“Happy studying,” they told me as I cringed and nodded. Their sarcasm was not appreciated.

Studying should feel like a workout.

It pretty much is a workout for that moist muscle bouncing around somewhere inside that skull of yours. A good workout is one where you build muscle. A good study session is one where you build the synapses in your brain. (Let’s ignore cardio for now but it mostly fits anyway.)

A good workout and a good study session is usually one that:

• You try and procrastinate doing
• You push yourself to your limit doing
• You couldn’t do for an hour without feeling completely worn out
• You finish and feel pooped
• But you still have enough gas in the tank to be happy.

You already know this. Look at these images below and take a guess which person is building muscle and which person isn’t.

Any idea?

Perhaps the big muscular one that’s about to pop a blood vessel?

How about with these folks?

The look of the person on the right is saying, “I could do this all day.”

The look of the person on the left is saying, “I shouldn’t have done this. I should have been a barber like my mum said.”

Now that you can recognize a good workout, how about a good study session?

Recognizing A Good Study Session

Have you ever tried to remember something and then got frustrated because you couldn’t? (Every other test, perhaps?)

That is active recall.

Active recall is the muscle building of studying. It’s the fundamental study strategy proven effective by science. People remember stuff by practicing remembering it. If you want to be sure you’ll remember something then you need to practice remembering it.

Sound good?

The classic example of active recall is using flash cards. You read one side of the flashcards. Then you try to remember what’s on the other side. Your face may cringe up a bit. You might feel yourself getting a little frustrated. You may even put on a face of agony (like I do when I can’t remember that band name.)

But, only one of two things will happen:

1. You remember it.
2. You don’t.

If you have to flip over the flashcard to figure out what’s on it then you don’t know it. That means you need to keep studying.

If you remember the other side then, at this second, you know you know it.

After trying a flashcard 5-10 times, you’ll most likely be able to remember it. This is how you create synapsis in your brain.

Recognizing A Bad Workout

Tell me how I know the following people aren’t building muscle. Any guesses?

Ummm… Maybe that big beautiful smile lighting up the face?

If the smile was misshapen, there were a couple crazy eyes bouncing around, and tears were running down the face, I might believe that’s a good workout. No muscle is getting built.

This person could do this workout long enough to blow their joints out. BAD!

Now think about what you should look like during a good study session…

Studying well requires your brain. You can’t be focused on looking any particular way. It can’t be forced. This can lead you to:

• Look like an idiot (I stick my tongue out when I’m thinking.)
• Look like a crazy person (bouncing around and talking to yourself.)
• Look completely boring

All these are acceptable.

Notice what isn’t on this list:

• Smiling
• Laughing
• Looking good

I’m not saying it’s impossible to study while looking pleasant but I’m willing to bet you’re not studying well if you look good. Sure… it’s possible but considering the usual factors, it’s highly unlikely.

Most importantly, looking ridiculous while studying doesn’t mean it’s impossible to enjoy studying.

Studying Well Feels Good

Here is the weird thing about a good workout. It also applies for a good study session.

You may look miserable but you may feel fantastic.

Your face will go from the agony of stress to the joy of success. You push yourself beyond what you know you can do. Then you’re excited when you go farther.

Look at this guy… He looks like he could do a back flip.

When you’re finished with a good workout, you feel better than when you started.

It goes farther than that though. After you get into that habit, you’re going to get addicted to the feeling. You’re going to dread missing your next workout. You’ll be looking longingly to the day you can get back into the gym.

What does that have to do with studying?

Well… like almost EVERYTHING.

A good study session will make you feel miserable for moments but it will make you feel fantastic by the end.

Pushing yourself feels bad but it also feels good.

You should spend your study session overcoming challenges that you’re proud to overcome. Every success builds up your pride and excitement a little.

Have you ever felt this before?

Probably not because most students are taught miserable study strategies. They aren’t challenging themselves and they’re overcoming nothing. They’re just sitting in misery and soaking it up. That’s not what you need to do.

Your study session needs to be about achievement.

Active recall is usually the most consistent way to achieve that.

It’s not that simple though. There are a lot of things that ruin a good study session.

Why Your Study Sessions Suck

Here are the common culprits:

Your Study Session Is Too Long

Here at Smart Student Secrets we recommend the 15 Minute Study Strategy. In most situations, you shouldn’t need to study more than 15 minutes a night to score high in class. Does that sound too short for you? You’ll be surprised.

But seriously, some students spend hours a night studying!!!

A good lifting workout for a normal person shouldn’t take more than an hour. Professional bodybuilders lift less than 2 hours a day and they’re usual pumping up with more than just iron. They’re loaded up on every chemical substance you can think of.

A good study session for a normal person shouldn’t take more than an hour. Sure… if you’re going to be preparing for finals while studying medicine, I’ll give you leeway. Most students don’t need to study long if they study consistently.

Long study sessions suck:

• You learn less and less as the session lengthens
• Focus requires energy. You’re draining it completely.
• You’re never going to want to start it! (“3 hours… do I have to? Five more minutes…”)
• You’re going to skip sessions regularly because no one has hours consistently

If you have a long study session then you’re going to end up like the guy in the gym for one day. He tortures himself for hours but then doesn’t return. He’s too sore and he dreads it too much.

Make studying tough but don’t make it impossible for you.

You Don’t Care

Studying doesn’t mean you care.

In most cases, it means you feel obligated. You feel like you “have to” study. You don’t want to study. You don’t want to learn the stuff. You just want to do what you’re supposed to do. You want to go through the motions of a motivated student.

