REWARD YOURSELF.
Rewards are among us daily in different manners. For example, when studying a particular subject, a reward would be to obtain a great score or having the sense of domain on that particular subject of study.
In the same way, rewarding ourselves presents several benefits:
Boosts our self-confidence - We can feel more motivated to complete our objectives and be more connected to the tasks we are studying by maintaining a positive mindset. This way, we are more focused on our chances of success rather than any potential failure.
Improves our self-discipline - When we have a reward system and get increased tasks done as planned, we are building the muscle of self-discipline by developing more continuity on the tasks we are working with and reinforcing their progress.
Improves our leadership - What we recognise in ourselves can be seen and recognised in others. Imagine yourself working hard in your goals, accomplishing them, and getting rewarded. After continuously doing this, we can encourage other people to achieve their goals too. This can be applied in multiple fields like when working in a team, studying in a group or even in sports.
Initially, it is important to consider establishing clear and realistic goals for each day. As Brian Tracy mentions in his book Eat That Frog for Students, there is a way to double your productivity and reward yourself when applying these two steps:
Plan each day in advance - It is recommended to schedule in a block of tasks that you will be working on. This block of tasks must be prioritised, and you should start from the very first task before doing anything else.
Work on tasks for a specific amount of time – Initially, you can apply a rule of allowing yourself a five-minute break for each block of thirty minutes worked. Once you have managed to work in these chunks of time consistently, you can extend the time to sixty minutes work and a ten-minute break, then ninety minutes work and fifteen-minute break, and so on.
Create your rewards system
Before starting this subject, I would like to share a story. Back in 2002 when I was at university studying computer science, I wanted a brand-new laptop. I thought it would be great to have the possibility to carry it everywhere. I saved up for a year doing part-time jobs until I’d saved $500! That was a lot of money. With buying online not quite as popular as it is nowadays, I went to a friend of mine who sold top-performance laptops. It was a rainy day when I travelled to the other side of the city on public transport, full of people in rush hour. Finally, I arrived at the place and the seller had excellent computers; specially, a powerful Dell Inspiron (similar versions I would love to buy today). That day, although I caught a severe cold, I got my dream laptop. It was a mixed reward between my personal studying commitment and the money I’d earned.
Now it is time to create a rewards system that consists of hierarchizing our rewards based on our tasks. To do this, let’s group tasks into short-term, medium-term, and long-term.
Short-term reward ideas (between half an hour and an hour to complete) - As soon as we finish one of these tasks, a reward could be to listen to a particular song, have your favourite drink or take some fresh air. This will give you a break and release a bit of pressure to be able to continue with the rest of the tasks.
Medium-term reward ideas (a day of work) - A good reward for these kinds of tasks would be to go for a walk or enjoy your favourite meal for dinner.
Long-term reward ideas (more than a day) - Let us say you had to study for a literature exam, so you have completed your essays and all your homework which involved a sum of short-term and medium-term tasks. In this case, you would deserve to give yourself a great treat.