Do you want to rekindle your study motivation? Discover an effective way to do it with the Couch Method. Today, I’m hosting a guest post by Francesco Cracolici, an enthusiastic student of Personal Growth and Marketing. His motto? “Make The Difference.” Let’s pass the mic to our guests. I was there, on that cursed couch. It had happened again, but the worst part was that I couldn’t help; it was stronger than me. Some claim that your study motivation depends on self-confidence, but my self-esteem was at rock bottom at that moment. Picture this: I was a student, having just received a C score on my math exam, and my grade book resembled the Sahara Desert. I should’ve gotten up and studied, but I needed more motivation. Instead, I preferred procrastinating on that couch, browsing websites, and chatting on WhatsApp. Perhaps this has happened to you too: you reach the end of the day, having not studied a thing, and worse, you haven’t even enjoyed yourself. In short, you feel like an idiot! During one of these periods, I was fortunate enough to read an article in which I shared a beautiful letter from Seneca to Lucilius. Reading that letter made me realize something had to change in my university life. I needed an effective and replicable method to reignite my desire to study every time I faced a mountain of textbooks. To find my method, I read 157 articles on the subject in English. I scoured through almost all of EfficaceMente’s archives. Still, most importantly, I experimented with and tested most of the strategies I came across until I found that unique mix that now allows me to rekindle my study motivation at will as if it were a switch. If you’re still wondering how to muster the will to study when faced with those daunting university tomes, this article is for you. Specifically, I will explain how to apply the “Couch Method” and help you regain unwavering study motivation, achieving your exam goals individually. The method comprises two phases:
Thanks to this initial phase of the method, you will finally rise from that couch and start studying. This phase involves three activities:
Do you know what one of the most effective persuasion techniques in the world is? The “Breach Technique” was devised by Prof. Robert Cialdini, author of “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” According to Cialdini, driven by the need for consistency, the brain always seeks to complete initiated activities. This technique is related to the famous “Zeigarnik Effect.” In practice, the desire to do something increases exponentially once you’ve started doing it. “Appetite comes with eating.” A common saying. Next time you find yourself with zero motivation to study, promise to study for just 7 minutes and then decide whether to continue. Why not give it a try? After all, it’s just 7 minutes.
It’s 3 a.m., the day before the exam. Suddenly, you realize that you need to learn a paragraph on page 56. If you’re an optimist, you might say, “Well, God willing, it’ll be okay.” But if you’re a pessimist, you’ll probably get up and study that paragraph as if your life depended on it. Pessimism isn’t always harmful. Thinking negatively can push you to achieve your goals and reignite your study motivation. The more you think that not studying is harmful, the more motivated you’ll be to study. Every time you find yourself on that famous couch desperately seeking motivation, repeat one of these phrases to yourself: “If I continue like this, I’ll end up not knowing anything.” “If I don’t study at least that paragraph this afternoon, it will be a disaster.” “If I don’t get up from this couch, I’ll surely fail.”
During an interview with the famous actor Will Smith, a journalist asked him about the secret to his success. Here’s what the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air had to say: “Even though there may be many people out there who are more talented and skilled than I am, unlike them, I always know how to motivate myself. When I was young, I had an experience that taught me to keep my desire to act alive.” At 11, Will Smith’s father drove a car through a massive brick wall and ordered him and his 9-year-old brother to rebuild it. It took a year and a half to complete the task. They would have given up immediately if they had thought for even a moment about the amount of work ahead. Instead, they focused on laying one brick perfectly each day.
“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say, ‘I’m going to build the biggest, worst, greatest wall ever built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can.’ You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.” - Will Smith
Focusing on the 2,000 pages of the law manual and the 28 exams separating you from graduation is the most effective way to panic and destroy your study motivation. Don’t make this mistake: Concentrate on the single “brick.” Set micro-goals. Consider the best way to study that specific chapter or page.
We are moving on to the next phase.
