How to Motivate Yourself in Grad School by Using Self-Consequating

Self-consequating is the first strategy from Wolters (2003) that I’ll be elaborating on in this series of motivation regulation strategies for grad students.

Self-consequating is when students regulate their motivation by providing consequences for their own behaviour (Wolters, 2003).

Or, in other words, it’s when you set your own consequences for when you either complete or don’t complete the goal you have during your learning.

Just a brief aside that consequences often have a negative connotation, however consequences are really referring to just what happens after a behaviour or something that happened.

For example, if I’m sitting at my computer and get up to walk to the next room, my dog is going to follow me.

If I sit at my computer and work for an hour, she’ll happily snooze away on her bed.

Wolters (2003) describes the research that supports that self-consequating is an effective strategy for students who want to regulate their own behaviour. In particular, students who gave themselves consequences for sustaining their effort on a task.

This was one I used ALL the time when I was writing my dissertation. I’ve previously said that I found a hidden away computer lab on campus to write my dissertation. Most days, I’d pack a mid-morning snack that was highly desirable (e.g., a chocolate croissant, fresh fruit and nuts, etc).

Once I’d written for about two hours, then I’d reward myself with that snack. I’d always say to myself “If you don’t work for two hours, you can’t eat it.” This was to set the intention I only would eat it if I did what I set out to do.

Guess how many times I didn’t eat this highly desired snack?

Zero times.

This strategy was so successful for me that I used it quite a bit in various ways.

For you to use it, think about what you can use as a consequence for a certain task you want to achieve.

Do you want to write 300 words on your dissertation?

Do you want to sit and read through feedback from your committee for 30 minutes?

Once you take some time to think about what you are trying to motivate yourself to do, then picking a consequence is the next step.

Self-consequating can be a great strategy to help you reach your goals, and if you try it, let us know how it went!