How does our team cope with lack of motivation?

Number 3 of the questionnaire asked 'Have you felt unmotivated at any point? How did you help this?'. We felt this was an important question to firstly help others understand they are not alone, that it is normal and how we all deal with our feelings differently. As seeing what other people do to help re-motivate them could help someone else on our team. 

Listed below is a summary of what members of our team do to help themselves:

• GO OUTSIDE, GO FOR A WALK AND DO SOME EXERCISE! This was a common response among the answers. Doing exercise releases endorphins, the happy hormone, which is known to relieve stress and make you feel overall more happy. Also, being outside and surrounded by nature can make you feel more grounded and refreshed, it is proven being around nature makes you overall less stressed, improves your memory and makes you more alert. Getting up and away from your desk also adds more structure to the day and a change of scenery. As with many working from home can often mean from the comfort from your bedroom, and while rolling out of your bed 5 minutes before a lecture has its perks, it can get very repetitive. Therefore waking up earlier, getting outside to go for a walk or do some exercise is a great way to start the day, getting endorphins flowing and change the scene. 

• CREATING A STRUCTURED PLAN. There is nothing better than ticking something off a to do list, so make one! Having an idea of what you are going to try and accomplish everyday can really get your mind in gear. When the deadlines are set and they seem months away that can be so unmotivating because you think you have plenty of time to do the work... but we don't! How many times have we made this mistake? Leaving it all to the last minute, having sleepless nights, feeling overworked and overly stressed. By planning the time and setting mini goals we will achieve a successful submission all while remaining focuses and motivated. 

• TALKING TO FRIENDS. The answer to what we miss most about uni is having our friends to talk to, look at their work and gage if we are behind or not. This was a great motivator when studio was open as we would look at each other's work and think 'oh great I'm ahead' or 'oh no I have a lot to do this week to catch up'. So by talking to each other about who's done what each week has been great for motivation as we're each putting ourselves under a little bit of pressure to keep the same. Sometimes a little bit of pressure is all we need to get our head back in the game. We are lucky to have a great team of friends working together to create Archi4, so by talking about things you're confused about or need help with is a great way of communicating what has been done and what needs to be done, and apply that little bit of pressure we're all missing from our peers.