How To Outsmart Your Inner Couch Potato and Be a Study Dynamo

Overcoming laziness in 4 steps.

Why aren’t you a topper? Why don’t you get enough marks to be at the top? Have you ever thought about this?

The answer is straightforward.

Let’s try to break it down.

To score well, someone needs to study. So, in a way, if you didn’t cut nicely, it means that you didn’t study.

Why don’t you study?

There are two cases.

First, maybe you don’t have time to study. Or maybe you have time, but you’re not interested in learning. Or perhaps you have the time, you’re interested, but you don’t have enough motivation to start.

And maybe you have the time, you’re interested, you have the motivation, but you don’t remember anything you study.

Understanding the Motivation-Action Loop.

People traditionally believe that motivation leads to action.

While this is partially true, the book “Motivation is a Myth” by Jeff Hayden says that waiting for motivation leads to inaction.

Often, for successful people, motivation doesn’t lead to action, but it’s the reverse — action leads to motivation.

You first take action, complete the work, and get results, which makes you happy and provides the dopamine and motivation to return and work again.

The Four-Step Method.

Now, with this concept in mind, here’s a four-step method to solve your problem of how to study when you don’t feel like studying.

We don’t usually start studying because we have no idea about what to study, when to study, and how long to learn.

Step 1: Get Clarity.

So, the first step is to get clarity on these things. Your typical plan should sound like, “I’m going to solve 40 gravitation questions in two hours from a textbook at 2 PM after my lunch today.”

Look at the statement; you know what to do, you have a target, where to study, and when to do it. You’ve also attached learning to a daily habit that you already have.

This method is called habit stacking, where you attach a new habit with an existing one. This creates a reminder and makes it easier to establish a desired habit — in this case, studying.

Once you’ve made the plan and have clarity on these things, let’s move to the second step.

Step 2: Start Studying.

Step two is to start studying.

It’s not as easy as I just said it. I understand that completely, but there are tricks to help you.

For example, you may have heard of the five-minute rule, which says that

If you want to study for two or three hours, start with just five minutes first.

Sit before your books and tell your mind that you only have to study for five minutes. That’s it. Just get started.

This will break the initial resistance, and you’ll realize after five minutes that it’s straightforward for you to continue studying.

Step 3: Continue Studying.

Now, circling back to the first step, you made a plan to study, and in the second step, you started looking. The third step is to continue learning to enter the motivation loop.

Continuing to study for two or three hours is a challenging task, so we have techniques like ultradian sprints, focus sprints, and the Pomodoro Technique.

These techniques can help you study for longer. I’ve already talked about all these things in my previous blogs.

Step 4: Reward Yourself.

Now, the last step — step four. The final step of the fourth step is to reward yourself for the hard work you’ve put in.

You might feel this is the least important step, but it’s one of the most crucial. Rewards trigger your mind to start studying again and close the motivation loops.

It’s like a cycle: you work, you do it well, it gives you dopamine to start working again.

This is what I meant when I said that for most successful people, action leads to motivation, not vice versa.

Successful people don’t wait for motivation; they start working because they must.

Summing it up, all the things I’ve mentioned in this blog post will help you start studying.

It would be best if you pushed yourself to do difficult things. You’re not a child anymore; no one will sit beside you with a stick to make you study.

It would help if you did it yourself.

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