before studying, otherwise there is a risk that on the way to the refrigerator you will give in and turn into the living room, and then look - and you are already somewhere at the dacha of your childhood friend Seryoga “doodling” beer.

     Then it will be useless to motivate yourself;

Don't even think about what wonderful and interesting things you could do if you didn't spend time studying.

You definitely won’t be able to motivate yourself that way. So we think about studying, and only about it, dear, even if outside “the grass is green and the sun is shining.”

No matter how stupid this advice may seem, sometimes in order to motivate yourself to study, you just need to sit down with your textbooks and start studying.

Remember the good old joke: “At first our cat didn’t like the vacuum cleaner, but then nothing happened - he got hooked.” So get involved!

Don’t create “emergency” conditions if you don’t want to hate studying forever, but on the contrary, motivate yourself.

Do you need to write an essay on Friday? We do not recommend starting it at 11 pm on Thursday; it is better to divide the amount of work into two or three evenings.

Try not to motivate yourself to death to study.

Don’t try to learn three volumes of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia in one sitting - set realistic goals, but complete them strictly.

“My secret to successful studies is a realistic assessment of my strengths and iron willpower. That is, when I know that I need to learn 15 questions in 3 days and I can do it, I will cram 5 topics a day, even if voodoo shamans will perform ritual dances around me, and Gisele Bündchen will ask me out on a date.”,” Sergei, a student from Moscow, shares his experience on how to motivate yourself to study.

15 tips from Harvard students on how to motivate yourself to study: it makes you want to sit down with your books!

Here are the statements that students at an elite institution like Harvard use to motivate themselves:

The story about Natalya, laziness and cucumbers: what will happen if you don’t “steam”?

Every morning, going about his business, the author of the article takes a shortcut through the city vegetable market.

And passing by one of the counters, she tries to “sneak by” as quickly as possible, because here her former classmate Natasha is selling vegetables - tangled hair, dull skin and dirty hands with broken nails. There is a suspicion that the blush on the cheeks is not from girlish shyness, but from strong alcohol.

But once at the university, Natalya showed great promise and even graduated from graduate school.

True, she never defended her Ph.D. thesis: she didn’t have enough of those same internal forces to motivate herself to study when she was attacked by unhappy love, conflicts with relatives and “scandals, intrigues, investigations” at the department where the girl was a graduate student.

Natasha didn’t even try to get a job, or at least a more prestigious one, than a salesperson at the market. I burned out and gave up, didn’t motivate myself for further development...

Scary? That's the same... Let's pull ourselves together and get ready to study!

10 Brilliantly Educated Hollywood Stars Who Exactly Know How to Motivate Themselves to Study

If you're justifying your inability to motivate yourself to study as a lack of time, consider whether you're busier than these celebrity intellectuals:

• Dolph Lungren;
• Madonna;
• Edward Norton;
• Kate Beckinsale;
• Eva Longoria;
• Emma Watson;
• David Duchovny;
• Jodie Foster;
• James Franco;
• Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Well, do you continue to complain about the villainous fate that literally drags you away from your books by your hair?

Question “How to motivate yourself to study?” This is a question asked by many careless schoolchildren and students, but there is also that happy minority who have already succeeded.

How not to be lazy and get down to studying?

You will learn about the secrets of motivation by watching this video:

We sincerely hope that after reading our advice, you will become one of those “chosen ones” who enjoy gnawing on the granite of science.

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You can often hear from modern children that they do not want and do not like to go to school and study, and not only from those who study poorly, but also from good and excellent students. It is not surprising that parents very often ask the question “How to motivate a child to study?”

The question of who should create the right motivation for a child is complex. Some people think that teachers should do this, others think that a school psychologist should do this, a third opinion is that parents should instill in children a love of learning, there are also those who don’t attach importance to whether a child wants or doesn’t want to study - “We need to !

Loving, attentive and caring parents rarely ask the question “Who should motivate?”, More often it is the question “How to motivate a child?” And this is not always easy to do.

Motivation- motivation to action. Motive is an image of a material or ideal object that “directs” a person’s actions, that is, it forms motivation.

Motivation can be:

• external(due to external circumstances not related to the motive) or internal(related to the content of the motive);
• positive(if the motivation stimulus is positive) or negative(if the stimulus is negative).

