I stare at the elaborate rubric for the history essay due next week. My mind already trudging through the tedious research and annoyingly overthought writing process needed to complete the assignment. The topic was relatively easy: a simply argumentative essay on Uganda and what could be done to improve democracy. Yet, every milestone for the topic I treated as a marathon, and every small detail that I had yet to complete seemed like a 30-foot high brick wall that I needed to overcome. I absolutely hated it.

But. Why?

Why was it that I voluntarily will take on research projects and scientific essays on mythology, but am revolted by political/historical writing assignments? Why is it that the quality of work differs so greatly topic to topic? The answer is simply motivation.

I seem to have an inordinately narrow field of motivation, and that tends to restrict my ability to work well outside of…