Calling all students! Let's motivate each other to get our work done, in addition to getting healthy!

CC has been so wonderful at motivating me to get healthy and there are so many great people here! So, I was thinking, the next thing I desperately need motivation for is school work! Who's in?

Ok, so I didn't want my story to tag along forever with every reply, so here goes. I am a grad student at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. Even though the spring semester just ended, I now have a summer of research to look forward to. I find it even harder to stay focused when deadlines are vague and there is only one thing to work on! Help!

Hey! I'm also having motivation issues with school. I just graduated with my bachelor's in Memphis, TN and am currently applying for grad school in the fall. A little close to the deadline, I know. I'm working for one of my professors over the summer and will be his GA in the fall. I guess I still have 'senioritis', but it's difficult for me to stay focused also. I've gotten to where I'll do everything but study for the GRE or prepare for fall classes lol. My job is pretty much research and course material, but the money is the only thing keeping me focused on that.

So what area of study are you focusing on? I'm in the IT world. It can be repetitive, thus I can be easily distracted at times.

I'm at university (college) too and I have a heap of exams/tests coming up that I NEED to study for! Also I need to start going to lectures again =s

I haven't started my summer semester yet, but I'll definitely need some motivation once I do.  This thread is a great idea since when I should be studying, I'll likely be browsing the CC forums, and seeing this will remind me that I ought to be doing classwork!  :D  Count me in!

serenitii- ug. I hated the GRE! I  decided I was going to apply for grad school so quickly that I registered to take the exam 2 weeks later. OMG. I thought my head was going to explode. After the exam I don't remember driving home. I remember being in the car and making a left out of the parking lot and then I remember waking up in my bed at home. :P It is nice to be getting paid to go to school though :P I am in Mechanical Engineering. I got my Master's a year ago and now I am working on the PhD.

laur3nmeai- yep, lectures help ;) When is your semester over?

purespark- lol, yep that is exactly what I was thinking

I am needing some motivation for school!!! I am currently getting my Master's in International Relations and Conflict Resolution. I was great until I was not told that a book did not come with my textbook order, so I had to order it off of Amazon....well, it was supposed to show up last Thursday, but HAS NOT SHOWN UP YET!! So, I am trying to get everything done I can without the actual book infront of me. AHH!!

Not only that, but I have a 15-20 page paper due in 6 weeks!! WHAT?!?

Wish me luck guys/girls!!

hello! I really need motivation for homework! I'm attending school for Court Reporting so the one thing I need to be doing is practicing! The more I practice, the faster I type and the sooner I get out of school...

going camping this weekend is NOT going to help! lol.. but I did type a test last night that I felt confident in and decided to transcribe it... so we'll see what happens :)

jess- you rock! I didn't know you were going for a PhD! Smarty pants! ;) Andy, my b/f, is going to school for Mechanical Engineering right now. I think he's going to finish his degree at Akron here in Ohio.. He'd love to go to Case Westeren but that's really expensive..

serenitii- yeah, the $$ is a big influence in my studying too.. One thing that helps is that I have a printed sheet on my fridge that I got from a classmate that says Court Reportering is one of the top ten jobs that is a 6 figure job without a proffesional degree... that is earned with overtime of course :)

laurenmae- you're payin for those lectures! you may as well show up ;)

purespark- so true... only, I usually browse through here at work... oops!

la- good luck getting that book!! 20 pages! holy crap! good luck with that too! you can do it! :)

I had my summer planning meeting with my adviser yesterday, so I now have my first 'assignments' of the summer. I have to make a timeline for the summer and come up with the title of my thesis, and search for articles to read and then... actually do everything I am planning. boo!

lajohnson- ug. papers are not my thing... I just had to write a 10 page term paper and it was not pretty. papers in engineering just involve a lot of entering in equations which is slow and tedious. Just curious, what kind of classes do you take for your masters?

stacey- lol I think the PhD thing just makes me feel dumber most days :p My b/f John is also a Mechanical Engineer and, funny enough, we rarely talk about anything engineering related. Is Andy thinking of going to grad school at Case Western? Can you count typing on the forums as practice?

krppt - thanks for the well wishes!!! I find that if i break down my to-do list by only one or two tasks at a time, I get them done fairly quickly and I feel so much more in control and productive!

 

jess - I am taking a lot of international politics, law, organizations, area studies, etc classes. i generally enjoy my papers, but this one is going to be a doosie!!

Hi.. I suppose I could use some motivation. I'm going into my senior year of my bachelor of Science (in Computer Science) degree. I kinda messed around a bit my first two years thinking I was just going to go on and get my BEd, then teach high school. Then I realized that what I really wanted was to go on to grad school, but my average was kinda low. Its high enough now after year 3, but I'd like to bring it up even more.

