How to Stay Motivated When the Days Get Shorter

This time of the year can be particularly challenging if you don’t know how to stay motivated when the days get shorter. Daylight savings seem to make the day zip by. It’s almost like as soon as you get out of work, school, etc., it’s already dark. And depending on where you live, it’s most likely very cold as well.

This can be detrimental to your productivity. Especially as a medical student, where studying happens in the evening, it can be very hard to pep yourself up for a study sesh when all you want to do is lie in bed with the blankets and watch Harry Potter.

But, you can’t do that! No matter what the sky looks like or the temperature is, you still have things to do. Tests don’t stop. Homework doesn’t end. And the knowledge that you have to attain seems insurmountable. However, as someone who is going into their third November in medical school, I have learned a few tricks to get myself going during these super short days. Below are my top 5 tips for how to stay motivated when the days start getting shorter!

1. Wake up earlier

Waking up earlier is a great hack for how to stay motivated when the days get shorter. The end of your days are no longer reliable. At the end of an already long day, you feel even more tired because you have less access to light. Therefore, when you get that burst of cortisol first thing in the morning, use it to your advantage!

Whatever hard task you do in the evenings during the lighter months, do those in the morning. This could be studying, working out, cleaning up, etc. Do your easier, mind-numbing tasks in the evening. This helps balance your productivity, so you are using the most brain power when you have it. Waking up earlier also means you have to go to bed earlier, but with the cold and darkness outside, that may not be much of a problem.

2. Keep the lights on

The second tips for how to stay motivated when the days get shorter is to keep the lights on! If you have gotten to the Neuroanatomy part of your curriculum, you know that the retina is a group of cells in the eye that respond to light. When they sense light, they signal to the brain to stop producing melatonin, and start producing cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that jumpstarts all of the metabolic processes in your body throughout the day.

However, when they sense darkness, then they signal to your brain to release melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that promotes sleepiness in the body. This is the LAST thing you want to happen when you have a test or a quiz to study for. Therefore, you must keep your room and home bright, especially your study area. If you have a ring light, that is even better. You can basically blast your eyes with bright light and keep your body stimulated. About an hour or so before it’s time for bed, you can start turning down some of the lights so your body has enough time to produce the amount of melatonin necessary for you to go to bed.

3. Exercise as soon as you get off school/work

School or work tasks are not the only things to take Ls during this time. People gain more weight around this time of the year than any other part of the year. This is partly due to the number of holidays that include delicious, large portions of food. The other part is due to the lack of motivation to work out, diet, or keep up any of the healthy habits that you may have developed during the lighter months.

In order to not fall off and have to rejoin the New Year’s crowd, exercise as soon as you get off work or school. If you come home, roll around in your bed, sit on social media, you will not work out (Trust me, I know from experience!). If you want to learn how to stay motivated when the days get shorter in various areas of your life, it is going to require you to jam pack your high-motivational-needs activities in the hours with sunlight. Exercise is not only good for keeping off that winter weight gain, but also is great for promoting deep and restful sleep, and providing you with the necessary energy boost for studying.

4. Keep your home warm

Another temptation is to let your house get cold. However, another tip for how to stay motivated when the days get shorter is to keep your house warm. Being cold does nothing but trigger your body to go to sleep. This is because the optimal sleep environment is cold, dark and quiet. Therefore, if this also describes your study environment, then you most likely are not going to want to study. You’ll want to sleep!

Keep your house warm to keep you awake. It doesn’t have to be a furnace, but anything about 68/70 degrees will keep you warm enough to get your studying done. Wear layers, long sleeves, sweatshirts, and sweatpants, and socks. Keeping your body warm will prevent you from getting too comfortable and sleepy to do your nighttime tasks.

5. Use media timers and set limits

Another distraction that can keep you from being productive during the winter months is social media and TV shows. It is all too tempting to snuggle up in the bed, and watch TikTok all day long. However, time goes by really fast when you’re on social media. Before you know it, a 10-minute scrolling break turns into three wasted hours. With a dark sky and cold weather, the risk of this happening a lot is high.

That’s why it’s important to set timers and limits. Phones now have timers on apps that can help you self-regulate if you are like me and have poor self-control. When the timer goes off, you’ll know you’ve reached your limit for the day. Use these tools to help you in your journey of how to stay motivated when the days get shorter. Your body naturally goes into hibernation, so you may need outside tools and motivators to help you overcome that.

Key Takeaways

The winter can be a fun time of holidays and good food. However, as a medical student, it is also one of the busiest times. This is because you have exams, finals, interviews, etc., that you are trying to finish before the holidays. Therefore, you can’t go into the holiday slump that your body wants you to. You have to find ways to motivate yourself, and manipulating your environment so your brain thinks it’s closer to spring than it is will move you right along.

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