let me ask you this do you enjoy your studying do you actually like your studying because if
the answer is no then it's very likely you're fighting an uphill battle if you don't enjoy
studying you're far more likely to procrastinate and you're more likely to get distracted
lose focus lose motivation and of course your grades will suffer like most things in life to
become good at something you have to like doing it your studying needs to be interesting it needs to
be fun it's maybe the single most important thing that will determine whether you're able to achieve
incredibly high grades or whether you'll fail and have to retake your exams and in this video
i'm gonna go through 13 ways that will make your studying more fun and by doing these things you'll
notice you'll start to want to study you won't have that nagging feeling in the back of your
mind that you have to study because you'll want to do it and the byproduct of that more studying less
procrastination you'll be happier your grades will improve and the opportunities after you graduate
school or university will also open right up become interested in your subject one way of
doing this is by finding a book a documentary a youtube video or a movie about the subject you're
studying about the main purpose of a textbook is not to be interesting it's not to engage
the reader and keep the reader focused however a book a documentary in particular youtube videos
and movies they're all created and written to keep you hooked consequently they're far
more interesting and engaging to consume than a university textbook and you're still learning it's
just a more fun way of learning and what i would often do at university is to watch a documentary
before i started a new module at the beginning of the semester so for example if the module i
was starting was about the 2008 financial crisis i'd watch a documentary on the financial crisis
such as the hbo documentary the untold story of the 2008 financial crisis in the 2008 financial
panic there's no playbook for this stuff there's no road map there's no instruction
manual on what to do we're trying to think of the most hated moment in the crisis watching a
documentary on the 2008 financial crisis is significantly more interesting and engaging
than reading a thick black and white textbook on it and it will still give you a solid foundation
of knowledge to build up on what you're studying affects your life it's important to realize that
the subjects and topics that you're studying actually affect your everyday life because
when you realize that what you're reading about is relevant to you and your life it begins to
become far more interesting so for example going back to the topic of the 2008 financial crisis the
federal reserve board's decision to drop interest rates to almost zero in november 2008 stands as
an important moment in financial history and we're still seeing the ripple effect to this day in 2021
so how does this affect you it means that interest rates are incredibly low in the us and many other
countries so it's far cheaper for you to borrow money if you want to buy a house or a car or other
large expenses and you can do this with pretty much any subject for example when you're studying
projectile motion for example think about how you would throw a ball or when you're studying areas
of a square or a circle think about lawns or a stadium linking what you're studying to what's
going on in your life will naturally make what you're studying about more interesting because
you can now use this new information you've just learned to understand the world around you better
it turns you from just studying to pass an exam to studying to become more knowledgeable and
therefore make better life decisions now and after you graduate too and if you're struggling with
being able to sit down and study for long periods of time i made a video recently on how i trained
myself to study for 14 hours a day you can click on the pop-up banner above to watch it understand
the relevance to your career expanding on the last point of studying to become more knowledgeable
not just to pass your exams it's important to relate your subject to how it can be applied
in a work environment and after you graduate when you're looking for an internship or a graduate job
at the end of the day that's why most people go to university right to have better job prospects once
they graduate so what you're studying now will make you a better employee in your first graduate
job whether your dream is to become a doctor a lawyer an engineer whatever it is your education
will help you get there even if what you're aiming for is less conventional like to be a business
person for example and own your own business your studying will teach you soft skills such as
work ethic time management and communication skills study on the move studying in the same
place every single day can get boring really fast it's very easy to lose creativity and inspiration
you could change your study environment and study in a coffee shop or the library
or you could take it one step further and study on the move this can involve making a recording
of your studying onto your phone and playing it back while you're doing other activities like
taking a walk or going to the gym or while you're cooking it will give you a break from
sitting at your desk while at the same time it's not taking time away from your studying and this
can be particularly useful when you have an exam in the next couple of days and you have to cram
in as much studying as possible in the few days or the few hours you have left the pre-mac principle
the pre-mac principle is a theory of reinforcement that states that a less-desired behavior can
be reinforced by the opportunity to engage in a more desired behavior it has also been dubbed the
grandma rule you can't have dessert until you've had your vegetables so if you're studying is the
vegetables your dessert is your award and this can be anything from watching a film on netflix
to going out with your friends it is important to reward yourself when you achieve big milestones
or you study particularly hard that day because it will encourage you to keep repeating that same
behavior just make sure that you're not using your studying as an excuse just to indulge yourself and
you should be able to withhold from any reward if you don't study enough so your goal could
be to study for eight hours today or achieve a certain grade in an exam seeing your studying
now i haven't personally used this method but to those of you that love singing this might
just work for you making your studying content into a song can help you memorize it for an exam
maybe the most popular example of this is the periodic table of elements song there's antimony
arsenic aluminum selenium hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and uranium and nickel neodymium
neptunium germanium anonymous ruthenium uranium european zucchini and routine synthetic learning
is fun the school system teaches us that if you're learning in your free time then it's because you
have homework to do or maybe you're being made to do it in some way but the school system doesn't
teach us that we can learn just for the sake of being fun in the same way you'd watch a film at
the cinema or play a game of cards so how do you achieve that how do you make the learning process