Not all preschoolers and schoolchildren need to be motivated and instilled with a love of learning; there are children who are inquisitive from nature.

These children love to read books and watch educational programs. This curiosity in them needs to be supported and nourished, but at the same time make sure that the child not only learns, but also plays outdoor games, communicates with peers, and relaxes.

Studying in its classical form (at a desk, reading textbooks and solving problems in a notebook) most often loses in competition with games on the computer or walks in the entertainment center. And not only because children are not diligent students, but also because of the special organization of the educational process. Not every teacher tries to conduct lessons in an interesting, creative and bright way.

They don't like to study children who are too active, proactive, do not accept authority, creative, children who are ahead or, on the contrary, lagging behind in development, and those who are simply spoiled.

You can only create the right motivation in a child instilling in him a love of knowledge. Such motivation is internal and positive. This type of motivation also includes:

• enjoyment of the learning process itself,
• desire for success,
• positive communication with classmates and teachers,
• understanding the need to study for life.

But some parents resort to negative and/or extrinsic motivation:

• super-importance of marks,
• studying is a forced duty,
• material or other reward for good studies,
• avoiding punishment for bad grades,
• prestige, leadership and other positions “above” in the class.

To create this type of motivation, tricks, promises, deception, intimidation and even physical punishment are used.

This is not to say that techniques like “If you study well, we’ll buy you a tablet” or “Study well, otherwise you’ll get it from me!” don’t work. They work, but clearly not for the benefit of the child: he begins to study more diligently, but not because he wants to, not of his own free will, but with the goal of getting a good grade, to get a “prize” or to avoid punishment.

In the first case, the child learns to manipulate people for his own benefit and value material wealth above spiritual ones; in the second, an attitude towards avoiding failures and increased anxiety is formed.

Reasons for reluctance to study

We have to motivate both preschoolers, preparing them for school, and children who are already studying, since they periodically experience a loss of interest in learning. There is an opinion that high school students should already be able to create the right motivation for themselves. Of course, a teenager is capable of this, but the participation and support of his parents is also important for him.

More often motivation disappears after long summer holidays, when the child is sick or overtired, but there are other reasons.

The most common causes why the child does not want to study:

• difficulties in communication or conflicts in the classroom, with children from other classes, with teachers;
• the child’s priority is an alternative activity (passion, hobby, additional education);
• indifference of parents (they do not help the child with homework, they are not interested in school life);
• overprotective parents (they do homework for the child and demand a full report on how the day went at school).

The above reasons can be classified as external factors. Eliminate they can be done by performing some active actions or actions:

1. If a child is afraid of a teacher because he is too strict or for some reason lowers grades, a conversation with that teacher or with the director will be required.
2. If there is a conflict with classmates, it will have to be resolved peacefully or the child must be transferred to another school.
3. If the problem is extracurricular hobbies, you need to figure out what their nature is. It’s one thing to skip classes and stay late at art school, and another thing to play computer shooters for hours.
4. If the problem is the behavior of the parents, you need to either learn to pay more attention to the child, or, conversely, give him more freedom and independence.

In addition to external ones, there are internal reasons loss of interest in studies:

• fears,
• complexes,
• psychological trauma,
• diffidence,
• thinking errors,
• “forbidden” feelings and so on.

For example, there are children who are prejudiced against studying: studying is a meaningless activity, the knowledge gained at school will not be useful in life. With such an attitude, even the most flexible, inquisitive, diligent student can lose interest in learning.

The situation can be deeper. For example, if a misfortune happened in the family, and the child was at school at the time, he or she fears that this will happen again.

The internal reason for the reluctance to learn can be established in a confidential conversation. The child will name it himself, the main thing is not to miss this moment.

If the reason for the child’s reluctance to learn deep inside is fueled by fears and negative attitudes, you should seek advice from school or child psychologist.

Few people know, but the motivation to learn, that is, to master new knowledge and skills, is inherent in people genetically. A man in ancient times, learning something new, sincerely rejoiced this. And today, as in ancient times, when we manage to solve a complex problem or find an answer to an exciting question, hormones of happiness are released into the body.

Dependence on the joy of knowledge can become so strong that it becomes akin to a drug addiction. Why do few people strive for such a “useful drug” as study?

