I bet you’ve got good intentions and want to get things done. The summer is probably a time you were thinking of doing some IB work, but now it’s really hard to make yourself work. Don’t worry, everyone struggles to get stuff done sometimes. However, it is possible to allocate time in a way that makes getting things done way easier. Even during the summer holiday this method will help you be way more productive!
Brain Tricks
To successfully motivate yourself you must create productive time. We’re going to talk about what this is in a moment, but first I want to help you avoid some sneaky traps your brain may be tricking you into. You see, most people never achieve productive time because they feel like they should be productive all the time. Because of this, most people walk around feeling bad about procrastinating and never get around to doing any work.
What they don’t realise is that this is a classic brain-trick. If you are feeling bad but not working your brain has done a sophisticated substitution trick on you. You see, human brains are lazy, so they would rather you feel bad (easy to do) than work (hard to do). If you want to be productive during your own time you must first accept that no matter what you are doing, or how you are feeling – if you aren’t working when you should be your brain has tricked you. It is substituting work with something else: play, guilt, worry, planning etc. Once you realise this you will be able to move on to the Allocation and Commitment stage below..
Allocation and Commitment
The technique that I promise will work is allocating time for a task and committing that time. Let’s say you want to read through physics notes for 20 minutes a day. Go grab your calendar and put those 20 minutes in. Here comes the interesting part. When we get to the first 20 minute slot sit down with your textbook. Preferably you will be far away from all distractions. Now, if you find you start getting distracted, don’t worry or panic, just return to the book. If you can’t return to the book just sit there. The key is, if it is textbook O’Clock then do not do anything else.
Prioritise
Finally, don’t forget to prioritise. It can be super tempting to try to do ALL THE WORK, but it doesn’t matter how much work you do, the key is how useful that work is for you. So remember, think about how important tasks are based on how they will affect your grade. Then do the important things first.
And that’s it! Avoid brain tricks, make sure you allocate time and commit to it, and don’t just rush in… prioritise your tasks. Do all this and you will see your productivity shoot up over the summer. Good luck!