fun well you develop a growth mindset you realize that the more you learn the better person you
become and believe me the better person you become the more fun it is carol dweck wrote about this in
her book mindset the new psychology of success and she formed a study that demonstrated how people
with a growth mindset have far more fun learning than those with a fixed mindset and people with
a growth mindset are people that understand that their opportunities and results in life
can improve the more they develop themselves as opposed to those with a fixed mindset that believe
that qualities like intelligence and talent are traits you are born with and can't be improved
upon in the study she followed medical students who were taking a chemistry course during their
first year at university and in the course the average grade was a c-plus in the book she found
that the students with a fixed mindset achieved good grades at the beginning of the course but
after the course gradually became more difficult and challenging the grades of those students
started to decline very very quickly on the other hand the students with a growth mindset achieved
good grades at the beginning of the course but after the course became more challenging the
growth mindset students continued to maintain their grades because they had a growth mindset
they found their learning more fun therefore challenges within their course continued to be
fun and those that had a fixed growth mindset didn't have fun therefore they soon burned out
once they were faced with new challenges so learning can be fun as long as you adopt a
growth mindset and i go more into detail on how to adopt a growth mindset in a video i uploaded last
month you can click on the pop-up banner above to watch it study with a friend studying with a
friend is a great way of making your studying fun providing that you don't get distracted and lose
focus on your actual studying it can reinforce learning habits and understanding whether it be
exposing you to new methods of learning or just providing encouragement and there are
so many other benefits it can help you build interpersonal skills increase learning retention
improve your mood it can make you more motivated and studying with a partner or in small groups up
to four people is usually the most effective but try to partner up with people who will inspire you
to study people who are just as motivated or even more motivated than you choose a study buddy that
will hold you accountable and not distract you with what they were doing on the weekends use
flashcards creating flashcards and being creative and using your imagination when creating the
cards is a really effective method for studying there are three main steps to making flashcards
step one find the most important information that you need to remember step two create questions and
answers based on that information and step three write the questions and answers in a brief easy to
read format and the very process of just creating the flashcards is a great way of learning you're
selecting ordering and rewording information which is extremely helpful for memory retention and
combining flashcards with studying with a friend can also be a good idea as it turns learning into
a game to see who can answer the most questions on the flashcards and you can take this game
by studying with three people one person becomes the quiz master and the other two race to come up
with the right answer as long as the flash cards have close ended answers meaning that the answers
should have an exact one to three word answer not a long fluffy response snack on brain food eating
a big meal before you start studying can be a bad idea as your body uses his energy to digest
your last meal it can leave you feeling tired and lethargic but eating the right foods during your
studying however can increase your brain's ability to retain information and focus as well as make
your studying that bit more enjoyable for example a study involving 40 students showed that drinking
500 milliliters of 100 orange and grapefruit juice enhanced blood flow to the brain and significantly
improved performance on a test that involved matching symbols to numbers so it's important
you're snacking on the right kinds of foods though foods that will actually boost your concentration
and memory retention these foods should be high in fiber protein and healthy fats this combination
will help to fuel your body and mind to ensure that you are able to study for longer without
losing focus so good brain food to snack on might be almonds dried fruit blueberries pumpkin seeds
or sunflower seeds or even a healthy smoothie participate in class a lot of what makes studying
more interesting is actually engaging in the studying process it's relatively well documented
that students that engage in classrooming lectures have increased attention and focus compared with
those that don't engage asking questions in class answering questions and even writing notes will
help you practice higher level critical thinking skills and promotes meaningful learning if you're
not engaged in class it's all too easy to just get bored and zoned out and we've all been there
change your environment i talk about this relatively often on this channel because it's
so incredibly useful in terms of keeping your mind engaged and creative with the task that
you're doing so for example this week alone i've worked in about seven different coffee shops my
apartment and my office and usually when i'm doing more creative work such as writing i'll go to a
coffee shop but if i'm doing more intensive tasks that require more brain power then i'll go to my
office where it's completely silent sitting in the same place every day to study can soon drain
any inspiration or motivation you have so studying in a coffee shop the library outside at the local
park or even just changing the room that you're studying in can often give you that extra boost in
motivation that you need socialize and party and sometimes the message on this channel gets taken
the wrong way i don't advise people to study for 14 to 16 hours a day every single day in the long
term it's also really important to take breaks to relax and to hang out with friends and socialize
do all the things that you should be doing at school or university by putting yourself out there
and joining social clubs and societies and going to parties and going out to dinner going out with
your friends and allowing those relationships to develop with people from other cultures and
countries as well as honing on social skills that you just aren't taught in your regular school or
university curriculum it will also help you boost your self-confidence and it's a great way to
distress after a challenging exam but overall it will just make you happier and you'll enjoy your
studying and your education much more as a result and if you need further help with your studying
i made a video recently on 50 powerful study tips in under 15 minutes yes 50 study tips you
can click on the video on the screen it's only 15 minutes long but i go for 50 powerful hacks that
you can help memorize and retain information for your exams far more effectively and efficiently
and if you like this video then i think you're going to love that one so i'll see you over there