2020. Weird year to say the least. Even weirder for school, especially with online school (Non-Traditional Instruction). During these times of NTI, you may find yourself with a lack of motivation to do any work. If you find yourself in this situation, just follow these three guidelines to help you to stay motivated:
#1: Stay organized.
#2: Keep a healthy balance between school and free time.
#3: Keep your goals in mind.
If you follow these three guidelines, you will be able to stay motivated and you will also have success during NTI. Now we are going to take a look at each of these 3 guidelines more in depth.

#1: Stay organized. Staying organized is one of the most important things you can do to help yourself stay motivated. This helps you to stay efficient with getting your work done, because not having a set schedule for getting your work done will help you to feel lazy and unmotivated. But by making lists and creating a schedule or plan for your work, then you may feel more motivated to get it done. A really good way to do this is by a calendar of sorts with all of your assignments and their due-dates, and checking them off as you go along. This is a great way to help you to stay motivated during online school. Also Google Calendar and and or the Canvas to-do list for anyone who uses Canvas is a great way to keep your assignments organized.

#2: Keep a healthy balance between school and free time. Keeping a healthy balance between school and free time is crucial to keeping yourself motivated to do work. If you are spending all of your time doing school work, then you may feel tired and burnt out. And even though social gatherings are not really happening right now, just spending some time alone will help. Go for a walk, watch TV, go visit friends or family, or just stay home and watch a movie or read a book. If you feel good and refreshed, then you will have a much better time keeping yourself motivated to do school work.

#3: Keep your goals in mind. Keeping both your short-term and long-term goals in mind will help you to stay motivated. Remind yourself daily that there is a goal that you are working toward, and that it is possible to reach it. A good way to do this is to do something really simple, like gather some pictures of what you are working toward, and put it up somewhere where you can see it every single day. This is a great way to stay motivated.

These are 3 ways that you can stay motivated during NTI, and have success too. While NTI might be temporary, the skills that you are learning, time management, tool management, and communication skills are all things that will stick with you later in life.