Thursday, March 22, 2012

Motivation: The Reward System

It's the end of the first term for the school year which means I've spent the past few days doing something I absolutely LOVE doing (<----sarcasm): marking exam papers!  This is something that gets boring quickly. Like, REALLY boring. I've tried many things to make it more exciting: listening to music, playing a movie in the background, munching on sweets, staring at the blank wall in front of my desk ... Nothing really helps.

This time I decided to motivate myself through a reward system. Mark five papers, read one chapter. Repeat. It was pretty cool! And I got to practise my self-discipline by MAKING myself put the book (Legend, by Marie Lu) back down after one chapter. Unfortunately, since I had a deadline, I ended up marking late last night after returning home from a wedding (yup, a midweek wedding) and early this morning before going to school - minus the reward system :-(

So how do you motivate yourself to do something you REALLY don't want to do?

In other awesome news, my video entry won the A to Z Video Challenge!! Yay x 500!
Arlee is featuring me on his blog tomorrow, and some of the other A to Z hosts will be featuring me on their blogs too (like Jenny Pearson and C. Lee McKenzie) - coolness! My blog tour only just ended and now I get to blog-travel again! Oh yeah, and THANK YOU to everyone who voted for my video!


18 comments:

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

I think motivation is the hardest thing for me to accomplish. So to get motivated, I try and get a lot of rest. Being well rested helps out tremendously. If I'm tired...I'm basically a slug.

Unknown said...

Michael - Being rested definitely helps. Whenever I'm feeling seriously demotivated, I usually end up going to bed early. I almost always wake up feeling better the next morning :-)

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the A-Z video win! That reward system sounds great. I wonder if I can get my work to let me do that? Finish a report, read a chapter, repeat...

Unknown said...

Joshua - Ask them to let you try it out for a day. Show them it increases your productivity, and maybe they'll let you continue doing it ;-) Hehe

Elise Fallson said...

It is not easy to get motivated over things you don't like but need to get done. But your reward system intrigues me... I need to try this out with the ironing. I hate ironing. I really, really hate it, but this may work. Iron 5 shirts, read a chapter... No, your right, iron 2 and read a chapter! (;

Annalisa Crawford said...

CHOCOLATE!

Hart Johnson said...

That is the only way I can get myself to get through a long, tedious task, too.

Arlee Bird said...

Congratulations on the A to Z video. It's been popping up in a number of places since announced as the winner. A great promo!

I look forward to your Friday visit on Tossing It Out.


Lee
An A to Z Co-Host
Tossing It Out
Twitter: @AprilA2Z
#atozchallenge

Morgan said...

Giiiirl, congrats on winning the challenge!!!! Not surprised *winks*

Motivation comes in waves for me... I just roll with it... but with those hard moments, I've learned I *have* to push through and make myself do it, otherwise nothing gets done ;)

Carrie Butler said...

Congratulations!

I save up books and TV shows. "You cannot read/watch X until Y is finished!" ;)

Cally Jackson said...

I usually try to mentally beat myself into submission. Strangely enough, it doesn't work very well. Perhaps I'll give this new-fangled reward system idea a try...

Yadin Bromberg said...

Congrats Rachel :D Your video was amazing and you really did a spectacular job :) By the way, I am now following your blog and I was wondering if you could please take the time to go check out my blog at http://yadinbromberg.blogspot.com

Thanks :D

Christine Rains said...

Congratulations on the win! :) I motivate myself with chocolate and gaming breaks.

Abby Minard said...

I have to do the reward system too. Give myself some kind of incentive. Or some kind of consequence that will motivate me. Like, I have to get my house clean by next weekend or else I'll embarrass myself with a messy house in front of my guests ;p

Abby Minard said...

Oh and congrats on the video! That's awesome!!!

Gina Gao said...

Hmm... motivation. I need that to survive the rest of my semester in school.

www.modernworld4.blogspot.com

Sheena-kay Graham said...

So glad you won! Cool reward system by the way.

Sarah Tokeley said...

I definitely have to reward myself afterwards :-)

Congratulations on your win!