Feeling like studying is hard or boring is a more serious problem than we give it credit.
Usually, we assume that we’ll snap out of it and studying will magically become easier. But the feeling that studying is hard is a mental block influenced by so many daily factors.
Studying was hard for 4.5 years of my life. From 17 to almost 22, I didn’t feel like studying was a breeze or exciting. It always felt like a summit I was forced to climb.
Friends and strangers looked like they were having the time of their life — and got the grades to prove it too. While I just flailed my arms in the water, trying not to drown.
It depressed me.
Fast forward three years later — I’ve done enough research on productivity, dopamine, and studying techniques to find out the cause of my past problems.
In this article, I’ll share the five biggest reasons why studying feels so hard. I’ll also explore some solutions to those problems. A word of caution, though, this is the one mental hurdle that isn’t going to go away easily. It’s taken almost seven years to get to a stage where I enjoy studying.
So, why is studying so hard?
Table of Contents
1. You Are Overstimulated by Cheap Dopamine
Cheap dopamine is everywhere. It’s on your phone, your e-reader, a porn website, and on Netflix and YouTube. It’s in the person you’re cheating with, and it’s in whatever you’re using to procrastinate.
We are living in the most technologically advanced period, but also the period with the most drug addicts due to cheap dopamine.
Now, dopamine isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a chemical that activates the brain’s reward center, drives our motivation, and gives us a healthy shot of happiness when we desperately need it.
But cheap dopamine is what most students use to avoid studying. And it’s the reason why studying feels harder than it is.
So, what does cheap dopamine do?
In a nutshell – It gives you a rush like cocaine would to a drug addict.
It’s a feel-good chemical that doesn’t enrich our lives in the long term but makes us incredibly happy in the short term. Eventually, that happy feeling fades, and reality hits us. And our real life starts looking sad, boring, and challenging.
Watching a Netflix show or playing a game on your phone gives you an immediate reward. That’s why we crave cheap dopamine, like we’ll lose our minds if we don’t get it.
We don’t get an immediate reward for completing an important project or studying for an hour, which is why we find it unbearable.
I was a drug addict in college.
Not the usual cocaine sniffing, weed smoking kind, but the YouTube watching, junk food eating, bad romance novel reading kind. These things were my vices or my constant supply of cheap dopamine.
They made me hate my life when I wasn’t partaking in them. I hated being present because it meant I had to feel and actually “live” my life.
And I had a good life. I had supportive parents, no financial issues, many friends, good clothes, and a degree almost earned, yet I was miserable. And the cause of this was cheap dopamine.
Once cheap dopamine wears off, you feel worse about reality. Because now you know what a pleasurable high feels like, you come crashing down when it fades.
And you view your life like everything is wrong with it. When there’s nothing wrong at all. You’re just used to feeling an abnormal amount of pleasure in short bursts.
Here’s how to overcome the need for cheap dopamine:
Find Your Sources of Cheap Dopamine
What are the things you find pleasure in that don’t enrich your life? What activities make you feel miserable once you stop?
Make a list of your sources of cheap dopamine. My sources are lousy romance novels, movies, YouTube, Twitter scrolling, a terrible reality show, and the need to always waste my time listening to music for 2 hours.
Avoid Your Sources of Cheap Dopamine for at Least 30 Days
The only way to reset how you process your life again is to completely avoid those sources of cheap dopamine. And this is hard because you have to rely on sheer willpower. But it’s not impossible.
Once you eliminate those sources of cheap dopamine, you’ll feel worse. You’ll feel sick. Emotions will hit you like a lightning bolt. You’ll want to cry, give up, and go back for a hit again.
But once you overcome those withdrawal symptoms, all the mundane, routine tasks in your life will feel exciting again. You’ll produce dopamine from the things that enhance your life, like reading a good non-fiction book about goals, exercising, and most importantly, studying.
Start by eliminating one source of cheap dopamine at a time. If you love watching entertaining YouTube videos for hours on end, stop that for a month. Then, move on to reducing your time on social media.
30 days is a good starting point. But the goal is to eliminate these sources of cheap dopamine forever. Of course, that’s never easy; we are human. You can return to them if you’re having a terrible day and need an escape.
Hey, I still read bad romance when I’m having a bad day. But I don’t do it every day like I used to. Every day or even a few times a week is addictive behavior that will eventually lead you into a sinkhole.
Get a Dopamine Hit from Studying
Studying feels hard because you’ve made it that way by getting a constant cheap dopamine fix.
Instead, get your dopamine from the process of studying. Let satisfaction wash over you after you’ve completed studying a chapter. Make this your new source of “good” dopamine.
2. You Are Studying Something That Doesn’t Interest You
If you aren’t interested in your field of study or a particular subject feels boring, it’s going to be mind-bogglingly hard to feel any excitement to learn.
We are creatures of attention.
And studying something that doesn’t excite or interest you means going against that basic human instinct.
I’ve daydreamed through classes to the point where I was in another country. And I’ve also sat in classes with my attention glued onto the projector and the lecturer’s words. There’s no doubt which class I performed better in.