Now you’re at a crossroads: will you limit yourself to reading or put these strategies into practice? If you think that merely reading will make these strategies work, stop now; there’s no point in continuing. However, if you genuinely intend to apply these techniques and improve your skills, open a new note on your smartphone and write the following: “When I don’t feel like studying… I start by studying for only 7 minutes. I became aware that things would go very badly. I focus on the single page/chapter.” Done? Then, let’s move on to the second phase of the method: the “Chair Phase.”
Thanks to your learned strategies, you will finally rise from that cursed couch and sit in your chair, but that’s not enough. To study effectively, you need to learn how to read and learn with maximum concentration. The Chair Phase involves four key activities to help you study effectively:
I know exactly how you behave in that chair because I used to do it, too. You sit down, make a study plan, maybe even use the backward planning method, flip through the textbook, and solemnly promise yourself, “Come what may, I will complete 84 pages today!.” Then the world falls apart, and you’ve only studied 40 or maybe 20 pages. So the next day, you have to study 84 pages plus those you didn’t manage the day before. In short, it’s a vicious circle that’s hard for a student. It generates anxiety and stress, definitely not newfound motivation to study. But there’s an alternative. According to Professor Vroom’s Valence Theory, your motivation drastically decreases if you don’t believe you can achieve a goal. In other words, if you set unrealistic goals and repeatedly fail to achieve them, your motivation will plummet, along with your skills. Instead of focusing on the number of pages to study, concentrate on the time required to do it and use this time as your goal. In other words, set a time limit for your study sessions. But here’s the catch: set a reasonable time limit. Our plans for university often need to be closer to reality. We’ll spend 3 hours studying a chapter, but in the end, it takes much longer. To address this issue, estimate the study time needed as accurately as possible and then increase that time by one-third. According to psychologist J. Grohol’s research, humans tend to make an average error of 32% when estimating the time required to complete a short-term task. Don’t be fooled!
During the 1950s, Dr. F. Mayo noticed that workers could increase their productivity and skills by changing environmental conditions (lighting, music, etc.) in a manufacturing plant where he was a consultant. But Dr. Mayo’s most exciting discovery was that the type of change didn’t matter as long as there was a change. Every time you start a new study session, introduce small changes to your environment: open the curtains, turn on a lamp, change the pen you usually use or rearrange the items on your desk. Use your imagination to shake up your abilities. Is your study room a total mess? Cleaning it up could be a good environmental change. Did you know that small actions like making a bed can significantly affect your study motivation?
Still talking about environmental changes, a study environment that fosters motivation should have as few distractions as possible. Do you remember when I suggested the “Zen Garden” strategy to regain the motivation to study? Remove everything you don’t need from your desk. Especially your smartphone: put it on airplane mode and hide it somewhere. However, there are three tools you can’t do without, and they can improve your concentration by a good 30%:
Our brains have a “small” problem: if we don’t set limits, they will push us to consume (read “waste”) all our available time. This behavior is related to Parkinson’s Law. You know when you say to yourself, “I’ll check my notifications for 5 minutes,” and then an hour and a half passes?! Well, in those cases, you’re being exploited by Parkinson’s Law instead of using it to your advantage. In addition to setting time limits for your study sessions, learn to set boundaries for your breaks. For example, you can use the classic Pomodoro Technique (25 minutes of study and 5 minutes of break) or, after some practice, the more advanced “melon technique” discussed in this post.
“Practice makes permanent.” All the strategies I’ve suggested to help you regain study motivation are only useful if you apply them inconsistently. Take the note you created at the end of the Couch Phase and add these four points to your “study checklist”: When I started studying, I planned how many hours I’d study, adding 32%. I change a small detail in my study environment, perhaps making my bed. I remove everything, starting with my smartphone, and make sure I always have a piece of paper, a glass of water, and Item X. I use preset time intervals (e.g., 25 minutes of study and 5 minutes of break). Now, you’re equipped with the Couch Method and the Chair Phase to reignite your study motivation. Remember, it’s not enough to read about it; you must put these techniques into practice consistently to see real results. Good luck!