Dear Devil’s Advocate,

I’m currently a second semester senior, and I have no motivation to do work. Whenever I try not to procrastinate writing an essay or studying for a test, I end up on my phone or asleep. I can’t find the motivation to work hard when I have already been accepted into my top college. Please help me end this year with my assignments completed on time and with somewhat good quality!

Sincerely,

Sleepy Senior

Dear Sleepy Senior,

As a second semester senior myself, I have also been struggling with productivity in any capacity — let alone my school work. Having already gotten into college, pushing myself to continue to succeed in school has been incredibly difficult since I have no concrete motivation, which was once getting into college. Fortunately, I’ve been able to keep up enough to have some tips to offer to get to the end of your high school career with all your work turned in.

Firstly, let’s lay down what it means to have senioritis. In an article from Southern New Hampshire University in 2024, they define senioritis as “the lack of motivation felt by students who are reaching the end of their courses.” As left broadly in this definition, senioritis can apply to any academic year, but is typically referred to with seniors in mind as the word implies. Psychology Today dives deeper into its symptoms in one of its articles, describing senioritis as “an inflammation of the motivation that makes priority attention to studies harder to give, time with friends more urgent to enjoy [and] tolerance for parental demands significantly less.” 

Now, is senioritis something conjured up by teenagers to make excuses for bad work, or something identifiable on a neurological level? Well, as a senior myself, it feels uncontrollable and like a new form of lack of motivation that I never experienced prior to getting a college acceptance. But at the same time, it’s hard not to bandwagon on to a commonly discussed social trend that makes doing a lot less work more excusable. Psychology Today’s article also attributes the lack of effort to feelings toward the future, rather than as something to be diagnosed. The article names the excitement of graduating high school and the fear of leaving friends and entering the new era that is college as the core reasons why senioritis strikes.

So, Sleepy Senior, now that you can understand why it is that you’re feeling so drained of motivation, I’m here to give you all the tips to help you overcome it as best you can.

The first tip is planning. Since senior year will be filled with many college admission tasks, make sure you are planning your classes ahead of the year and allotting enough time in the day to get things done. This being said about not over-booking yourself, it’s still important to keep up with advanced coursework and extracurricular activities so that colleges know you aren’t slacking off. 

Another tip I have, and the pure reason I get any dreadful work done, is to do work with a friend. Plan a weekly cafe trip where together, you and a friend study with breaks. By doing this, you and your friend can hold each other accountable and have fun simultaneously. In addition to this, I recommend trying to complete the vast majority of your work Monday through Thursday so that the weekend can be spent with the friends that you will soon be much further from in college. 

A last little tip that can make you look at your high school work a bit more fondly is by remembering that your education is a privilege and that you should try to use the last months of high school as a time to work hard to learn, not just to get an A. Not everyone gets to have a private school education so remember that in your last moments here!

While a survey done by Omniscent,a North Carolina High School Student Magazine, found that the majority, 78% of seniors in their high school, feel they have senioritis, it’s important to recognize when it’s more than just a senior phenomenon. Many symptoms of senioritis overlap with those of depression, so we should all make sure to check in with the roots of our feelings. Anchor Therapy, a New Jersey therapy center, noted that while both cause lack of motivation, senioritis is typically from a place of wanting to do other things like hang out with friends, while depression is rooted in an insecurity, such as not being good enough.

In the end, soak up every bit of high school because in a couple months it will be over. Take your time studying for your last math quiz, participate for the last time in a high school classroom setting. Even though the work of high school may now seem overwhelming and pointless, try to make your last high school memories ones you reflect on with pride!

Sincerely, 

Devil’s Advocate