Taking stock as a motivational strategy: Sum up what you’ve accomplished, not what you haven’t done

My students often come to me frustrated to my office and tell me “Professor Pacheco-Vega, I am making such slow progress with my dissertation/thesis/paper. I feel like I need to read faster, or read more”. I know this feeling. I often feel like I haven’t done enough. What I always tell them is what I try to live by as well: “take stock of what you’ve read, learned, digested, comprehended, understood. THAT should be your measuring yardstick”. And for me, visually taking stock (seeing in print, in handwriting, electronically) of all I have done is quite important.

I go over how many articles I’ve read and highlighted and annotated and how these notes relate to the current paper I am working on. Once you review the progress you’ve made and acknowledge that you’ve overcome challenges to achieve this much progress you may feel better (I do!) pic.twitter.com/77pzs3rVWA

— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) December 5, 2018

I think the biggest challenge is to not let the mountain of work looming in the horizon beat you down. Little by little, you can get things done. I survived 2018, I should know.

Taking visual stock of what you've done during a day/week/month can help with feelings of frustration over progress. pic.twitter.com/puHcfJwPiw

— Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) December 18, 2018

For me, taking stock is a key strategy to keep myself motivated. Yes, I have four bazillion things to do, but this year I accomplished a lot and that is what I am reminding myself, over and over.

You can share this blog post on the following social networks by clicking on their icon.