Memorie Brooks, CFNN Reporter                   

While we’re all in quarantine and staying around the house for most of the day, we might be finding it difficult to stay motivated and complete important work. This, however, can become much easier if you just take the right steps. Here are some tips on limiting distractions and staying motivated.

Limiting distractions is one of the most important aspects of staying motivated. This includes phones, TV, or even other people. The first step is identifying what distracts you, then distancing yourself from said distraction(s). You’ll never get any work done if you’re constantly looking at your phone or laughing and talking with someone else. If you’re working on the computer, it’s possible to temporarily block certain apps and websites to help you stay focused on your work.

Eat breakfast! You’re probably used to people telling you how breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but you may not really understand all the benefits that come from eating breakfast in the morning. It can help improve memory as well as concentration. It also replenishes your supply of glucose and can provide nutrients to keep your energy levels up throughout the day. 

Plan out your day. Planning your day helps you visually see and understand your goals for that day as well as what you’re realistically able to accomplish in 24 hours. It’s always good to have a plan and to stick to it. It’s also important to highlight the things you absolutely have to get done that day, whether it be school work or work in general. There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing all the things you had to do that day done and checked off your list. 

Work first, fun later. Have you ever planned to get work done only to look at your phone for a few minutes and just lose all motivation? Well it’s important to set aside fun activities, like video games or social media, until you’re finished with what you set out to accomplish for the day. This way you’ll have more motivation to complete tasks via delayed gratification, whereas if you just began with the fun activities, you’ll find it more difficult to even start your work. Try to do the more difficult things first and work your way down.

Don’t over work yourself though, it’s ok to take short breaks. Try to find a balance between work and fun that suits you and what work you’re doing best. 

Set deadlines for yourself. Setting a deadline can really help with motivation. While we’re at school or work, we’re given a date to finish and turn in certain work. When this date is given, we feel more motivated to finish our work before that date. If you keep telling yourself you’re going to do something later, you’re less likely to actually do it. If you actually tell yourself, I’m going to finish this by this date, then you’re more likely to actually get started on what you need to do sooner. If what you need to do is a project for school that already has a set deadline, just split up the project into small mini deadlines. For example, this part of the project will be done by this date, and this other part will be done by this.

Overall, finding motivation can be really difficult. Especially if we’re stuck inside our house all day. Though if we take the right steps, we can find that getting work done becomes a little easier. Good luck staying motivated!