It can often be a daunting task studying for an exam, interview, or other similar purpose especially if an individual is having difficulty staying motivated. As a result, it is essential for an individual to find various methods that he or she can use to stay motivated and to make sure that his or her actions are ultimately leading towards a particular goal. These methods should usually use a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as this will help an individual remain as motivated as possible. However, it is important to realize that there are key differences between the techniques that an individual should employ to use extrinsic motivation effectively and the techniques that an individual should employ to use intrinsic motivation effectively.
Extrinsic motivation, which refers to the desire to complete a task for any of the rewards that an individual receives from the outside world, can be used to motivate an individual's studying by following a few simple steps. First, an individual that wants to use extrinsic motivation to remain motivated should identify all of the potential rewards that he or she could achieve if he or she completed the task. These rewards may include long-term rewards such as becoming a licensed doctor, moving up the corporate ladder, or earning enough money to buy a house. It may also include short-term rewards such as passing an exam, earning a paycheck, or receiving your professor's praise for a job well done. Once the individual has identified the rewards that he or she could achieve from completing the task, the individual should make a list detailing each of these rewards and how completing the task leads to each reward. The individual should then have that list sitting near him or her as he or she studies so the individual can focus on the rewards that he or she can achieve and use them as motivation to continue working on the task at hand. The individual can also place pictures or other visual representations of the reward that he or she is attempting to achieve around the individual as he or she studies to further motivate the individual. If the individual cannot identify an extrinsic reward directly related to the completion of a particular task, the individual should create a reward for completing the task such as "When I complete this chapter, I will go to that party."