No one will blame you for your low score if you spend hours studying to “earn” it.

You can tell your teacher and parents, “I studied for 6 hours!” They won’t get too upset.

Compare that to this:

Imagine if you told your teacher or parent you only studied an hour or two for the test. You’ll probably get a guilt trip. Even if you don’t really care about school, it doesn’t feel good to get chastised.

How do you care about what you’re studying:

• Think about the parts you like
• Figure out why other people like to study it
• Think about the end result of you learning it
• Don’t study stuff you don’t care about (and accept the consequences.)
• Quit trying to make others think you care. That’s just a distraction from you caring.

If you don’t want to study then you’re going to struggle to get into productive study sessions. It can happen but it will usually happen because you unintentionally focused on one of the points I listed above.

Find a purpose and live it everyday.

You’re Not Achieving Anything

At the end of your study session, you should be able to prove that you’ve improved.

If you have a set of flashcards then you should be able to remember more flashcards than when you started. That’s an achievement. It’s something you can celebrate.

If you have a set of math problems then you should have answered a good chunk of what you planned on. You now can look at your completed work and celebrate it.

Achievements allow you to celebrate your successes because they make those successes objective.

Imagine the traditional study strategy of reading your textbook. If you just read your textbook chapter a couple times then you have no proof that you know it. Sure… it might look familiar as you’re glancing at the pages but that’s hardly proof of anything. In fact, studies have shown it tends to be familiarization without memorization. Sure… it looks easy but you still don’t know it.

Look for objective things that can prove your study session was successful. When you have those, you’ll have what you need to know you’re improving. That means it’s perfectly appropriate to enjoy your success.

One Important Note:

Objective success means that you’ll sometimes have objective failure. Some days you won’t do well. That’s okay. One bad study session isn’t the end of the world. It just means you’ll have to compensate for a slightly lower motivation the next day.

In my experience, these bad study session show up 5-10% of the time.

It’s okay to have bad days. Don’t let them turn into bad weeks or months.

Studying is like a good workout.

You’re don’t enjoy the process when you start.

People don’t start working out because they want to feel the hormones of working out. They start to workout because they want to look good or be stronger. But eventually, the process and hormones are the feeling you’re after. At a certain point, you don’t need more muscle. You just want to get that rush from pushing yourself.

The same goes for studying.

You want good grades right now.

That’s cool. That can get you started but don’t expect that to be the end of it. When you get in a good study routine, you’re going to get into the compulsive urge to learn more whether the grades are a factor or not.

Studying is a challenge that you’ll be excited to overcome.

That is happy studying AKA Successful studying with a purpose.

Good news! And you’re going to be one of the first to know!

I’m writing this message is going to be published on January 29, 2021. And I’m not sure how long it’s going to be up –

Here is the thing:

In the next few months, I’m going to be publishing my latest ebook:

How To Study Happier: What Smart Students Do That Most Students Don’t

Thousands of students have changed their lives reading my previous books and I get so many messages about it that it kind of drove me nuts because I knew it…

There is more to the story that I never had the chance to tell.

And the handful of special review copies I handed out have proven this to me –

This book is going to be the BIGGEST and MOST POWERFUL book I’ve ever written and I’m going to have to be ready for it. 

I don’t do big advertising campaigns. I do little focused groups because I want to know I’m only hitting students that are perfect for the book and not paying 2 dollars for a click from your Aunt Jennifer that thinks she’s a 16 year old girl.

In this book you’re going to learn stuff life this –

• Proof that happy students are the highest scoring students
• How to pick the happy path to killer grades even if you’re on the miserable path right now
• The best students don’t study the most – this is what they do
• Why is it that the hardest working students don’t score higher?
• You don’t need to sacrifice your happiness to get killer scores
• Why studying harder isn’t giving you the grades you were promised
• The stupid simple secret to staying motivated when you’re actually enjoying your work
• How to see what you NEED to see to bring your academic game up to the NEXT LEVEL
• A simple way to improve your grades while doing almost nothing differently – and how it works in a sneaky little way
• The reason you’ve been taught the exact WRONG way to get top scores
• How to bring your grades to their peak (and not just meandering around mediocre.)
• Introducing: this smiling stoner student from my HS class that knew how to score higher than me even though I was studying hours a night. This guy will give you a laugh.
• Why you shouldn’t always trust the high scoring masochists that would rather study 4 hours a night than maximize their scores
• The thing that you need to see that will protect yourself from the miserable student trap where you can never study enough.
• How to turn your grades up and down like a volume knob on an old radio
• How to set your grades on AUTOPILOT – making the tweaks to improve your grades automatic
• Setting up a routine that makes good grades easy
• If THIS idiot can score near the top of his class then YES, you can too.
• How to access your gut perception – get it working for you instead of against you
• Why “if you’re not enjoying it then you’re not doing it right” – and how to do it right
• See that HAPPY STUDYING IS BETTER STUDYING – and exactly how to make it happen even if you DESPISE studying right now!
• A 5 step strategy to studying better for killer scores while waltzing through life – having straight up fun in the process – and I’m talking about a seriously life-changing difference.
• You can join thousands of students in learning more – scoring higher – and enjoying the process with this

If you want to be one of the FIRST to know about this book then sign up on our email list ASAP. 

– Aaron

Image Sources: Petr Kratochvil, Skeeze, Max Pixel, Skeeze, CDC/Amanda Mills, I Reshape You, Mathew Ragan, Tbuckley89, camera_is_a_mirror_with_memory, EDanley, OpenClipArt