Making Study Possible: A Few Simple Strategies
One of my favourite questions in the class is: How many of you want to study but are not able to? And almost 100% of hands go up. Sometimes I ask the next question: How many of you want to study and are actually able to do it? Occasionally, only a few hands go up. The conclusion that “students these days do not want to study” feels quite superficial to me.
Because what I see in the classroom is not a lack of intention—what I see is a struggle between wanting to study and being able to study.
Studying is a Difficult Task
Studying—especially in the beginning—is not very rewarding. It demands withdrawal from the dance of life that is unfolding around. And honestly, in the age when energy is at its peak, that energy wants to engage. It wants to converse, play, sing, dance, create— it wants to be part of the beautiful interplay of life happening all around. Study requires us to suspend that urge, in order to build a more fulfilling life ahead. But this can feel like a very inconvenient exchange:
sacrificing the present to gain a promised better life in the future.
All I want to highlight is this:
when life itself feels beautiful, when energy is at its peak, and when learning for exams often requires cramming and doesn’t even make much sense—studying becomes a difficult task. Not impossible. Not useless. But it is difficult.
Yet, This is the Reality of Our Time Reforms take time. But right now, this is the reality: students need to study, appear in exams, pass exams, and move ahead in life. And for that, what is required is simple to say but hard to do: to devote time for study. So here, I will talk about a few strategies that students might find helpful.
1) Track Progress: Convert Your Task Into Numbers
Tracking progress is an effective strategy. I often give this example: suppose I ask two students to do skipping.
- To one student I give a number—let’s say 100 times.
- To the other I just say: Do it as long as you do not get tired.
Who does it more?
The answer is clear: the one who has a number in the mind, not the one who has a vague idea of “getting tired.” Because the moment something becomes inconvenient, the mind immediately starts conveying: You are tired. The mind wants to withdraw from anything tiresome. But when the number is clear, the mind starts negotiating differently: Just complete it. This can be applied to studying too.
While reading, count the pages. Fix the target. Suppose your target is to read 20 pages.
Write counting from 1 to 20 on a sheet and keep cutting the numbers as you complete each page:
- finish page 1 — cross 1
- finish page 2 — cross 2
…and so on.
The mind enjoys completion.
While writing, count the words. Fix the target.
You can write in your notebook: 50, 100, 150, 200...
Achieve 50 words—cross 50.
Achieve 100 words—cross 100.
And so on.
Studies suggest that these small achievements release dopamine, which creates a favourable mode to continue the task. So whether it is reading, writing, solving sums, or revision—
convert your task into numbers and track it.
2) Consistency Has Great Value
I came across an interesting example while reading the Dalai Lama. He says: just like we continue to add fuel so that the fire does not get extinguished, similarly for any task—if you keep adding “fuel” regularly, it gradually gathers momentum. Many students have the tendency to study for long hours only one day before the exam. That is not a good strategy. Instead of studying 12 hours a day before, study 1 hour everyday for 12 days before the exam. For consistency, keeping things small and simple is extremely important. One perhaps cannot study 10 hours continuously for a month—few may, but most cannot. But almost everyone can study 1 hour everyday for a month, or a year.
James Clear explains this beautifully in Atomic Habits. He says if one targets to run 5 km everyday, one may fail. But if one targets to just wear the sports shoes everyday, it becomes far more likely that the person continues—because the burden is not on “doing big”, but on “showing up small.” So even for a few minutes, devote time everyday. Reading, writing, learning—anything. Consistency has a magic. Leverage this.
3) Routine is Power: Make Reading & Writing Non-Negotiable
Extending the previous point, the best way is to routinize what is important. Routine is something we do everyday—like brushing teeth or taking a bath. There is no exception. So if reading and writing are essential for learners, make them a routine. To begin with, one can tag a new routine to an existing one. For instance, if you are riding a bicycle, adding a carrier doesn’t feel like an extra load. Similarly, tag small routines to your existing ones.
This could be:
- writing one page
- reading one page
And now look at the cumulative value.
One page daily
365 days = 365 pages.
Even if one page carries just 200 words:
365 days = 73,000 words.
That is a massive amount of writing. Similarly, one page reading daily gives you 365 pages of reading—almost two good books finished. There isn’t survey-based data here, but even if you ask 10 people around you, you will find that by simply reading one page and writing one page daily, you will perhaps be in the top 1% of people in terms of learning habit.
And the best part is: these habits are like seeds. One page becomes two pages. Two pages become a chapter. A seed grows into a tree. And the fruit of this tree is not just exam marks—
it is confidence, clarity, discipline, and academic excellence.
So no, I don’t think children “don’t want to study.” Most children want to study.
They simply need a method that makes studying less painful—and a system that makes it more possible. And sometimes, the beginning of that system is not a big timetable or strict discipline—
Sometimes it begins with something as small as one page.
- Log in to post comments