Now, you don’t always have to be salivating with excitement every time you have a lecture or a study session, but the topic should be at least mildly interesting to you. You should feel something positive when learning a particular topic.
If you feel negative or, worse, indifferent, then the result will be disastrous.
Here’s how to overcome this obstacle:
Re-evaluate Your Choice
The most obvious solution to this problem is to re-evaluate your current study path. Should you be doing something else? Is it feasible to change your course?
Maybe there’s another branch of what you are studying that interests you more. For example, instead of accounting, perhaps you prefer the business side more. Can you change to a business major? Or maybe you want to go from engineering to English literature!
Changing your path doesn’t have to be scary.
I was hit with so many fears when considering changing my major. I worried about what my parents would say, what my extended family would think, and what my future would look like (a lot better if I had changed then).
You’ll have to put your fear aside to make a brave decision. It’s your life and your movie. You’re the leading actor – everyone else are side actors. Some will stay, and some will leave.
I worried about what my friends would think – but guess what? Those people aren’t even my friends anymore. They were just a part of my life once upon a time. There was no point worrying about what they thought in the first place.
However, changing your course isn’t always feasible. You don’t want to mindlessly jump ship, especially if you aren’t sure what makes you happy.
This is one of the reasons I stayed in my degree – I didn’t know what else I wanted to do. I had a vague idea. But a vague idea isn’t good enough. Especially when changing a major/degree costs money, time, effort, and sometimes your peace of mind.
So, take some time to make this decision. Think it through. Weigh the costs and benefits. Attend a few lectures in what you might be interested in. Take it on a trial period before you fully commit. Watch YouTube videos in the area, read books, speak to others and get their opinion.
But ultimately, you’re the only one allowed to make that final decision.
Related Post: Should I Go Back to School? 8 Reasons You Should and 6 Things to Consider
Take a Long Break
I sometimes wish I had taken a gap year before fully committing to my study path.
Would I have made the same decision anyway or a completely different choice? Would I have told everyone to shove their silly opinions? I don’t know. But I do know that it would have given me a better foundation.
A long break gives you time and space to think. You can evaluate your thoughts without any external influence. You can question yourself and get advice from others on the path you’re interested in.
Instead, most of us jump straight into a degree without any idea what it entails. And we make this decision at ages 15-18. That’s far too young to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life. You don’t even know yourself at that age.
So, if it’s possible for you, take some time out. Go on a vacation or a volunteer trip, job shadow, speak to many people, invest your time in a creative hobby, and take a few free courses in the subjects you think you might like.
This would’ve been life-changing for me. I did get to do it…but later than I would have liked.
Related Post: I Took a Long Break from Studying – Here’s Why You Should Too
Develop Your Interest in the Study Path
If the first two options aren’t feasible for you, then create an interest in your study path by tying it to a greater purpose in life.
Maybe your dream is to move to another country, and the only way to do that is to get this qualification. Boom! You have your interest.
Some might argue that this is an extrinsic source of motivation, meaning that you’re using an outside influence to fuel your motivation to study. And it’s true. But at some point, this extrinsic motivation becomes internal.
Create your own direction/purpose/reason for studying, and your study material will look much more beautiful.
3. You Are Constantly Presented with New Ideas
Studying any content is challenging – whether you love the subject or not.
Taking in new information all the time, digesting that information, then being expected to remember it for an uncertain amount of time is every student’s daily problem.
And on top of that, you are constantly bombarded with new info.
You’re barely able to digest one thing before moving on to the next. All this new knowledge piles up and up and up. And if you don’t know what to do with it, you’ll vomit.
Unsurprisingly, students find studying hard because it is technically hard. There are so many new things happening, bouncing around in your brain, waiting for you to do something with it and waiting for you to remember it until your last exam.
It’s tough.
And probably the biggest cause of student discomfort.
Corporate workers or anybody that works a normal job has it 10 times easier than a student. A worker’s life revolves around monotonous tasks – doing the same thing every day. Very rarely is there variation or learning new information.
But the student – aah, the student. The student is a superhuman force of nature.
However, luckily our brains are a muscle. Or sponge. Or whatever medically correct term you want to insert here. Our brains are capable of learning, organizing, and remembering this information. It knows what to do with it if you do things correctly.
Let’s go through some of the solutions below:
Take Breaks
Breaks give your brain time to rest and process the information it’s just learned. If you plan on studying for four continuous hours, you aren’t giving it that time. And you’re stressing yourself out in the process.
Try using the Pomodoro method to study. This method has breaks built into the system. It reminds you to take a break. This break will help you consolidate information, recharge for the next session, and organize the information better so you can remember it for longer.
Related Post: How to Use the Pomodoro Technique for Studying (The Right Way)
Study Actively
I talk about active recall a lot on this blog because it is a game-changer. Unfortunately, I used YouTube for all the wrong reasons when I was in university, and I didn’t come across Ali Abdaal. If I had, I might have performed better.
