Well these are some things that help me get motivated:
- plan out my day the night before, make a timetable or a list of things I MUST DO, if I don't finish any of them, they carry on to the next day.
- if I cant concentrate, I usually just start writing creative writing pieces, lets me relax while gearing my English skills
- during my breaks, instead of like listening to music or the radio in the mornings, I’ll listen to a Japanese speaking cd, while say looking at magazines etc.
- I’ve got a whiteboard, i take advantage of that, making notes, planning work, memorising quotes/formulaes/essays/planning essay structures etc - as soon as I get up I see what I’ve wrote – really hammers in what ever you’re trying to learn every morning
- I find that when I do my advanced or extension maths homework, it doesnt need so much concentration so i'll usually listen to japanese cd's which is practise for listening exams and speaking too/or just music
- I treat myself now and then for hard work!
- organisation is really key for me to get motivated, that may even mean every few months I rearrange my room (yes, that means changing the furniture around) to refresh my mind and if you let all the papers and homework build up, it takes forever to clean up and re-organise
- tell yourself, it's only the end of this term and the next year until you finish school FOREVER..so put in the hard work and you'll be rewarded!
- go hang out with a friend for a day, go to the beach, a jog anything..when you come back your more likely to go back to doing some work
- if you're going to procrastinate...do it this way. Sometimes I do, so my favourite subject that being maths or Japanese, i'll do work for those subjects because it doesn’t feel like I HAVE to do it, I want to do it. So in the end that time that could have been used to watch TV, I have used to have fun studying and working on my favourite subjects rather than absolutely nothing. Even if it just learning one formulae, it’s better than nothing, so always go back to your most loved subjects when you dont wan’t to do an English essay blah blah etc.
- I tend to do maths and Japanese in between my humanities subjects, so that it doesn’t feel like I’m doing essay after essay after essay..
- I’ll write a word on my hand everyday in Japanese, and just doing that helps me remember to learn one, and one very well! It’s better than nothing...get what I’m saying?
- I’m in the top 3 at my school, so it's important to be motivated if you want to be number 1!
- I just keep telling myself, you must not only surpass the elite, but you must surpass yourself.
Hope that helps :]