Children who go to school because “They have to!” and they study “for show”, have no goal of learning anything, and therefore are not happy with the results of their learning. Motivated child happy to learn, so will achieve great success by maintaining a keen interest.

Children like those items that they interesting that they want to know. Such activities are expected, and they fly by in a second. In unloved activities you have to miss, and time, as luck would have it, drags on slowly.

Hence the first recommendation for parents: to increase a child’s motivation, he needs explain that all items will be useful in life, even the most uninteresting and unloved ones. It is better to support words with examples from life. For example, tell a child who does not want to learn physics that knowledge of its laws has saved people’s lives more than once and give an example.

Second recommendation: reduce the significance of assessments. It is not grades that are important, but knowledge. The child must understand this, but at the same time remember - it is impossible to know everything. Therefore, no matter what grades a child receives, and no matter how much knowledge he manages to learn, the main thing is not that, but whether he tries or not.

For a child to want to learn, it is necessary notice and celebrate any of it, even the most insignificant successes and achievements. This is the third recommendation for parents. This way you can not only encourage your child to strive for knowledge, but also discover or develop his talents.

It is pointless to scold for bad grades or for the fact that a student is not good at some subject; this will not make him study better, but his self-confidence and the fact that his parents love him will decrease.

Recommendation four: support comfortable psychological atmosphere in the family. Children are very sensitive. They don't know much, but they feel everything. The child feels that there is discord between the parents, even if they do not quarrel in front of him. What can we say about loud quarrels and scandals! An equally difficult situation is when conflicts arise between the child himself and one of the parents or the entire family. When there are problems in the family, the child has no time for studying.

Never do not compare your child with other children, knowing and respecting its characteristics is the fifth recommendation. What is more important: the justified hopes of the parents or the happiness of the child, his self-confidence, and health? A schoolchild grows up as a psychologically prosperous person, he develops adequate self-esteem when he knows that his parents accept him for who he is and love him, then he strives to become even better.

To create positive internal motivation to study at a preschooler, you need to instill in him a love of knowledge in advance. School preparation classes should take place in game form: include games, dancing, competitions, warm-ups, modeling, drawing, fairy tales, experiments and many other techniques and techniques that allow you to make the learning process fascinating.

For motivation diagnostics Psychologists have developed several methods for preschoolers and schoolchildren that you can use independently. For example: Luskanova’s school motivation questionnaire, Bayer’s method of determining the leading motives of teaching, the test “Motivational readiness for schooling» Wenger and others.

If you want to study the topic of educational motivation in more depth, we recommend studying the literature:

1. Sh. Akhmadullin, D. Sharafieva “Motivation of children. How to motivate a child to study"
2. E. Galinsky “I myself! Or how to motivate a child to succeed”
3. J. Dirksen “The Art of Teaching. How to make any training fun and effective”
4. N. Titova “How to motivate in one word. 50 NLP techniques”
5. A. Verbitsky, N. Bakshaeva “Psychology of student motivation”
6. L. Peterson, Y. Agapov “Motivation and self-determination in educational activities” (for teachers and psychologists)
7. V. Koroleva “Style” pedagogical activity and motivation of younger schoolchildren” (for teachers and psychologists)

The new school year is approaching, and the questions “How to motivate yourself to study?”, “How to force yourself to study?” This question is asked by many schoolchildren and students. The topic of motivation to study is really relevant, because after a long holiday there is no desire to take up textbooks and notebooks again.

But, unfortunately, there is no escape from studying, so you need to somehow pull yourself together and get back into the rhythm of school days. But how can you force yourself to study?

Alas, sometimes our desires are at odds with reality. A good start to the new school year will provide a good foundation until the next holidays.

If you are reading this article in the middle of the year, then it doesn’t matter - the rule “better late than never” works in this case too. In this article we will try to figure out how to motivate yourself to study.

How to make a child study?

In my opinion, when discussing the issue of motivation to study, it is important to separate the methods - for schoolchildren and students. It would seem that both of them go to lessons and classes, take notes and learn new material, but still there is a difference here, and quite noticeable.

How to make a child study? The schoolchild is just at the age when his parents are responsible for him. The actions of parents play a significant role in motivating a child to study.

Parents can encourage the student or, on the contrary, punish him for poor performance. Teachers help parents keep track of their students’ grades. So the child, most likely, under pressure from his parents, will already be well motivated to study.