Taking notes, listening to lectures, highlighting, and re-reading information aren’t the best ways to study. They’re passive forms of learning – meaning they don’t cement the information in your brain for the long term.
Active forms of learning are spaced repetition and practice testing. These “force” you to remember information in the present, which helps you retain it in the future.
And as I’ve mentioned, you are constantly presented with new information in college. You don’t have much time to sit and remember everything in one go. You’re hit with the next batch of material way too soon.
Therefore, if you learn how to actively study as soon as new information presents itself, you’re giving yourself a better chance of retaining that information later (even when more and more material is needed to be studied).
Related Post: 7 Effective Study Habits to Develop That Will Make You a Better Student
Get Enough Sleep
I got between 4-5 hours of sleep in university. My performance suffered as a result. Now that I think of it, I almost killed myself in college.
The brain needs rest – not just to refresh and energize you but also to connect information and improve memory. As I’ve mentioned, students are bombarded with information constantly. So, how do you expect to solidify that information in your mind if you don’t rest it?
I know it’s hard to get regular sleep as a student. Trust me, I know. But if you can squeeze in at least 7 hours a night, that’s good enough.
Even better, aim for the obligatory 8-9 hours for improved study performance and an overall better mood.
4. You Are Focused Only on Studying
Yes, this sounds counterproductive, but keeping your exams your sole purpose in life will be your downfall.
Despite disliking my field of study, the other worst thing I could have done (this list keeps piling up) is never trying anything else. I didn’t invest time into a hobby, start a creative project, learn new things, or focus on other areas of my life.
I was a party pooper whose only goal in life was to hate studying. And it’s all I ever thought about. I was a real ray of sunshine.
Now, I’m not saying that you should be thinking about five different things and projects. Your priority should be college. However, you should also focus on the other areas of your life to reduce stress, learn more about yourself, and improve your mental and physical health.
Here’s how to do that:
Invest Time into Your Hobbies and Creative Projects
Focus on your health by doing exercise every day. Start a blog. Or vlog yourself (like those cool studytubers). Take smaller courses in photography or writing or whatever interests you.
You don’t have to aspire to be famous or even focus on the results. It just gives you something exciting to think about and work toward. It’s also a refresher and takes your mind off the stress of college for a while.
It’s a personal project that you do just for yourself. Without any expectations. That in itself is freeing.
According to Stanford University, it’s better if your hobby or creative project is unrelated to your major/degree. You’ll avoid burnout this way. Plus, you’ll develop different skills you might not have expected, allowing you to discover your hidden potential.
I had so much downtime during university. Literally, HOURS while I waited in between lectures. And what did I do? I wasted that time on pointless YouTube videos and thought about how much I hated studying.
5. You Are Overwhelmed with the Future
Of course, you’ll feel like studying is hard if you’re wondering how to survive the next 3 hours of your study session. Anybody would be scared, even Lord Voldemort.
Another common fear that most students have is fear of the future. It’s hard to envision what your future is going to look like when you’re knee-deep in exams. Sometimes you feel like you know where you’re going, while other times, you’re confused.
So, how can you overcome this fear:
Be Mindful
At the risk of sounding like a Buddhist monk – be mindful of the present moment.
Mindfulness can benefit you in every aspect of your life – especially studies.
When you are in the moment, be in the moment. Stop worrying about how your life is going to turn out 10 years from now. You don’t know that. Nobody knows that. I worried myself sick 10 years ago, and even I couldn’t predict where I would end up today. We can plan and stress, but life is meant to be lived moment by moment.
And the beauty of life is in its unpredictability.
I know that’s probably a foreign language to a student whose only goal is passing exams. Because the reason we study is so we can have a better future, right? But we can’t predict that future, no matter how hard we try.
You’ve got the best shot of making the future great by doing your best right now. It’s by overcoming those hurdles in your mind that tell you you’re a bad student and that studying is hard.
If you can overcome those and focus only on the next 30 minutes of your study session and then do it again and again, you’re already successful.
You don’t need a corporate job, a flashy piece of paper saying you’ve graduated, or a promotion. Overcome the hurdles, and you’ve already made it.
Related Post: 6 Painless Ways to Overcome the Fear of Studying
Final Thoughts – Why Is Studying So Hard
The number of obstacles in our way as students is numerous. The biggest being our minds.
Please take my advice in this post. I am a living, breathing example of somebody who felt that studying was hard for a quarter of her life. These were the main reasons why. And if I can grow to love it and be mindful daily, so can you.
To recap, here are the biggest reasons you find studying so hard:
- You are distracted by cheap dopamine.
- You aren’t interested in your field of study.
- You are constantly presented with new ideas.
- You are focused only on studies.
- You are overwhelmed with the future (whether 5 years from now or 5 hours from now).
Follow the tips outlined in this post, and don’t feel disheartened if you don’t immediately fall in love with studying. It’s a process. And it took me time too.
If this post answered your question of, “why is studying so hard?” check out my other studying articles.
All the best!