School

I'm a few weeks into a new semester now. At the moment, I'm in class (with approximately 45 minutes left of a very long class) and feeling quite bored. This is one of the classes I'm not too worried about... Unless it becomes problematic because it's so boring that I want to just skip class. Right now it's a little frustrating because the teacher is going through the slides way too fast to copy any of it down :/

This semester I've got some dances classes that should go pretty well. I'm in 2 classes for my major - this easy one and a much harder one that I'm quite nervous about. I also have a religion class that I'm taking for fun (second half of the New Testament).

I have some issues with school... If I think something's boring, I have very little motivation to do anything with it. Hence, I have a hard time making myself doing hard, tedious, boring or intimidating homework. It's a problem that's been there as long as I can remember, but I was able to get by until college. I've been slowly making improvements each semester, but it's been hard. With the recent 3-day weekend I made some good progress! I went 1) with a friend 2) to the library and found a 3) quiet room with comfy chairs to study, and when I was getting sleepy, I 4) got out a fun (completely unrelated) novel to read a few chapters from before returning to homework. It worked really well! (Minus the slow internet there).

- Having a friend (even though we study in silence) gives me social motivation to study. I like being with people, and I don't like disappointing them.
- The library has resources, and it's harder to be lazy there.
- The particular study room had really good lighting, was very quiet, and the comfortable chairs made a difference. I used to try studying in a cubicle, and it would drive me nuts.
- The fun book satisfies my urge to distractibility by being totally different from and unrelated to my homework. It also has chapters, which give me a clear stopping place, unlike facebook. Reading is thoroughly enjoyable for me, and is enough to perk me up, give me a break, and give me something to look forward to.

Hopefully I can use some of these things I discovered to help me stay more on track this semester and develop good study habits. Sometimes school feels rather hopeless, but these gave me a gleam of optimism when I realized that they work for me. Now I need to put them into consistent practice!