Do you find it difficult to focus, as you keep thinking about your summer break? In this article we share our secrets to stay motivated during research!

I trust you had a wonderful summer break and managed to spend quality time with your friends and family. It’s been a challenging academic year for all of us, full of online learning, online classes, exploring new ways to keep colleagues, researchers and students motivated. But despite our move to remote learning, I trust we’ve all learnt something – as motivated academics we’re keen to explore new academic resources that will help us stay motivated and enjoy our work. After all, we need to be able to find some joy in our work to keep on going, am I right? 

I know that coming back from summer break can be challenging. Our minds are still with the beautiful seasides and picturesque mountains we visited. But it’s a new academic year and it’s time to focus on making significant academic progress. 

I want you to promise me one thing this academic year – promise me that this year you will identify one thing that will help you progress your career. Regardless of whether this is writing your thesis, publishing more papers, or finding an academic position, decide on what you want to achieve over the next academic year and prioritise any activities related to this goal. 

For accountability, share your one thing in the comments below! 

I know I am supposed to write about secrets to staying motivated in this article. But I thought I’d rather start by asking you to do and commit to doing something for one reason: my ONE THING for the next academic year is to inspire you to take action, focus on academic achievement and progress your academic career.

To be honest, it will be a difficult thing to do. It’s easy to get discouraged when you experience challenges. And that’s normal – all of us feel this way at some point. So here are the secrets I use to stay motivated and keep on pushing, regardless of the challenges.  

Determine and focus on your why to stay motivated

Staying motivated is virtually impossible if you don’t know why you’re doing things. If you want to build strong intrinsic motivation, which means that the source of your motivation comes from the activity itself, rather than the reward you may receive as a result of it, you need to have a clear rationale for your activities. 

Therefore, before you commit to working on any paper, project or other activity, ask yourself why do you want to do it and whether it aligns with what you want to achieve in your academic career. Knowing your why will make staying motivated much easier! 

Set SMART goals

We’ve already discussed SMART goals at length on our blog, so I won’t define them in this article. Instead, have a look at our other resources here for more information.

What I wanted to emphasise here is the importance that goals have on your academic progress. If you develop a set of goals you want to achieve in the new academic year and keep them in the visible location in your work area, you’d be more likely to achieve these goals. 

This is mostly because you’ll be continuously reminded about these goals and you will be able to prioritise your work better. Your brain will also subconsciously work on finding ways for you to achieve your goals. 

Remember, you’re also more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down by hand! 

Try a new study method

If you’re still doing your coursework part of the PhD degree, you may find that part daunting and, similarly to your fellow students, may find it difficult to stay motivated. After all, coursework is something that keeps you away from doing exciting research that can change the world, right? 

So why won’t you make it more exciting? We’re all different and have different preferences toward learning. Some people cannot imagine taking online classes or studying remotely. Some people thrive in such an environment. Personally, I enjoy a blended approach, both as a student and educator.

That’s why I encourage you to change something in the way you approach coursework. By doing so, you may find a better way to learn and develop your skills – challenge yourself and gain a new perspective!  

Stay organised

When you open your laptop in the morning, and you don’t know what your next task is, it means that you need a plan. There is a lot of ways to organise your work, keeping up to date with to-do lists. You can use apps, notes and pencil – whatever works for you. 

How to get organised? You need to find out the method that works for you: you might like to work on 3-months plans for bigger projects, plan for the week ahead, and even keep up with daily to-do lists. It sounds like a bit of work, isn’t it? But in the end, it’s better to spend a few minutes planning rather than wondering what you need to do next!

Be SMART and write everything down. Additional benefit: do you know that satisfying feeling when you’re done with your plan and you just crossed it over? Totally worth it, isn’t it?

Stay balanced to stay motivated

It’s quite easy to throw yourself into all-work-and-nothing-but-the-work mode. I get that you’re motivated and you want just to get the job done. Don’t forget to recharge, though! You need energy for the whole journey, not just the first week. The key is to find the right balance between your work and life. 

Let me share a secret that actually helps me to build quite a healthy balance. Here it is – even when I’m working from home, I keep my work hours pretty stiff. That helped me realise that I can share my day between work and things I love to do! 

Think about what you want to do after work: maybe you could pick up a new hobby? Or you would like to explore your local area? Maybe find some students’ clubs, or check on social media if there is anything you like to try. It’s all about meeting new friends and gaining some new skills! You don’t have to be a professional to join a local volleyball team or create art! You can just keep trying as long as you feel happy and relax.

Your work is important, but so are you! 

Do what you love

That brings me to one of the most important secrets to staying motivated in academia. You need to find time to do what you truly love and why you decided to pursue an academic career. 

Regardless of whether you love teaching, doing research, or running public engagement activities, make sure that you regularly make time for these in your calendar. It’s really easy to say “yes” to many activities that may appeal to be interesting at first, but when you’re in the middle of delivering these, you start wondering why you agreed to do it in the first place – been there? I have!

I know it’s difficult to say “no” – it takes some practice. But it’s important for your work and life balance. That’s why you need to know your why – it will help you prioritise what really matters to you, what you’re good at, and what you truly enjoy! 

Always use positive reinforcement to stay motivated

Finally, we know this may not be the best way to motivate ourselves, but a bit of extrinsic motivation never hurts. It’s crucial that you celebrate your wins, regardless of how big or small they are. After you achieve your goals or come up with a brilliant solution to the problem that you’ve been trying to solve for the past months, allow yourself to take a break, spend some time with friends and family and enjoy your life! 

You may also award yourself in one way or another! 

Conclusions

Staying motivated after the summer break can be difficult, especially since most of us haven’t been on holiday for a really long time. The secrets I listed here work for me and I hope you will find them useful. The key here is to find what works for you!

With that in mind, make sure you share with us your ways to stay motivated in the comments!