Nature Waiting For Motivational Fairy PDF

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that difficult task look any more appealing.
That’s just not how motivation works.
Most people have a fundamental misunder

Waiting for the

standing: we like to think that motivation
leads to action, or, more simply, that when
you feel like doing something, you’ll do it.
motivation fairy
This model might work for things you enjoy
doing, such as watching a film or going for a
walk. But it’s not particularly good for huge
tasks with fuzzy deadlines. The problem is
that you may never feel motivated to revise
It’s easy to give in to procrastination — but Hugh Kearns and resubmit that paper — at least not until
a hard-and-fast deadline appears. You need a
and Maria Gardiner offer some tips for getting your different model.
drive back.
MOTIVATION MOJO
Some psychology research shows that action
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound useful, and you may well be, but it’s not the leads to motivation, which in turn leads to
they make as they go by.” thing you should be doing right now. more action. You have to start before you feel
— Douglas Adams So why is housekeeping, for example, so ready; then you’ll feel more motivated, and
much fun when you’re supposed to be working then you’ll take more action. You’ve prob-
I
f you were trying to set up ideal conditions on your dissertation or a paper? It’s a displace- ably had this experience yourself. You put off
for procrastination, conducting a research ment activity, used to dispel the self-reproach running an analysis for ages; eventually, you
project would provide them. Such projects or discomfort that we feel for not doing some- decide to do it, and once you start, you say to
tend to be large and time-consuming: com- thing else. Reading a novel or taking a nap yourself, “This isn’t as bad as I thought. Why
pleting a doctoral research project, not keep going while I’m at it?”
for example, often takes three years Of course, starting before you feel
L. LATULIPPE/CORBIS
or more. Deadlines and endpoints motivated is difficult. But certain

are often fuzzy and ill-defined. Then strategies can directly tackle the con-
there’s the reward structure: you can ditions that lead to procrastination in
put in a lot of effort with little to no the first place.
positive feedback along the way, First, big projects need to be bro-
and the rewards, if there are any, ken down into steps. Not just small
take a long time to come. Add to steps, but tiny steps. Instead of saying
this the fact that scientists are often you’ll make the revisions to the paper
perfectionists with demanding, if — which probably seems overwhelm-
not idealistic, expectations, and it ing — the tiny step could be that
is little wonder that procrastination you’ll read the reviewer’s comments
is the most discussed topic in our or you’ll make the first two changes.
graduate-student and researcher Second, you need to set a time or
workshops. Many researchers simply deadline by which to perform that
take for granted that they are at the tiny step. Saying you’ll do it later or
mercy of the forces of procrastination, tomorrow isn’t enough — the dead-
doomed to increased stress levels and line needs to have an ‘o’clock’ attached
stretched deadlines. But there are sim- to it. Third, you need to build in an
ple strategies for pushing yourself to immediate reward. If you finish read-
get engaged. The first is to recognize ing the comments by your deadline at
the patterns that you’re falling into. 10:00 a.m., you can allow yourself to
have a coffee, a brief chat or a quick
ADVANCED DISPLACEMENT causes too much guilt. But have you ever, say, e-mail exchange. It’s highly likely that once
Some procrastination activities are pretty reorganized your folders to make it easier to you start the task, your motivation will kick
obvious. There’s the morning coffee break that find the files? It would speed up your writing, in and you’ll find yourself wanting to spend
creeps into lunchtime. Or watching videos on after all. Or perhaps you’ve diligently labelled longer at it.
YouTube and sending them to all your friends. all the cupboards in the lab to make it easier So if the motivation fairy hasn’t been stop-
Or updating your Facebook status when you to find things. ping off at your lab or desk very frequently,
should be updating your lab book. Although these activities or excuses seem perhaps you should give her a hand. The next
But most procrastination is far more sub- acceptable, their fatal flaw is that once they’re time you catch yourself engaging in displace-
tle, and can even be mistaken for productive over, you still haven’t finished that article, ment activities, remember that there’s a way
work. For example, you might try to track started that experiment or written your dis- to recover that elusive drive. Follow our three
down that elusive reference, even though sertation. You probably have an increased rules and watch your motivation grow. ■
you’ve already got more than you will ever sense of guilt because you’re not making
have time to read. Or you could start a new progress on your goal. And although you’ve Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner lecture
experiment instead of analysing the old one. found and read that reference, you still don’t and conduct research in psychology at Flinders
Or take stock of the glassware in the lab. Or feel motivated to write. Sadly, while you were University in Adelaide, Australia, and run
check your e-mail. These activities make answering e-mails or counting the glassware, workshops for graduate students and advisers
it seem as though you’re doing something the motivation fairy didn’t stop by and make (see ithinkwell.com.au).
7 A P R I L 2 0 1 1 | VO L 4 7 2 | NAT U R E | 1 2 7
© 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

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CAREERS

Waiting for the

or more. Deadlines and endpoints motivated is difficult. But certain

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