Dear Susie and Jasper,
Hi. After break I’ve been struggling to have any ambition to complete the rest of the year. It is so hard to complete all of my work because I have no motivation for anything. My grades are already dropping. I don’t know what to do. Any advice?
Thanks,
School Sickness
Dear School Sickness,
Losing motivation after break is normal and happens to a lot of kids. If your grades are dropping early, it doesn’t mean you can’t get them back up. Their are barely any grades in the grade book you have time.
If your struggling with turning your work in on time it is better to aim for done and not perfect because half-effort work turned in beats missing assignments. It is also a mindset, don’t think “finish all homework,” think “open the document and write one paragraph.” Momentum comes after starting. You also don’t have to fix everything at once because one small win rebuilds confidence. Use school time to your advantage try and stay on top, so you don’t have as much work to do when you get home. Talk to a teacher or a counselor and say your struggling because if they know this it is easier for them to help you further with maybe extensions or extra help. It is worth a shot.
What I do that really helps me is to work somewhere else besides your room like maybe in a coffee shop or a library. It also helps if you find a friend that doesn’t goof off to do your homework with because when you make a specific time with a friend to complete certain assignments this helps you stay motivated to finish that assignment.
You’re not behind forever. You’re just stuck at the restart line. Some options can be to write a message to a teacher or make a catch-up plan.
Sincerely,
Susie
Hey School Sickness,
January motivation is a scam. Your brain just got yanked out of rest mode and shoved back into “produce results” Of course you don’t care.
Motivation is unreliable and honestly kind of fake. You don’t have to make everything perfect just do whatever is the least amount of effort where you can still get good credit. Your A+ era can come later. Right now, your job is survival mode. You can’t improve work that doesn’t exist, so do the work where it is good enough. Set a 15-minute timer and promise you’ll quit when it ends (you often won’t). Start with the assignment you hate the least, not the one that matters most. Change your environment, you’re already losing. Library = academic weapon, kitchen table = neutral zone, coffee shop = main-character productivity, sitting near focused people = free peer pressure. You don’t need will power. You need witnesses. Study with someone who would judge you for scrolling. Tell a friend what you’re finishing today. Ask a teacher to check in with you (scary but effective). Also use teacher to your advantage because teachers are way nicer before you disappear completely.
Accept that this is a reset, not a downfall, you didn’t “fall off,” you paused and now you’re rebooting. You’re not behind forever. You’re just buffering. You don’t need a miracle. You need one mildly productive afternoon.
Later,
Juicy Jasper