Seven Study Hacks for When you Do Not Want to Study

How often do you sit down and say, “You know what, studying sounds pretty good right now?” I would hope, for the sake of your personal life, the answer to that question is no. But, just because studying is a bore does not mean you should not do it. It is quite important to the development of your kind. Here are seven study hacks for when you must study but have no desire to:

Listen to a Lesson

Studying does not have to entail sitting at your desk, with your crumpled notebook in hand, just repeating the same phrases over and over again until your brain goes numb. It can be a process that evolves over time based on the technology available to be implemented into studying. Something that has been brought about over the past decade is the advent of digital lessons, both in podcast and video form. These can be used as study tools. They basically serve as a version of what you get in class but streamlined for efficiency. The great part about them is that you can take them on the road during a drive, listen while going for a walk, or played in the background while you clean your room.

Team Up with Your Friends for a Study Session

If you need help wading through hundreds of notebook and textbook pages, who better to help them your closest friends? These are most likely the people in the same classes as you, so you can all profit from a communal study session. Let the soda flow, chomp on some chips, and make sure you memorize the periodic table together. It will be must easier to get through this study session once you convince yourself that it is less studying and more of a hangout.

Make a Game of It

Rather than wallowing around in boredom due to the endless barrage of equations and scientific formulas, why not avoid the boring aspects of studying and distill the bits of information you need into a game. It does not have to be the most spectacular game ever, it could just be something like informational bingo. The point is not the inventiveness, but how the game morphs this quite boring act into a more digestible activity.

Do Not Cram

The instinct when you are someone who does not want to study when they are tasked with studying to do it all at once. That is why you do not want to do it; the notion behind cramming is death. It is a long time (two to three hours, possibly more) and very little of it will be stimulating in the least. So, if you want a study hack that can make studying more tolerable, just don’t cram. It is not necessary, you will not learn more from doing it, and the limited studying you do participate in will be more focused and accomplish more.

Only Study a Little Bit at a Time

On the back of the last study hack, when you do the study, only do it a little bit at a time. We, as humans, are constantly chasing our own brain. By that, I mean we can only accomplish what our brain allows us to based on how much energy is preserved up there. So, to make sure your aspirations are never ahead of what your brain is able to accomplish always set out to accomplish a little bit of studying. It will be much easier for your brain to be engaged the whole way through, and you will retain much more information that way.

Do a Little Bit of Studying In-between Fun Activities

If even studying for a little bit of time is still too much to ask, my suggestion would be to space out the little study bursts even further and using the time in between for fun activities. For example, you could spend fifteen minutes studying then watch an episode of a TV show. Then, more studying and maybe go out for dinner. Rinse and repeat. This way you set up a reward system for yourself that incentivizes the studying.

Choose Sleep Over Studying

If the clock is ticking toward midnight, you have school in the morning, and the choice is between studying and sleeping, choose sleep. This may sound suicidal if you have a test in the morning, but the likelihood of you pulling out a passing will increase if you have a good night’s sleep. No matter how much studying you think you get done, that late at night, the likelihood of you forgetting all that information increases the less sleep you get. So, choose sleep to give yourself a better chance at passing.