Improving Motivation

A simple way to improve motivation is to self-monitor your behaviors.  This involves breaking goals down into daily task.  Completing daily tasks and charting your progress gives you instant feedback on your progress.  Seeing yourself keep your daily goals becomes self-motivating and helps to keep you moving forward towards your large goal.

This is what psychologists call “systematic self-monitoring” and it’s the cornerstone of most behavior change methodologies.  For instance, most weight loss plans involve keeping a food journal, and professional athletes track their workout routines and performance in tracking journals.

We can adapt this same methodology for everyday tasks we need to keep motivated on.  Kids can keep homework or reading journals for instance.  Parents can keep a chart to track progress toward yearly savings goals.

When it comes to changing online habits, setting up structure in case you fall off track can help with motivation and keep behaviors in check.  At Summerland Camps we recommend using free Google extensions to help manage use of social media and gaming online.

StayFocusd (link to Google Store listing: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji ) is a free add-on for Chrome which allows users any website including Facebook or Instagram for a certain amount of time, time of day, or days of week.  You can easily set up StayFocused to block social media during work hours, or to totally block access before a major exam.