motivation while working on masters thesis..............?

Question

I was interested in the topic I am working on. It was challenging and fun, but now I don't seem to have the motivation I had, I have to finish and graduate. Did yall have some sort of lack of motivation when doing your thesis? If so what helped you out?
thanks

Answer 1

Lol, I had many motivation problems while working on my thesis, even though I, too, originally enjoyed the topic. Here are some of the things I did to try to increase my motivation to actually write the thing - some of these may work for you, and some may not. I think building and maintaining motivation tends to be a personal thing.

1. I guilt-tripped myself - When I tell someone I'm going to do something, I feel bad if I don't get it done, so I would tell my friends that I would have a certain number of pages finished by a certain point - say, at least 15 pages by the end of the week. I told them why I was doing this and asked them to ask me about my progress throughout the week, just so that I could amp up the guilt factor. :)

2. This one really depends on what your advisor is like. I would set up dates where I would give her portions of my thesis to read and comment on - this, of course, meant that I actually had to have those portions written.

3. I would talk with people about my paper, people who didn't already know everything there was to know about it and were actually interested in what I had to say. I found that helped me rediscover what it was I liked about my topic. Friends and anyone else writing a thesis are all good people for this sort of thing. As I talked with these people, answered their questions, and explained my reasoning, I was able to rethink the way I was writing some parts. It also helped me achieve a little distance - I had gotten so close to the topic that I didn't even realize when I was writing something odd, or funny, or whatever.

4. I also set up a schedule and found a place meant only for working on my thesis. The schedule helped me set up smaller due dates for myself (so, I had certain sections I wanted to have basically finished by various times). It also enabled me to feel more like I accomplished something, because when I finished a section, I could cross it off the list - that was really satistfying for me, and it was nice seeing that there was an end in sight for all the things I still had to do for the thesis. The special place I had just for writing my thesis helped me separate my social/personal/whatever space from my thesis space. Because this place (a nearby historical library) was meant only for my thesis work, I sort of trained my mind to focus better on writing the paper when I was there. Then, when I left after working on the paper for a few hours, I could go someplace else and really relax.

Well, that's all I can think of. Good luck!

Answer 2

I have had that happen to me, then I remember that I truly need my masters for the plans I have, to me its easy because the masters is not my goal, it's what I need to get to to my goal, so maybe if you have that, It will help. Much Luck I hope it turns out to be Way you picture it would be.

What is your thesis on?
maybe we can chare info. [e-mail] my name is FLOR.