How to stay motivated.

Maybe all you guys have realised that as creative as I can get to write blog posts, I am the absolute worst at making up titles. Sumpah "How to stay motivated" sounds like the most demotivating thing I've heard before. But whatever lah kan, let's get into it. Well, I bet like 99% of the population, no matter how kiasu you are as a person, laziness and feeling demotivated will hit you like a big firetruck. Oleh itu, sya decided to write this post to share some of the things I did to kurangkan my laziness and stay semangat to study/berjuang or whatever. And hopefully, I can help you too.

1. Remove all impending distractions

Okay, do not get me wrong, when studying you do need breaks and time to have fun because worse comes to worse, you'll burn out and pancit and maybe lose the will to study altogether. So make sure, to always make time to enjoy your life so that the learning experience in it's entirety isn't such a torture. BUUUTTT, this post is not to pujuk you and say "Oh, tak pe kalau rehat sekali-sekala". This point is targeted to those people who may easily be distracted or have a phone addiction which tbh many people have.

Alhamdulillah, I am not too addicted to my phone, itu pun sebab I jenis senang migraine so staring at my phone for long hours would kill me so I didn't have a choice. But as a safety precaution, what I did was delete all unnecessary social media apps (Instagram, Snapchat, Tik-tok, Myspace, Friendster, Facebook - jk I don't half the things here). So last-last all I had was the necessities - Whatsapp and Telegram. I even deleted Youtube because I liked to binge watch random stuff which distracted me greatly. It really did help tbh, because when I rasa liat nak study, I honestly had nothing else to do when I opened my phone so I'd either continue lah buat add maths or tidur. It helped a lot especially in helping me sleep early where I tk de lah main phone sampai pagi-pagi buta.

2. Be with the right crowd 

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't fake ke apa, just that masa kat sekolah dulu, I was lucky that all my friends were really fun people but knew when to belajar betul-betul. So my advice is, maybe masa exam season, try be close to the people that inspire you to study harder and achieve better because most likely you pun turut rasa rajin sekali.

This also correlates with the distractions part, masa I kat sekolah dulu, during prep time, my friends and I akan berpakat to letak our phones jauh-jauh and tegur each other kalau kita org distracted masa study. So I think this really helps, because you don't feel left out being the only nerd but you rasa lagi semangat sebab tengok kawan-kawan you yang lain pun tengah study. Sumpah rasa sentap kalau I tengah main phone pastu tengok member lain tengah focus buat add maths, of course you'd feel like, "Man, wtheck am I doing, SPM berapa bulan je lagi". Yeah that thought hurts but helps.

Also, if lah somehow your friends are the type that don't like to study, this is where your own discipline comes in. Remember the timetable I talked about, yeah, stick to it and tell your friends "Look, aku kena ikut jadual aku ni kalau tak, tak leh cover everything for exam." So I guess you have to set some ground rules as to when you want to study and when to ber-joli. Even better, you should ajak your friends to study sekali with you. One thing I highlighted masa Webinar was, my friends and I akan pasang lagu kuat-kuat kat dorm and we'd sing sambil buat add maths. It was really fun and we got to belajar sekali so win-win right?

3. Make your phone your reminder

Masa kat sekolah, I used to put my goals semua as my wallpaper. It really did help because obvly I am a human being living in the 21st century, of course lah the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night is to check my phone. So masa bangun tengok goals, sebelum tidur pun tengok goals. It helps build a 'winning' mindset. Here was my wallpaper dulu (well it still is now cos I malas nak tukar but whatevs):

Another thing that it helped with was masa I leka main phone and terus tengok lock screen pun dah besar-besar 10A+, confirm hesitate sekejap and get back to work. Sentap to say the least.

4. Have a countdown to exam day

This one was really helpful in reminding me (if I hadn't been scared to death already) that SPM tinggal berapa hari je lagi. Ada apps yang untuk countdown and siap ada notification, so like tengah sibuk stalk orang tetiba dapat notification: "10 Days to SPM", I will slowly put down my phone and say "Sh*t."

Another thing I did was yknow those big countdown signs yang boleh ubah the number, most likely ada kat sekolah korang or where ever. Well I made my own countdown sign and tepek kat my study table and akan update everyday. Here's the one I did, in fact I made 3 countdown signs for 1. Trials, 2. SPM Fasa 1 cos yknow Geo en, 3. SPM itself.

It really did keep me going when I was studying. If you guys want a tutorial to make a countdown, be sure to hmu.

5. Have a dream board

To be fair, this was a KYS tradition for all form fives. We had something called an SPM profile where we'd be given a piece of cardboard to decorate and on it, we would write down our dream university, occupation and sponsorship body. And then we would paparkan somewhere public like kat class so that we'd always be reminded of our dreams with the hopes kita tak tersasar jauh. Maybe for those yang day school or sekolah korang tak de buat that sort of thing, you can always hang it or tampal in your room as extra motivation. Here was mine:

6. Stay in touch with your loved ones

Of course if you were to ask me who is your number one motivation to study, I would say myself. Because, no matter what you do, the main person you want to please is yourself. There is no doubt that you can't please everyone, so make sure to make yourself the number one priority when achieving something. My second, third and so on, sudah semestinya, my mom,dad and adik. That's a picture of my fam bam, cute right?

When I was in form 5, I will admit in the beginning I memang taksub habis to study all the time to the point I jarang contact my parents because I was too busy but then I realised, if you love someone you don't FIND time, you MAKE time. So towards trials and SPM, I decided to call them more often because of course lah nak kekalkan hubungan silaturahim but it also served as a reminder that my SPM wasn't just for me but for them. So every time I called them, I felt more compelled to say, "Yknow what, I want to make these people proud". Also, it wasn't easy for them to let me go to boarding school for 5 years, and I was in a private school so expenses were quite high even though I was a scholar. So, takkan lah I would want to let their sacrifice go to waste right? Oleh itu, belajar lah betul-betul not only for yourself but for them also.

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I guess those were some of the things that helped me stay motivated and more compelled to pick up my books when laziness struck. Remember, all the tips I gave vary from person to person, maksudnya mungkin untuk sya it works wonders but for somebody else, they can't maintain it or tak selesa. Don't worry, maybe take what I said and incorporate your own style or twist to suit you. I guess that's all from me, stay motivated folks!

Lots of love,

Sya.