Right now I'm doing research and could probably use some motivation in that department to. Seeing as I should be coding now rather than cruising C-C's forums!

good morning! I hope everyone had a great holiday! I didn't get any homework done but I told my teachers that was going to happen b/c I went camping :) I did pass a test last week though! and my sister had her 2nd baby!! :D I had a great weekend!

jess- working on school stuff over summer is never fun. I don't get any summer breaks... I just go to school year-round... It's kind of funny b/c he'll talk about schoolwork and I get lost in the sauce, but then I try to talk to him about my schoolwork and he gets just as lost... lol.. I'm not sure about the options with Case... I don't even think Case is really in the picture since it's expensive... I wish I could count it as practice! unfortunately, stenography is pretty much a completely different language...

la- I'm an obssessive planner... lol.. I used to mentally plan my days to the minute! But I've relaxed a little :)

sarah- research gets so boring after a while! just get on the computer and plan to visit CC once you've researched for 30 minutes :)

I definitely require motivation! I'm doing a phD in computing and right this second I'm supposed to be writing a progress report (well, 2, but one's going to be copied and pasted from the first :)) but I'm on here and checking forums, not to mention IMing people!

Yep, this is going to be tough because motivating each other means encouraging ourselves to stop checking the forums and get back to work ;)

The long weekend has me a bit groggy today and I am having a hard time concentrating. Thank goodness it is almost time to call it quits! I would say I was 80% productive today... I can live with that!

What did everyone do for Memorial Day?

No holiday over here (I'm from Ireland), so I just worked on my progress reports and finally finished them. Hopefully my supervisor will have read them before I meet him this afternoon, so I can send them in and MOVE ON!

 

jpm_jess, wow 80%? That's about double my productivity on a regular day. I'm a rubbish grad student, my concentration levels are zilch

princess-dora: yep 80% is a good day. Today has started out sooo bad on the productivity scale. The day is half over and I have barely sat at my desk. I volunteered to organize a bbq tomorrow for the grad students in my department so I went shopping at the wholesale club this morning. I realized I was in over my head when I tried to get the massive cart load of stuff into my car. Feeding 50 people is a lot of work!

Your department sounds like so much more fun than mine! Then again, I'm a real party pooper, nearly 3 years as a grad student (how depressing) and I haven't been to one social function with the others, not even lunch!

 

Someone please get me to do SOMETHING with regard to this reputation stuff, otherwise my head will explode (because my supervisor will glare so hard at it)

good morning! I'm going to have a really hard time getting any homework in this weekend... I am planning a suprise party for my b/f tonight... I'm working tomorrow morning from 6-12 then my b/f's family is having a big picnic, then Sunday I'm sleeping in and going to a friends house for an eyebrow wax and my b/f needs a haircut.. AND I made plans to see my sister Sunday!! oh geez... hopefully I can get one hour of typing in on Sunday and again on Monday... ugh... I'm never going to pass a typing test at this rate! Summer is so busy...

I went camping for Memorial Day! So much fun! So relaxing!! I can't wait to do it again next year! jess- bbq sounds like fun!! that does sound like a lot of work; good job!

re: social activities... our school doesn't do anything social at all... it's more like a career college so it's one tiny building in Cleveland and everyone is from around there... They try to do themed days but it never really takes off.. especially for the night students b/c we are usually coming right from work! boo.. I was jealous b/c I was in Columbus once and one branch of our school was participating in a walk-a-thon! They had t-shirts and everything! :( Maybe I'll suggest that to the president of student counsel...

get busy girls ;)

 

wow! I'm sooo jealous you went camping, krrpt!! I haven't been in sooo long! I managed to finish my homework for the week on Friday, and all Memorial Day Weekend was spent at different cook outs and what not.

Right now I have a 99.6% in my class!! woooooooooot!! now, to get on this paper.....

jess - hope your bbq went well!! at my job, each department put on their own bbq, but with 150 employees, that gets a lil pricey!! this year we're doing it a lil differently. I'm going to miss the bbqs!!

desperately trying to build good eating and fitness habits now in the hope that my first year of law school won't crush them. took a year off, and am bracing for the transition back to school, which i anticipate will be a far cry from the rager that was undergrad. tips for keeping healthy while weathering the rigors of grad school?

<3 toc

lajohnson- we had so much fun! we are pretty primitive campers but we got a cabin this year and it was perfect!! secluded, beautiful, tons of hiking... we're so going back next year! 99.6%?!!!! you rock!!!!!

tocatta- the easiest thing to stay healthy for me while in school (not grad, just regular college) is to workout at home. I usually workout in the morning, or just whenever I have time. good luck in law school! you can do this :)