We’ve all been there - it’s after midnight on the night before a big exam, and you’re over-caffeinated, under-slept, and downright panicked as you pour over your notes one last time, hoping against hope that it will all miraculously click at the very last minute. You know you should have studied way earlier, but you can never seem to find the motivation to get started. If only you knew how to study when you don’t want to...
Most people struggle to find the motivation to focus on studying at some point - even the best students have days when they just don’t want to study. But waiting until the pressure of a looming deadline forces you to get started is a recipe for disaster. You’ll never absorb and keep the material properly by cramming, and pulling an all-nighter will leave you exhausted and unable to recall anything you studied, and will negatively impact your exam performance.
Okay so this blog is gonna be a liiitle lengthy, but trust me, your time would be worth it ;)
Studying a little every day is the key to really understanding the material and being able to apply it in an exam setting. Good study habits are also good for your brain, helping it learn to form connections and remember information, and helping you build good habits of discipline and focus, which can only serve you well throughout your education and even later in life.
The key is to make studying not only tolerable but enjoyable so that it will become a part of your regular daily routine.
Believe it or not, it is possible to enjoy studying, and these tips will teach you how to study even when you don’t want to, putting you well on your way to ace that next exam! To get yourself motivated to study, it’s helpful to get in touch with your “why”. Even if you can’t stand a particular topic or class, thinking about how it plays into your bigger-picture goals can help you find the energy to get down to studying. Whether you need to pass a particular course to graduate, get your dream job, or just learn a new skill, thinking about how studying for a test will help you achieve your long-term goals and can help you refocus on your priorities.
Of course, getting motivated isn’t always as simple as remembering why you need to do something.
If focusing on your long-term goals doesn’t have you rushing off to the library, try finding some other sources of motivation to get you in the mood for studying.
If you still don’t want to study after trying to amp yourself up, then try this counterintuitive tip - forget about the actual studying for the moment, and focus instead on getting yourself prepared to study.
Spend a little time setting up your study area to encourage maximum focus - tidy up your desk and remove any potential distractions. Make a study plan - outline what you need to get done in the weeks and months ahead, and write the 3 to 5 most important things you need to tackle next. Organize and file your notes to make it easy to find what you need when you get down to studying. Make sure you’re well-stocked with healthy snacks, water, coffee or tea, and some treats to use as rewards. Chances are after you’ve got your space all set up, you’ll want to take it for a test run and get right down to studying.
But if not, never fear - there’s another trick you can try to get yourself to study if you still don’t want to.
Getting started in the first place is often the hardest part of studying. To stop yourself from procrastinating, try starting small with the 5-minute rule. Set a timer for 5 minutes and tell yourself that you only have to work until it goes off. When your timer goes off, you’ll have gotten over the hump of getting started and you’ll more than likely want to keep going - simply set another timer - maybe for longer this time - and keep working until it goes off.
You can also try the Pomodoro Method, where you work for 25 minutes at a time with 5-minute breaks between each session, and a longer break after 4 work sessions. There are other ways to start small and break studying into manageable, bite-sized pieces. If you can focus on getting just one task done instead of stressing about all that you have to learn before exam time, you’ll be more likely to sit down and get started.
Try reviewing your notes, going over them to make sure they make sense, adding some clarification or examples, and highlighting key points. If you have a bit more energy, take some time to condense all of your notes into a short, well-organized study guide. Once you’ve finally convinced yourself to sit down and start, it’s important to make it as easy as possible to keep going, and that means avoiding distractions - or at least using them to your advantage.
Listening to music is a tried-and-true study tip, but choosing the right music is key - you don’t want to get sidetracked singing along to your favorite tunes, or get irritated when a song you don’t like comes on. Instead, try an instrumental playlist - classical music is, well, classic, but it’s far from the only option - YouTube and other streaming services are full of the ambient noise study and focus playlists, or you could try listening to the score from one of your favorite movies to make your study session feel as epic as a major motion picture. YouTube is a notorious distraction, but when your focus is flagging, you can use it to your advantage to find videos about the topic you’re studying to give yourself a break from the books.
Of course, you’ll have to be careful not to fall into the rabbit hole - if that’s an issue for you, consider installing an app that will block your internet access for a set amount of time, or put your phone away in another room.
Another way to keep yourself engaged in studying is to get moving.
Exercise is not only good for your body but thinking on the move can help you consider the information you’ve absorbed freshly. You can read books or notes while you walk on a treadmill, or listen to audio lectures or homemade recordings of your notes as you take a walk outside.
Some people learn best by association, so you might benefit from assigning a specific space or room to each topic you have to study - math in your bedroom, English outside, and so on - to help you better remember your material.
This one may seem counterintuitive, but one of the best ways to keep studying interesting is to keep challenging yourself. Especially when you find the material boring, making it trickier can help you keep at it. You don’t want to make it so hard that you get frustrated and give up, but giving yourself minor challenges, like timing yourself to complete a problem or trying to beat your record for memorizing facts, can keep even the dullest topics fresh and interesting. Flashcards are a classic study tool for a reason - not only does making them help you organize and remember your material, but they are an easy and portable way to drill yourself on the fly and keep yourself sharp.
But if you’re looking for something a little more interesting, try these tips. You can find an abundance of mnemonics to help you remember important points for any subject - for example, the phrase “Happy Henry Likes Beer But Could Not Obtain Four Nuts” can help you remember the first 10 elements on the periodic table of elements - Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Fluorine, Neon.
If you can’t find a ready-made memory aid, you can make up your own!
If you’re more of a visual person, drawing a doodle or even creating a comic strip can help make sure that what you’re learning sticks with you.
When your motivation is failing you, and you’re finding it hard to focus no matter how fun you’ve made your studying, it might be time to make studying social. Studying with friends can be a recipe for distraction, especially if you’re relying on that time to get all of your studying done, but as long as you’ve put in some time on your own, getting together with some friends who are all focused on the same goal can help reinvigorate you. Talking about the material with others can help cement your learning and get you to think through the material in new ways. You can also play some group games together, like study-themed truth or dare, where you have to complete a study dare, like writing a paragraph or answering a problem, if you don’t know the answer to the truth question. Studying with friends can be a nice way to make studying more fun, just make sure you stay on topic!
Finally, it’s important to reward yourself for a job well done. If you’ve achieved your study goals, pat yourself on the back - positive reinforcement will make your brain want to repeat the activity to get that good feeling again. Don’t just zone out to the TV or get lost on social media, though. Take the time to check in with some friends, or go for a walk or play a sport instead - exercise helps improve concentration and boosts your mood.
Some of these tips for how to study when you don’t want to may seem a little wild or weird, but, according to the Oxford Royale Academy, the golden rule of studying is - nothing is silly if it helps! Whether you’re playing your own history board game, wandering around singing about chemistry, or role-playing a character from your English novel, if it helps you get an A - and gets you to study when you don’t want to - then I say go ahead and embrace the weird! 😆
Happy studying!
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