Self-Diagnosis

• Behavior: you may notice that you are simply not spending as much time as you should on schoolwork (the general guideline is two hours outside of class for every hour in class). You do other things, or simply make excuses for not getting down to work.
• Marks: your marks are not as good as they should be, and again, you deduce that you are not putting in the time.
• Emotional responses: you feel guilty, bored, resentful, despairing, anxious, and so on, about your school work.
• Physical responses: you notice that you feel tired whenever you are supposed to be studying; but this feeling miraculously goes away when you get distracted with an activity that is more fun.

So, "motivation" is a sort of "catch-all" term, that includes all sorts of problems, many of which look very much like others. So try out a few different strategies, and come see a Learning Skills Counsellor.

The Learning Skills Program offers a number of resources in this area.

More on motivation.