How to motivate a child to study?

In the question of how to motivate a child to study, the carrot and stick method for parents in the case of an unmotivated student works with a bang. Enough to promise for successful completion school year some reward, and now, he already has a very visible goal to which he will strive.

This goal could be a new bike or a new computer. Here, see for yourself what interests your child has.

An option for stricter parents is to threaten the student that for poor performance he will be deprived of his pocket money or simply cut in finances.

Well, again, everything is individual here, and parents should pay attention to what values ​​the child values ​​most. For some children, the threat of deprivation of entertainment will be a great motivation to study. By figuring out the priorities and values ​​of their child, parents will be able to understand how to get their child to study.

How to get your child interested in learning

The main thing is to interest the child in learning. If you simply use an imperative tone to force a student to study, then for him it will become exclusively studying for the sake of studying. And then there can be no talk of any motivation. How to get your child interested in learning?

Tell your child about the prospects that await him if he studies well. How useful and interesting knowledge can be if you approach it correctly. This will be an effective motivation to study.

My advice to parents: do not forget that for your child you are the main teacher and mentor, the main example. It is up to you to show your child what possibilities education opens up and how interesting it can be to learn something new.

How to motivate yourself to study?

With students, everything is much more complicated. A student is almost an adult. He faced independence because he lost the supervision of his parents and teachers.

But we still need to learn, perhaps even on a larger scale. But how can you force yourself to study if you have absolutely no desire?

I want to give some advice to unmotivated students on how to motivate themselves to study, how to find meaning in it, and maybe even start enjoying it.

Tips for motivating yourself to study are simple.

1) Don't force yourself. Perhaps, if you have a well-developed gift of self-persuasion, you will be able to force yourself to study for a while. But this unreliable method will only reward you with a bunch of negative emotions.

To motivate yourself to study, ask yourself questions: “Why should I study?”, “What will studying give me?”, “How can I use the knowledge I have acquired?” Think rationally about what you can get from education and how you can benefit from it.

Thoughts of a well-paid job can be a good motivation to study. Moreover, you will have a real, not an ephemeral goal - you want to get well in life. And for this you will have to work.

2) Get interested. Unfortunately, boring teachers who tell you even more boring things in a monotone voice are a common occurrence in a student’s life.

But in fact, knowledge can become an extremely exciting thing if you approach it correctly. You can find educational or documentary on the topic you need, search the Internet for information presented in more accessible language, and so on.

If you awaken in yourself a real, living interest in knowledge, you won’t have to wonder how to force yourself to learn. This The best way, try to use this advice, because it is imperative to motivate yourself to study.

3) Manage your time correctly. Of course, your parents would like to see you glued to your books. But we need to be realistic - everyone needs a break. Decide when you will study and when you will rest. Proper balancing between work and rest is the key to productivity.

4) Try to get enough sleep. Notice that I wrote “try.” Many former students remember their sleepless nights spent studying. But still, chronic lack of sleep leads to many negative consequences, and the head will not work at full capacity.

It’s difficult how to force yourself to study when the only thoughts in your head are about sleep. Therefore, try to plan your time so that you can get enough sleep.

5) Scholarship. The best motivation to study is material motivation. A student who strives to complete the semester in order to receive a scholarship in the future has a completely objective goal. He is heading towards this goal.

Even if there is not enough knowledge, a student interested in receiving a scholarship will use other methods to dodge: talking to teachers, using the help of his friends, and so on.

These resourcefulness skills will help the student in adult life, because the phrase “If you want to live, know how to turn around” are not empty words.

Well, at the end of the student epic, I would like to again turn to the parents of students with advice. Your child has grown up, but this does not mean that you should leave him to the mercy of fate.

Perhaps he needs help with his studies or just a few words of encouragement. The feeling of someone's support gives us a mental support, thanks to which we cope with the difficulties of life.

The great Russian commander Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov knew firsthand what studying was. In parting, I would like to once again mention two famous quotes Suvorov: “Learning is light, but ignorance is darkness” and “Hard in learning, easy in battle.”

I hope that this article on the topic of motivation to study helped you answer the questions “How to force yourself to study?”, “How to motivate yourself to study?” Remember that studying is primarily for you, not for anyone else.

