Introducing Peer Mentor Presents: How I Stayed Motivated in College (Written by students for students)

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Thank you to Genevieve Vasquez for sharing today's Peer Mentor Presents with us. Read below for great tips and strategies to excel in school!

Peer Mentor Presents: How I stayed motivated in college.

I think I can speak for a lot of us when I say that staying motivated in college is not an easy task. You become one voice in a sea of thousands and you begin to feel really small and insignificant. I struggled with staying motivated long before I got to college, but college has a way of amplifying little issues like this. 


At first I tried to write everything down but I soon found myself struggling to even do that at the start of every week. I knew I had to do something different, since the normal way of planning would not work for me.


 I attended one of the ARC’s workshops about staying motivated and it really opened my eyes to the many different ways that you could stay motivated. One option that helped me was using sticky notes! I would write down all my tasks on different colored sticky notes and put them above my desk. When I would finish a task I would move it over to the other side of my desk so I could see how much progress I’ve made.


 One of the main problems I saw myself recycling was finding myself doing work, but not feeling productive. This led me to be in a constant cycle of not wanting to work. However, this made me realize it was deeper than just my motivation. During the pandemic, my mental health had hit an all time low and I had to adjust a lot of the ways that I managed my time. I seeked out therapy and help from those closest to me where I was able to work one on one about my struggles staying motivated. And it turned out, there was a lot more going on that even I hadn’t realized.


I guess what I’m trying to say here is that, although we are all Highlanders, we all have different needs. Staying motivated during this time is especially hard and it’s okay to be looking for resources and other means of help. I never thought I would be someone who would solve their problems through outside sources but you never know until you try.