By Arden Berry | Staff Writer
As the finish line of finals looms over students, some students use “sweet treats” to motivate themselves through the final lap.
Frisco junior Ada Khoja said she plans study or post-study ice cream sessions with her friends to give herself incentive during finals season.
“It motivates me to get some actual work done,” Khoja said. “So that way when I’m actually getting ice cream later and treating myself, I’m not as stressed about getting a chance to rest. So that’s my little way to cope with the struggles of junior year.”
She said she goes to J-Petal and Poke so consistently that every employee knows her by name and order — and the sweet treat actually helps her focus on her work better.
“I know I’m going to get a reward,” Khoja said. “I might as well put in proper work and really concentrate and lock in. So I think it’s very motivating to know that I have something that I can reward myself to and also motivating in the sense that I feel a bit more obligated to do better.”
Dayton freshman Eleanor Williams said she buys a drink from Starbucks, then takes a sip whenever she gets a certain amount of work done.
“Otherwise the drink will be gone too quickly, and I struggle with instant gratification,” Williams said. “So if the drink is sitting in front of me, it feels like I already have that gratification of having a drink. And the sips themselves are the real reward.”
Marietta, Ga., sophomore Shelby Grace Sparrow said while she is not reliant on sweet treats, she likes to budget her Sic ‘Em Swipes so that she can have a Starbucks drink during the week.
“As a [reward] for the end of the week, like on Fridays, sometimes I’ll treat myself to it after my last class because I got through a week and I have a Sic ‘Em Swipe left, might as well use it,” Sparrow said.
According to a paper by Lisa Bardach and Kou Murayama, scholars have debated over whether extrinsic or external rewards are effective for long-term intrinsic study motivation.
“Rewards act as reinforcers and have the potential to produce learning,” Bardach and Murayama write. “Rewards are attractive; they are motivating, prompting approach behavior and decision making. Also, rewards have the potential to evoke positive emotions. Put simply, rewards make people come back for more; they are needed for survival, used for behavioral choices that maximize them and make people feel good about them.”
They conclude that extrinsic rewards are useful entry points for engagement that can become intrinsically rewarding through motivational transformations, though later extrinsic rewards can disrupt this process and undermine long-term engagement.
When the long-term goal seems far off, however, Khoja said her short-term ice cream breaks help her stay motivated.
“I think that combination of just socializing and being able to rest and enjoy something that’s my favorite treat is what really keeps me going,” Khoja said. “It gives me a space to just relax away from my academic life. I would say having that in place is super important because otherwise, it just becomes work, work, work, and it’s very easy to lose track of what your goal is in the long run.”