You can find out even more on our self-development portal useful information, for example, about this, or about that, .

Studying is not your strong point, because an English textbook is peacefully gathering dust on your bookshelf, your world history notes have magically turned into a bag for roasted sunflower seeds, and a brochure with traffic rules has gone into your grandmother’s oven.

Are you covered in dust yet? So you definitely won’t be able to become successful person. So let's get down to business and figure out how to motivate yourself to study.

Proven advice from psychologists will help you motivate yourself to study:

1. Think about your erudite friends and acquaintances

Well, do you really want to gasp for air again when your friend Vasily starts talking about the structure of the solar system?

How can you not suffocate with envy when a friend tells you that she is marrying a white-toothed American just because she mastered spoken English in a couple of months? But studying at school wasn’t particularly good for her!

2. Study with someone who is as hungry for knowledge as you are to motivate yourself to study.

And try to show off your successes to each other, because healthy competition in this laudable matter has never harmed anyone.

3. A competent, authoritative mentor can also motivate you to study.

And don’t hesitate to ask the teacher a thousand and one questions if you don’t understand something: this way you motivate yourself to study even more. It’s not for nothing that they say that appetite comes with eating.

4. To motivate yourself to study, you need to always see the “horizon” - in fact, what you are “dying” for over notes and books

Do you want to become a kick-ass plastic surgeon? Then be prepared to cram until you faint the names of muscles, bones and tendons, as well as other medical terminology. But somewhere out there, millions in fees from pop stars are already waiting for you for neat noses and gorgeous busts.

5. Create a clear study schedule and reward yourself with something in between.

Have you learned three exam tickets out of six planned for today? It's time to take a walk for half an hour, eat a couple of your favorite chocolates, or call your laughing girlfriend.

But remember: the reward should be equivalent to the effort spent on studying, so give up on the overnight barbecue just because you learned 10 new ones English words- a clear overkill.

6. If studying is a drag, mortal boredom and melancholy for you, the sketchnoting system will help you motivate yourself

Its essence boils down to making not just notes while studying, but “mental maps” that are understandable to you - with funny drawings, “crazy” quotes from teachers and emoticons. You can read more, for example, in Mike Rohde’s book “Sketchnoting. A Guide to Visualizing Ideas."

7. True aesthetes (and we are sure that you are exactly like this) are motivated to study by ideal order in the workplace, beautiful stationery, and even a bouquet of their favorite flowers

That’s right: it’s hard to enjoy studying if you’re taking notes with a stub of a pencil on an old newspaper, and there’s “chaos and anarchy” all around you.

8. Ideal study conditions will help motivate yourself to new achievements:

- no tight skirts, falling trousers and bangs that get into your eyes while studying - ensure maximum comfort for yourself, even if for you it consists of your favorite pajamas with owls;

- make sure that nothing distracts you from your studies: neither the screams of the “Italian” family living next door, nor calls to your mobile phone, nor the invitingly flashing ICQ window.

If necessary, wear earplugs, plug your ears with cotton wool, or study while facing the wall. You are gone - you “died” and will “resurrect” for the world only when you memorize this damn theorem!

- place a bottle of drinking water and some kind of snack near you before studying, otherwise there is a risk that on the way to the refrigerator you will give in and turn into the living room to watch the news, and then look - and you are already somewhere at the dacha of a childhood friend Seryoga “doodle” beer.

Then it will be useless to motivate yourself;

9. Don't think about what wonderful and interesting things you could have done if you hadn't spent time studying.

You definitely won’t be able to motivate yourself that way. So we think about studying, and only about it, dear, even if outside “the grass is green and the sun is shining.”

10. No matter how stupid this advice may seem, sometimes in order to motivate yourself to study, you just need to sit down with your textbooks and start studying

Remember the good old joke: “At first our cat didn’t like the vacuum cleaner, but then nothing happened - he got hooked.” So get involved!

11. Don’t create “emergency” conditions if you don’t want to hate studying forever, but on the contrary, motivate yourself

Do you need to write an essay on Friday? We do not recommend starting it at 11 pm on Thursday; it is better to divide the amount of work into two or three evenings.

12. Try not to motivate yourself to death to study.

Don’t try to learn three volumes of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia in one sitting - set realistic goals, but complete them strictly.