How to stay motivated?
I have broken this blog into 5 sections. These tips come from my personal experience of managing work and student life in a completely new environment. Hope you find this helpful too.
Be an effective learner
An effective learner is someone who takes time in planning their study around their lives. It just doesn’t happen overnight. Take time out when you need to, if you feel overwhelmed do not keep it bottled, ask for help. Start by setting a study routine and try to stick with it daily. Plan available study time, work out assessment/exam dates ahead so that it doesn’t clash with your work commitments. Studying with your friends will help you stay motivated and keep learning motivated.
Managing your time
Make sure that you have enough time aside set for studying. As international students work is an important part of our lives for survival. This can be particularly tough when you are managing other life commitments. A very important first step is working out what your actual priorities are. Keep a reminder of WHY you are here? Review the WHY often especially when life starts humbling you. Google Pomodoro Technique and find out how it helps.
Set SMART Goals
Start with what is achievable for you. Check out an example on how to achieve it
Goal: I will follow the course study guide to ensure I complete my work on time.
Specific: Every Monday, I’ll check the course study guide to see what I need to cover and plan how to complete the work.
Measurable: I will know how many modules/topics I need to work through each week.
Achievable: I can tick off each module as I do them.
Realistic: The amount of work I plan will be in line with the rest of my commitments.
Timely: I can check my progress against my goal every Monday.
Personally, I set one hour aside during week days and 2 hours aside during weekends to study. This would be minimum time spent and I would increase it as per my assignments and exam dates.
Making notes
Notes can help you to learn and to remember new information. The basics of good note taking is to identify key main ideas, make comments as you go. Use colours, images, symbols as your tutor explains concepts. There is no right way or wrong way. They should be readable and useful to you. The main goal of those notes is help you learn. I personally would print the reading material and write hand written notes. But you may choose to take digital notes. Find out what works for you the best.
Mind-mapping
You will be often asked to break down concepts in your own words. Mind maps are a great way to present those concepts visually and you can include them in your assignments. This is a great way to help you organise and structure your thoughts and ideas and provide a quick recap of what you have learnt.