Enrolled in an online course? Experiencing a motivational vacuum to pursue it! YES is the answer from majority of participants who have enrolled themselves in one or multiple online courses. Absolute dearth of self motivation is a common trend noticeable across a sizeable chunk of students enrolled in e-Learning. It is witnessed that many students remain disengaged in this remote learning set up. Though this industry is showing a continuous spurt and believed to open up new avenues in the educational landscape. Yet motivating a good number of disengaged participants in e-Learning remain an elusive goal for the learning coaches. Individuals’ profound immersion in technology backed by immediate gratification and social entertainment act as a top distracter swaying the minds from doing something fruitful and productive. People’s excessive cling to interactive and engaging visuals from social media or OTT platforms has lowered their boredom quotient. Also people today easily get bored with learning materials that are comparatively bland. However in the wake of an era where online education is gradually burgeoning, self motivation and direction is very important to continually learn and attain success.

Mentioning few strategies to boost up your motivation and stay in spirits to continue and complete your online course.

• Define and set your target: Having a clear vision about what you want, why do you want it, helps you to fix your goals. Every individual is guided by aims and aspirations. Having them and actually executing as per a plan to achieve them are what differentiates between a successful person and a mere dreamer. Frankly speaking, having too many dreams is good but trying to pursue them together will seldom they make you achieve them. Instead set one target at a time follows it with utmost sincerity. This will help you to channelize all your energies to fulfilling that one goal rather than multitasking and dividing your personal resources.

• Setup up plan:  Create a schedule for studying that you can manage. Don’t setup unrealistic time table routines that end up in procrastination. Take baby steps initially to develop a habit of understanding your curriculum. Set aside the time to regularly login and study for some time at least 30 minutes. Make sure that you enjoy your learning rather than thinking it to be a compulsion. Then you will never learn and soon your initial zeal will fade out into monotony.

• Choose your learning style: If you can understand which learning style suits you the best, learning will be easier for you. Some people learn better using visual approaches, while others prefer text. Still others learn better when they can hear the lesson, while others prefer a hands-on approach. While you may not always be able to control the form of your course material, you can help yourself learn the material faster if you can modify them as per your learning style. For example, if you prefer aural messages, and your course material is in text form, you can use text to speech software to convert it to your preferred media.

• Communicate with others: When you take online classes, you don’t get the chance of physically interacting with your peers and teachers. To avoid feeling secluded, make it a habit to interact with your peers and instructors through instant message, email, discussions forums, or by phone. Doing so will help keep your spirits high and help you develop a level of accountability in doing your course. Your social networks can also be useful for something else than posting which new restaurant have you checked in or your latest pet peeve. You can use them to boost up your ego boost by documenting about your accomplishments. You will surely get encouragement when you will share such tales of productive time utilization. Share your progress with your friends and family and you are sure to get their support. You might even inspire some of them to do what you’re doing!
• Eat and Sleep well, take Breaks:  Taking care of your mental and physical health can help your academic performance. Healthy meals, 7-8 hours of good sleep and exercises must be part of your daily routine.  You will feel more motivated when you are not suffering from burn out. When your brain no longer seems to be functioning, or you feel drained, you need to take a break. Get up for at least five minutes and move around. Stretch your back and move your shoulders to relieve the muscles tension. You will feel better when you get back to work.

• Reward Yourself: Patting yourself interim after every little achievement will keep you motivated.  As you complete your course or module, take time to recognize your achievements, Treat yourself. Reveling in your accomplishments and taking breaks will help you keep a positive attitude and stay motivated.

• Tweak your efficiency: Most people feel more motivated when they feel they are being productive. You can tweak your productivity by analyzing what works for you. Like you may use the Pomodoro Technique to break into work into chunks and pursue it. You should figure out not only how you work, but also when. Some people naturally work better at night, while others feel fresh and can kick start in the early hours. Since it is remote learning, you can make these changes in your work processes. You might also find that your location, your apparel also motivate you to concentrate better. Some people are conditioned to drop everything once they step into their homes, so making the adjustment might be a little iffy. You can try working in the library or a coffee shop, and see if you feel more motivated. Having other people around may also help. Putting in proper dress or sitting in your pajamas, which one works better for your concentration, you are the best judge.
• Hold at bay your distracters during the study time:  FOMO can badly distract you. This sense is often exacerbated by social media. The latter creates a platform for bragging and showoffs. It provides a situation where you start comparing your regular life to the highlights of others’ lives. Your every event and also happiness seems to be at competition with others. This skews your sense of normalcy to the point that you start feeling your life is screwed. In coping with this feeling of inferiority, you slip your precious time in browsing others’ life activities rather than spending your time in something productive. Social media platforms have also set unique feed notifications that fuel up your FOMO. Try to control your impulse of frequently looking into feeds, emails or random videos while you are taking up your course. Practice JOMO or joy of missing out by engaging in some fruitful learning.