TL;DR: If you are a student/learner and are keen to be primed for success in the new school year, then you must invest some effort into creating the right environment for your success. This involves: 1. Setting a motivating goal, 2. Creating a focus corner and 3. Forming a meaningful ritual. For more details about how to go about that, read on!

As another year draws to a close, it is once again time to get ready for the new school year. There is a saying in Mandarin that a good start is equivalent to half the battle won (好的开始是成功的一半）and there is no question on how important momentum is when it comes to getting work done. As a teacher, I have worked with many students and have seen how much a difference starting right makes. So if you are interested in helping yourself or your child (if you are a parent) start the year right, here are three simple things to do for a guaranteed good start for the year.

#1. Set a MOTIVATING goal

A year is a long time, especially if you are a student since each year has a well-defined curriculum that requires the completion of fixed sets of content and practices. It is easy for one to lose drive when the subjects become too difficult or, interestingly, too simple. When learning becomes too challenging, learners lose hope and give up. When it becomes too simple, humans become complacent and laze around our comfort zone. This emphasises the importance of having a compelling reason to stay motivated, regardless of the situation.

It is a common activity in the first few weeks of school for teachers to guide students through a goal-setting activity, especially for graduating classes. The key reason for the lack of effective output (speaking from experience) lies in the distracting nature of a class, where students tend to moderate their goals as they are concerned over how their peers may perceive their targets. This often results in a meaningful activity turning into a superficial paper exercise. Worse still, learners form a poor impression of goal-setting as a feel-good event, for their teachers.

This is why it is so important to craft a very personal goal statement with the sole purpose of invoking motivation. Different people work differently so it is crucial for each individual to look deeper into oneself and “design” the goal statements. Some find more excitement when goals are deliberately set closer to impossible levels while others prefer to have goals pegged at achievable levels to build momentum. While there is no formula for the best way to craft your goals, here are some tips to help you craft motivating goals:

• Have a combination of active goals and passive goals where active goal focuses on actionable targets (e.g. spend 30 min a day on reading, write a blog post each week, upload a concept map/summary notes at the end of every chapter onto LEARND.online) while passive goal focuses on raw targets (e.g. Getting into a dream school/class, scoring A for all subjects). Ideally, the active goals will be the necessary actions to help you in achieving your passive goals.
• Keep the number of active goals below 6 and passive goals below 3. Less is more as ultimately, we need to be able to constantly remember and remind ourselves of these goals. It is hence better to have 3 motivating goals which you can call on to kick-start your snoozing engines than 20 goals which you probably waste more energy trying to recall than actually pursuing them.

Done with your goals? Now get it printed/written in bold and we are ready for our next item.

#2. Create a focus corner

You might have heard that humans are creatures of habit. We can condition our physical and mental states to respond to external stimuli. This also means that we should always invest a bit of effort into creating a conducive environment for the pursuit of our goals. If you have the luxury of space, create a dedicated space free of distraction for studying. This usually means an area with sufficient tabletop space and legroom for you to place your learning materials while sitting comfortably in an upright position. Ideally, this area is also not directly facing sources of distractions like the television, your gaming setup or an area with a lot of movement (e.g. A walkway where people walk around, a fish tank filled with captivating fish).

Of course, most of us would not be able to have the flexibility of space to create a dedicated space for studying. This is where we can get creative and think of different “configurations” for work and play. For example, change the side that you face (i.e. Shift the position of the chairs), the colour of the lights or the stationeries on the desk to signal to your brain the “mode” that it should be in. This is a very fun process and you would be surprised how much of a difference this can make for you to stay focused. Needless to say, that mission statement that you have crafted should be placed in the most visible position here.

#3. Form a ritual

Do you know that willpower, just like our physical strength, is finite and trainable? Each day, we exhaust our will (or mental strength) to perform tasks and stay focused. This is also the reason why we feel exhausted after long sessions of intense focus and in that exhausted state, we find ourselves succumbing to more vices such as binging on junk food and entertainment. This is because we ran out of mental strength to will ourselves against these temptations. With this in mind, it highlights the importance of “rationing our will” and one key way to do this is to… that’s right, create a ritual.

By ritual, I do not mean those voodoo or witchcraft stuff but rather, a routine that is followed religiously whenever you plan to engage in a particular activity (in our case, focusing to learn). You can create a simple ritual such as taking a cold shower before sitting at your focus corner to study. Or have a ritual to start your day by reading your goals aloud before you head for school. Some make a ritual to take out all the homework for the day the first thing upon reaching home to be reminded of the amount of work to be done for the day.

Ideally, these rituals should NOT be too difficult to perform or you will end up not being able to summon enough will to start the ritual, hence defeating the whole purpose. When the ritual is effectively cultivated as a habit, you will be able to reap the benefits of auto-piloting into the focus state without having to will yourself each and every time you wish to focus. This is a trick that professional athletes do before their major competitions. Why not make use of it!

Bonus I: Share it with people

Since you have read this far, you must be really determined to do good for yourself. That’s really respectable! So here’s a bonus tip for you!

If you have experienced the Asian culture, you will be very familiar with the concept of “face” — perception of others on yourself. Nobody wants to “lose face” (be placed in a shameful position) and do you know that this is one of the key reasons that keeps society in check? We can leverage this power motivator by sharing with others your goals and even your rituals. This act of sharing with others form a need (within yourself) to be accountable, even if others cannot care less. You will find this allow you to “borrow” the willpower of others and get you to do the necessary even when you had deemed yourself empty of any sort of energy to carry on.

So do it! In this time and age, just post it onto your social media! Put in as your status messages! You will find others policing showing care for your progress and helping you along your journey. Yes, these exchanges may not be the most pleasant and some would leave a bitter aftertaste BUT they would be powerful nudges shoves that push us in the direction we set ourselves out to.

Bonus II: Do it NOW! Done is better than none.

Wow! You are STILL here. SO here’s one final tip. Just get started. Don’t worry about your goals not sounding as perfect as they should. Don’t worry about not having the most ergonomic chair for your focus corner. Don’t worry about what you should name your ritual. JUST DO IT. There is no such thing as perfect for we are always in the pursuit of it. Since perfect does not exist, done is better than none. Take action now! Share your goals and thoughts in the comments below! Share your focus corner and ideas with everyone here. Declare your rituals here and have us join in with you. Let’s get started. I can already hear all the engines rearing.

LET’S GET STARTED!