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If you are a university student, you might study few subjects that might be difficult and boring. If you are a STEM student, you probably end up studying a few of those subjects. Getting bored is a sign of not connecting with what you are learning. I was a STEM student, and I encountered few topics that I thought were unless to me and failed to connect with, making them boring to me. In this post, I will show you how not to get bored and keep study interesting.
On average, students find their study boring because they fail to see the connection between the theory and the real-life practical application, making things look foreign to students that distance them from their course. Students need to find a reason to keep study interesting and relate that to their course. Enjoying your study start when you understand the purpose of what you are studying and connect it to your goals.
Students get distant from their studies because they focus too much on the tool, not the problem. They fail to ask and find answers to important questions, such as why am I being taught this and how this will help me in the future. Things are boring because we fail to ask why this is important and connect it to its real-world use. Therefore, if you find it boring, you can not make yourself see its importance.
There is a reason why Elon Musk, who do not have a degree in rocket science and aerodynamics, made Space X the cheapest space flight. That even made NASA send their astronauts in Space X rockets to the international space station. People will say because Space X has reusable rockets that can land.
But if we listen to Elon musk philosophy in this video, you will realise that Elon simply asked “WHY” a lot when he was making rockets, “Why we can not land those rockets, instead of building new ones every time?”. Then after learning why he asked how. This has made all the difference. He did not see the boring in what he was doing or studying because he managed to find interest by simply asking why a lot.
After learning the reason of WHY study can be boring, you need to ask HOW you can keep study interesting and enjoyable. In the next section, there are few tips you can use to study effectively.
7 Ways To Study Effectively Without Getting Bored And Keep It Interesting
This list has helped me to finish my engineering degree effectively without getting bored much. The list has been gathered from years of experience with the help of many academics, mentors, coaches and scientists.
1- Find a suitable study environment
Study is a mentally challenging task, which means that any distractions can pull you away from learning. Therefore, you need to find a suitable study environment that keeps you focused. Usually, a good study environment is quiet, with good lighting and a clean desk. Typically, a study place must have a clear desk with enough space to do your work. This can be your bedroom, study room or the library; the critical thing is it must be quiet so that you are not distracted.
2- Switch off distractions
Common distractions are your phone, TV and other people around you. Those things are designed to pull you away from your study. Humans are single wired, which means that you can not do two things together as efficiently as doing one thing. Therefore, when distractions surround you, you quickly lose focus, especially when studying something mentally challenging.
Therefore, you should switch off any distractions starting with your phone. You can put your phone away and in another room within walking distance from your desk, which means that you have to stand up leave your study room to get to your phone. Put your phone on silent and switch off anything else that might be making loud noises.
Finally, you need to be direct with other people by telling them that you are trying to study and you need to focus; therefore, you will resume the discussion with them when you complete your study. Being polite, direct, and transparent can save you from wasting time chatting when you need to study.
3- Get a break
If you are the type of person who usually gets bored quickly during study, then taking a break can help to energise you and make you more productive. There are two types of breaks you can do to change your mode and keep things interesting. First, you can allocate a specific time during the week to do a particular activity such as doing a sport or socialising with friends that can help to ease the pressure of study and change your mode.
Second, taking small breaks during your study. Most people do not realise that studying more does not necessarily help because most people lose focus and interest quickly when studying, specifically after the first hour. That is why it is essential to take a short 5 minutes break every 40-30 minutes. The break can be calling a friend or eating a snack to increase productivity, reduce anxiety and keep things interesting.
Watch this short video of Marty Lobdell explaining how taking short breaks during your study can make you study effectively without getting bored.
4- Make your action priority list
Your action priority list is a list that can be on clean paper or your note app. The important thing is only to put the actions that you want to do today. You write them in the present tense, such as I read, I practice to simulate the action in your mind. And tick or strikethrough when you finish the task.
When you are writing your tasks, you are doing two things. First, when you write something, you only repeat what you are thinking, which means you are telling yourself that you need to do something twice, solidifying the action. The second, you are writing things down to remember to do later.
