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Does your education feel like a chore? Is your degree path arduous and uninspiring? 

The road we take to our ultimate academic goal may not always feel exciting and energizing. In fact, it may sometimes feel downright draining. However, no matter where we are on this journey, we can focus on our learning and take steps to find enjoyment and delight in learning and the learning process. 

Here are 3 strategies that can help you fall in love with learning:

Make Personal Connections

We learn best when we have a personal connection to what we are studying. Find ways to connect your learning material to the people, places, and things that are important to you. For example, students often have opportunities to shape their own research or writing projects. In a history course, rather than writing a paper on the general impact of taxation on early American colonies, dig into the economic history of your hometown. In a health sciences course, choose a disease for your next project that affected someone in your family or a close friend. In business courses, consider the work you want to do with your degree and shape your next research project to help you better understand that particular field and the challenges they are likely to face. 

I remember struggling with a botany course in my early years of college. The endless diagrams of plants, cells, and endoplasmic reticulum felt like exhausting and meaningless rote memorization. I was bored by reviewing the same charts and images again and again. That said, I love nature! I swoon for flowers and hug leafy trees. So, I went outside and identified some of those same plants and their parts in the gardens and woods around me. I broke apart tulips to study their parts, and I looked at autumn leaves that I found on walks under a microscope. My test scores improved, I passed the course, and I ended up really enjoying learning the material. In fact, I still enjoy recalling that knowledge when I work in my home garden or walk in my local forest preserve. By finding ways to connect with what I was learning, I enjoyed the learning process more and retained what I learned even better.  

Set Meaningful Goals

That degree may feel very far away, especially for working adults taking only 1 or 2 classes each term. Create meaningful goals along the way to help break up the journey. Try to create goals that encourage your curiosity and active engagement with your learning material. For instance, make it a goal to try a new learning method each term. Give the PQ4R Method a try in your communication course or the Pomodoro Technique in your next math course. Try studying with your peers at a live study session or attend a webinar to help you improve your writing or research skills. Check out a new study app, give flashcards a try, or use a graphic organizer to put what you are learning into a visual study aid. 

Challenge yourself to participate actively in course discussions. For example, set a goal to ask one of your classmates a meaningful question each week, to post relevant replies to everyone who responds on your thread, or to read all of the new posts in the discussion by checking it once each day. 

Push yourself further by seeking out advanced material when a topic piques your interest or finding ways to apply what you are learning to something going on in your life. Maybe you can give yourself the goal of applying something you learned each week to your workplace, family, or team. Perhaps when something you read for your criminal justice class sparks your curiosity, do some additional research on the way this concept might improve operations in a specific criminal justice agency. 

Create goals that will help you explore your personal interests and engage with the material to help make your learning process more enjoyable. 

Find Your Flow

Flow, or feeling like we are ‘in the zone,’ is defined as a feeling of energized focus, full immersion, involvement, and joy in the process of doing something (School of Positive Psychology, 2024). It may feel as though we are completely absorbed in our task and lose our sense of time. This happens to us when we are challenged, focused, and using our skills. It’s an ideal state for learning! 

To cultivate this condition, we can start by creating a learning environment that is free from distractions. Turn off notifications on any electronic devices, shut off the TV, close the door to your study space, or work in a setting where the hum of white noise helps to maintain focus, like a public library or a coffee shop. Use noise deliberately, like a fan that blocks out the sound of your roommate’s music or lo-fi study beats that help you maintain concentration. 

It may also be helpful to develop your own pre-study rituals, like practicing a few minutes of mindful meditation, brewing a cup of your favorite hot beverage, and reciting a motivational affirmation such as “I am smart, I work hard, and I won’t quit.” Taking a few minutes to prepare yourself for study helps your brain transition into a focused state, and repeating your ritual will make that transition easier and more effortless with time. 

How do you fall in love with learning? What other strategies have you found that help you find joy in learning and delight in the learning process? Please share them in the comments below. 

Until next time, this is Dr. Linscott with another Learning for Success podcast. Happy Learning! 

References

School of Positive Psychology. (2024, August 14). Getting into flow – what is it and how does it enhance wellbeing? https://www.positivepsych.edu.sg/what-is-flow/