Or, A rolling stone gathers no procrastination techniques.

Jennifer, Karin, and Mark all posted recently about the difficulties of staying motivated where grad school is concerned. After reading each of these, I had one thought: Amen!

I knew going into this MLIS that burnout would be a distinct possibility, given my prior experience. Not that that’s kept it from happening. GI Joe may be right that knowing is half the battle, but that other half — acting on the knowledge — is a real doozy.

Anyway, a few minutes ago I was on the Graduate College’s web page, looking for some forms (oh, the joy) and found a list for tapping one’s potential as a grad student. Now, I remember seeing this list sometime during the application process, but just skimmed it and went on. I mean, I already knew all that stuff, right?

Well, yes and no. Knowing that it’s important to “work through the down periods” — the last item on the list — is one thing when you haven’t started yet. But it’s a whole other ballgame when you’re two classes and a thesis short of graduating, tired, and disenchanted.

Work through the down periods.

Oh. Yeah. I can do that. Might not enjoy it, or even like it. But it’s something I can do. Wasn’t it Aristotle who said that we are what we repeatedly do? Maybe, but the end of summer, I can re-convince myself that this is fun.