 Your rewards don't need to be material objects if there is something else that would really motivate and inspire you. How about taking a special trip or attending a special concert? It is up to you. Think of something that will spur you to take action. It's significant that the reward take place soon after the work has been accomplished. It creates a sense of positive reinforcement. Every time you finish a small part of the job give yourself a small reward and a bigger reward when the project is completed. If a gap between the activity and the reward is too long, it will not have the effect of reinforcing the desired activity.
Except for motivating yourself with a series of external rewards, learn to motivate yourself internally. You may tell yourself you are a good learner and you enjoy learning. Also, tell yourself you enjoy giving your brain a good work out. You may congratulate yourself for your efforts and tell yourself you love acquiring new knowledge, and let yourself feel a joy in learning. Pride yourself for the work you do to gain more knowledge. You need to review it several times for information to sink into your brain and be accessible to you, and your brain needs to sleep properly for the memories to be encoded in your neurons. You should reduce your mental stress. Your brain should be in a peaceful, confident state, it needs good nutrition. Alcohol and drugs don't help the process of learning.
Write down what you are learning in your own words, and find a learning buddy. It is a good idea to practice explaining to someone else what you have learned. It will increase the likelihood that your brain will remember it. If you begin to cram the night before, you are putting your brain at a big disadvantage.
You're increasing your mental and physical stress, and you are not giving yourself time to review the material several times. By having a lack of sleep, you are not giving your brain a chance to put the information you've been studying into the hard drive storage of your brain. By beginning your studies early, and reviewing what you've learned, you have a much better chance of remembering and understanding what you need to know when you face a big exam.
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