So what qualifies as a priority action? Simply think of it as the essential thing that needs to be done today. This is how you turn an average day into a productive day, and this is how you take boring things to sophisticated and important. Instead of endless procrastination, action your priorities and make it your mission to finish those tasks today.
Take a moment to see what needs to be done in your study that is extremely important; write it on paper or your note app as action and work to achieve it. Think of your priority action list as big rocks that you need to get out of your way. Ignore other irrelevant tasks (small rocks) that do not add value to your learning.
Watch this video on how important it is to give your big rocks a priority. If you think this way, you can study more effectively.
5- Find the interesting in your study
Your issue may be that you can not find anything fascinating in what you are studying, which is putting your energy down. You can understand the topic, but you find it boring because you struggle to find its importance. This is common because universities rarely focus on the practical side of things and only focus on the theory.
If you can not find interest in your topic, which makes it boring, try to expand your knowledge about the topic and do your research by searching the internet, asking your teacher, reading books, and asking experienced people in your field. Essentially, you are trying to build interest in the topic by going beyond your curriculum.
Universities goal is to teach you the theory, but it can not teach you everything. Therefore, it is your mission to get interested in the topic. You will see building interest in a topic make you study more effectively without getting bored.
6- Realise you will never going to feel like studying
You think that you will start studying when you feel like it. The sad truth is that you will never feel like it, and before you know it, you are falling behind and missing important assignment due dates. When you fall behind, your study becomes necessary, so you only study because you have to, not because you feel like it. If you do not, you will simply fail, so you force yourself to study.
You need to realise that in life, you might have to do things that you do not feel like doing it. It is then when you have to push yourself to do something, so the question is, why not push yourself early? If you understand that you may never feel like studying – understanding this simple fact, you will be ten times more productive simply because you do things based on logical decisions and not on feelings.
If you bring the most successful people in our lifetime and look closely into their lives, you will see that their success has nothing to do with motivation. Simply they pushed themselves to do things, not because they felt like doing it. If you let your feelings dictate you, you will continue to see things as boring and not interesting. See how Mil Robbins, a motivational speaker and the author of the five-second rule, explain this phenomenon.
7- Make your study a habit
As humans, we are creatures of habits, which means if we do something repeatedly, it becomes a habit. Now there is no magic number to make something a habit, so it really depends on you and how much you want to make your study a habit.
Study is a mental task that requires focus. To form a habit, you need a trigger to do it. For example, you want to be an engineer, which is a trigger for your to study. If you form a routine of your study, your reward is to accomplish your goal and become an engineer.
Find a day or a specific time in a day when you would do a mentally challenging task such as studying or reading a book and stick to that routine until it becomes a habit. You can quickly form your new habit if it aligns with your personal values. Habit, if it was created successfully, can make you study more effectively with fewer distractions.
FAQ
How do I enjoy studying?
You can enjoy studying by finding ways to connect with the topic. It can be searching the internet or asking questions to get yourself interested in the topic. Once you are interested, you can enjoy your study by setting goals to achieve and making it a mission rather than just study to pass.
Why do students get bored while studying?
Most bored students fail to connect with what they are studying, making it difficult not to get bored and want to do something different. Usually, students get bored because they do not understand what they are being taught, making it difficult to get interested.
How do I study really boring subjects?
If you find what you are studying boring, it is because you do not know the usefulness of what you are doing. Therefore, the best thing you can do is expand beyond your curriculum and find the practical application of what you are learning. Once you find the importance, you will become more interested in studying and not get bored.
How to stay motivated as a STEM student?
It takes resilience to stay motivated as a STEM student. Some of the things you learn might be complicated, making you demotivated and struggling to find their meaning. But you need to realise it takes time, practice and energy to specialise in any STEM major. Therefore, sometimes you need to push yourself to study even if you are not motivated. Do not wait for motivation to push you to learn, instead just push yourself to do it.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, you can beat demotivation and boredom by finding ways to connect with your study and learn the importance of what you are doing. Sometimes you have to find good habits to apply to study effectively, and sometimes you just have to push yourself to do it.
Beside getting bored, If you are the type of person that get anxious while studying and struggling to find a balance between work, study and other activity, then you can check those two articles:
