How I tricked my brain to be addicted to studying

Summary

The video script explores how to integrate the engaging elements of video games into study routines to enhance motivation. It highlights three key aspects of gaming—well-defined storylines, low-risk high-reward scenarios, and the instillation of 'fear of missing out' (FOMO)—and suggests applying these as 'power-ups' to improve studying. The script advises creating progress tracking, breaking down big goals into smaller, manageable tasks, and leveraging social accountability to foster consistency. By doing so, students can turn the process of learning into a rewarding and immersive experience, akin to the satisfaction derived from gaming.

Takeaways

• 🎮 Video games are inherently engaging and can be used as a model to enhance study habits.
• 📚 The first idea is that video games have a clear storyline which provides a sense of direction and purpose, unlike the often vague academic goals.
• 🔍 To apply this, create opportunities to track progress with self-assessments and mind maps to visualize learning gaps and improvements.
• 🎯 The second idea is that video games offer low risk, high reward scenarios, which is a powerful motivator for continuous improvement.
• 🧩 Breaking down larger goals into smaller, achievable objectives can make studying feel less daunting and more rewarding.
• 🏆 The third idea is that video games instill a fear of missing out (FOMO), which encourages consistent engagement and participation.
• 👥 Creating a sense of community and social accountability through study groups can mimic the FOMO effect and promote consistent studying.
• 🏆 Implementing a personal or group reward system can help in maintaining motivation and consistency in studying.
• 🎉 The ultimate goal is to achieve a sense of accomplishment from hard work, which can be more rewarding than any video game.
• 🤔 The script suggests that by understanding and applying the compelling aspects of video games, we can level up our studying and life skills.
• 💡 The video encourages viewers to reflect on which strategies resonate most with them and to consider implementing these in their study routines.

Q & A

Why do video games seem more engaging than studying for many people?

Video games are designed to be highly engaging with well-defined storylines, clear objectives, and immediate feedback on progress, which creates a sense of certainty and autonomy. In contrast, studying often lacks a clear narrative, specific objectives, and immediate feedback, leading to a feeling of uncertainty and less motivation.

What is the first idea presented in the script to make studying more like playing video games?

The first idea is to create opportunities to track your progress when studying. This can be done through regular self-assessments, practice tests, or mind maps to identify gaps in learning. This helps to provide clarity on objectives and a sense of direction.

How can students apply the concept of a well-defined storyline from video games to their study routines?

Students can apply this concept by setting clear, specific goals and objectives for their studies, similar to quest logs in video games. They can also seek guidance and feedback to understand their progress, which helps in removing uncertainty about their academic journey.

What is the 'Super Mario effect' mentioned in the script, and how does it relate to motivation in video games?

The 'Super Mario effect' is a term coined by Mark Rober, which refers to the increased willingness of people to complete tasks when the consequences of failure are removed. This low-risk, high-reward environment in video games motivates players to keep trying and experimenting with different strategies.

How can students break down higher-risk goals into smaller, more manageable objectives?

Students can break down higher-risk goals into smaller objectives by focusing on single concepts or problems at a time. This approach reduces the fear of failure and allows for creative problem-solving and learning from past mistakes.

What is the concept of 'fomo' in the context of video games, and how can it be applied to studying?

Fomo, or 'fear of missing out,' is a concept used in video games to encourage consistent play through features like daily login bonuses and leaderboards. In studying, creating a sense of social accountability through study groups or personal reward systems can leverage a similar sense of urgency and motivation.

Why is it important to create a sense of community and belonging when studying with others?

Creating a sense of community and belonging is important because it provides motivation through social interaction and shared goals. It also fosters a collaborative environment where students can help each other, share resources, and work together towards success.

How can students implement a personal reward system to enhance their studying habits?

Students can implement a personal reward system by setting up small rewards for completing tasks or achieving milestones. For example, after finishing a set of flashcards or getting a good grade on an exam, they can treat themselves to a small reward, like a favorite snack or a short break to play a game.

What is the significance of consistency in studying, and how does it relate to the concept of 'fomo'?

Consistency in studying is significant because it helps in building long-lasting habits and achieving goals. By showing up regularly and maintaining a streak, students can leverage the concept of 'fomo' to avoid missing out on rewards and the sense of accomplishment that comes with consistent effort.

How does the script suggest that the feeling of accomplishment from hard work can be more rewarding than video games?

The script suggests that the feeling of accomplishment from hard work, such as completing academic goals, can be more rewarding than video games because it is a real-life achievement. It provides a sense of real accomplishment and satisfaction that is more profound and lasting than the virtual rewards of gaming.

What is the final message of the script regarding the potential of video games to improve study habits?

The final message of the script is that video games, often seen as a distraction from studying, can actually provide valuable insights and strategies for improving study habits. By applying concepts like clear objectives, low-risk high-reward learning, and consistent motivation, students can enhance their studying and achieve greater success.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 Video Games as a Study Motivation Tool

The speaker explores why video games are naturally engaging and how their elements can be applied to studying. They discuss the clear storylines and objectives in games, the feedback and progression systems, and the autonomy they offer players. The speaker suggests that the lack of similar clarity and feedback in academic pursuits can lead to uncertainty and lack of motivation. To address this, they recommend creating opportunities to track progress through self-assessments and mind maps, and seeking regular feedback to clarify goals and remove uncertainty about academic progress.

05:01

🎓 Transforming Study Habits with Game Mechanics

This paragraph delves into the concept of making studying more game-like by incorporating low-risk, high-reward strategies. The speaker mentions the 'Super Mario effect', which highlights how removing consequences of failure can lead to more attempts and learning. They suggest breaking down larger goals into smaller, manageable objectives to reduce the perceived risk and increase the reward of studying. Additionally, the speaker discusses the idea of 'fomo' (fear of missing out) as a motivator in gaming and how it can be adapted to study routines by creating a sense of community and social accountability, as well as personal reward systems for consistent effort.

Keywords

💡Study Motivation

Study motivation refers to the drive or desire to engage in academic activities. In the video, the concept is contrasted with the effortless engagement that video games often inspire. The script discusses the difficulty of maintaining motivation for studying compared to the natural allure of video games, suggesting that the fun aspects of gaming could be integrated into study routines to enhance motivation.

💡Video Games

Video games are interactive electronic entertainments that often involve storylines, challenges, and rewards. The video script highlights how video games naturally captivate players and keep them engaged through their design. The speaker explores the idea of incorporating the compelling elements of video games into study habits to make learning more enticing.

💡Storyline

A storyline provides a narrative structure to a game, giving players a clear objective and purpose. In the context of the video, well-defined storylines in video games, such as rescuing Princess Peach in Super Mario or defeating Ganon in Zelda, are contrasted with the often vague and uncertain objectives students face in their academic pursuits.

💡Progress Tracking

Progress tracking involves monitoring one's achievements and advancements towards a goal. The video suggests implementing self-assessments and progress tracking as a method to make studying more game-like. By tracking progress, students can gain a sense of accomplishment and clarity on their learning journey, similar to leveling up in a video game.

💡Feedback

Feedback in the context of the video refers to the information or responses received that indicate whether one is on the right track or needs to adjust their approach. The script points out that video games provide constant feedback, which is lacking in traditional academic settings. The speaker recommends seeking feedback actively to clarify one's academic path.

💡Low Risk, High Reward

This term describes a situation where the potential for gain is high while the potential for loss is minimal. The video contrasts the forgiving nature of video games, where players can retry challenges without consequences, with the high-stakes nature of academic exams. The speaker suggests breaking down large goals into smaller, less risky objectives to mimic the 'low risk, high reward' aspect of gaming.

💡Consequences of Failure

Consequences of failure refer to the negative outcomes that result from not achieving a goal or task. The script discusses how the absence of severe consequences for failure in video games encourages players to keep trying and learning. In contrast, academic failures can have significant repercussions, such as wasted time and money on exams.

💡FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

FOMO is a phenomenon where individuals feel anxiety or unease over the possibility of missing out on rewarding experiences. The video mentions how video games can instill FOMO through daily login bonuses and social features, prompting consistent engagement. The speaker suggests leveraging a healthy form of FOMO to encourage consistent studying through social accountability and rewards.

💡Social Accountability

Social accountability involves being answerable to others for one's actions or progress, often leading to increased motivation and commitment. The video suggests using study groups and social platforms to create a sense of community and shared goals, which can help in maintaining consistent study habits.

💡Reward System

A reward system is a method of providing incentives or positive reinforcement for achieving certain tasks or goals. The script talks about the importance of rewarding consistent studying and effort, similar to the rewards in video games. The speaker proposes creating personal or group reward systems to enhance motivation and celebrate achievements.

💡Consistency

Consistency refers to the ability to maintain a regular and steady approach towards a task or goal. The video emphasizes the importance of being consistent in studying to achieve long-term academic success. It suggests that by showing up regularly and making steady progress, students can overcome challenges and reach their goals, much like progressing through levels in a video game.

Highlights

Video games are easy to get hooked on and keep players wanting to come back, unlike studying.

Exploring three ideas that make video games compelling and how to apply them to studying.

Video games have a well-defined storyline with clear objectives, unlike the uncertainty in students' storylines.

Students often change their major due to uncertainty about their progress and end goals.

Video games provide clear feedback on progress and skill improvement.

Creating opportunities to track progress in studying can help with motivation and clarity.

Using self-assessments and mind maps to track learning gaps and progress.

Asking for feedback and defining one's story can help remove uncertainty in life and studies.

Video games are low risk, high reward, providing unlimited attempts and no consequences for failure.

The 'Super Mario effect' shows that removing consequences for failure leads to more attempts and problem-solving.

Breaking down high-risk goals into smaller, low-risk, high-reward goals can make studying more approachable.

Video games instill FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) through daily login bonuses and social features.

Creating social accountability through study groups can leverage the positive aspects of FOMO.

Consistency and community in studying can help cultivate long-lasting habits and motivation.

Implementing personal and social rewards can enhance the studying experience and motivation.

Defeating the 'final boss' of school through consistency, failure, and progress tracking is more rewarding than any video game.

Video games can teach us valuable lessons about motivation and progress tracking that can be applied to studying.

Transcripts

when I need to study it's a drag and I

need to push myself but I've never had

to force myself to play video games

video games are easy to get hooked on

and keep us wanting to come back

studying not so much so is there a way

to combine the fun aspects of video

games into our study routines we don't

have to rely on motivation

there's clearly something special about

video games where people choose to

devote thousands of hours leveling up

their characters I mean every chance we

got at the dinner table or while we're

supposedly studying we happily

sacrificed nights of quality sleep to

Squad up with the homies so let's

explore three ideas that make video

games so compelling and then I'll show

you how to apply these as power-ups to

your life to level up your studying the

first idea is that video games have a

well-defined storyline in every Super

Mario game Mario always rescues Peach

from Bowser in Zelda Link always has an

epic showdown with Ganon all throughout

the game we're given Quest logs and

objectives with specific tasks to

complete the game and if we get stumped

by a puzzle we can literally just

YouTube how to beat this dungeon in a

bouquet of walkthroughs will pop up but

as students our storyline is a complete

mystery and because of it we feel like

we have no time to think about our

future self or what the end game looks

like surveys show that 80 of college

students change their major at least

once and on average up to three times

and there's a reason for this

uncertainty it's because none of us know

if we're actually making progress in

life in video games you can't continue

forward until you reach a higher level

or acquire a certain item and you know

exactly which attributes are improving

and which skills you're buffing you know

how much your damage increases or how

much exp you need to level up there's

tons of feedback from gameplay that give

us certainty that we're actually making

progress in the dream outcome defeating

the final boss or getting that rare loot

is always clearly defined we're so

certain of what we need to do it gives

us freedom and autonomy to decide how

and when we want to do whatever task we

can choose exactly what skill build we

want and how we want to achieve it we

don't get that with school as much when

we're stumped finding guidance is

incredibly difficult especially for

struggling with academics like studying

for an exam I can't mindlessly Farm

diggle it all day and expect to do well

and after days of Relentless grinding I

can't pause my life and check my stats

to see like oh yeah my active recall

skills are now at level eight that means

I'll deal 40 more critical damage on my

exam most of us study without clearly

defined goals and we get zero feedback

on whether or not we're improving so we

have no clue how our story one full so

here's the first Power Up create

opportunities to track your progress

when studying for an exam Implement

weekly or even bi-weekly

self-assessments take a practice test to

see how you're doing or close your notes

and draw a giant mind map connecting

everything you've covered to find gaps

in your learning one of my favorite

review methods is the grow table where

you basically have a progress bar for

individual topics you're studying check

out this video here for more on that

track your progress frequently over the

semester and record your progress so

that at any point when you start to feel

lost or uncertain you can pause and

check out the quest log or stats to see

how far you've come and what attributes

you've actually improved on because once

you gain Clarity of your objectives you

can immerse yourself in the game and

clear the challenges with a sense of

purpose and direction we can also apply

these power-ups outside the classroom

like most of us don't know what the hell

we're doing in life but although we

can't remove that uncertainty we can

make it easier for ourselves all we have

to do is ask if you don't know if med

school is right for you go ask your

professor or ask your doctor if you're

not sure about how to do something ask

your parents or your counselors ask the

YouTube search bar or send your Google

as a student it's your job to get as

much feedback as often as possible so

you can make better decisions to Define

your story get it often and get it

constantly to remove that uncertainty

about what you're doing alright now

we've cleared stage one the second idea

is that video games are low risk High

reward I get unlimited attempts to

challenge the Elite 4 organon I can make

multiple save files to experiment with

which storyline I want to pursue I can

have it all because I'm in complete

control and there's no consequences for

failure which is an insanely powerful

motivator Mark Rober called this idea

the Super Mario effect he analyzed data

from 50 000 participants in a coding

Challenge and found that when the

consequences for failure were removed

people were significantly more likely to

complete problems and tasks all because

they were willing to keep trying it's

shown in Orange right here so those who

didn't see failing in a negative light

nearly had two and a half times more

attempts to solve the puzzle the risk of

losing a game of DOTA is really low I

can instantly queue up and try again and

the rewards for winning are are

extremely satisfying there's a glorious

Rush of dopamine for winning a match or

pulling rare loot in Zelda epic music

flashy visuals and praise make us want

to play again so we can try to get that

same sense of accomplishment there's so

little risk from trying that we can

focus on simply enjoying the game we can

get creative with problem solving like

if that team comp didn't work well we

can try a different strategy but as

students it's not the same we spend

months preparing for huge standardized

tests like the MCAT or the USMLE and we

have one attempt to give it our best

shot otherwise failure is crippling we

missed parties and get-togethers not to

mention the 300 down the drain or

however much the exam costed and then

there's a Time investment months of

studying wasted we can't queue up at the

last checkpoint and try again we have to

wait months before another attempt and

continue studying to keep the

information fresh on our mind and if we

had plans to apply for school that's

another year loss of precious time in

our 20s the risk is astronomical but

although we can't lower the stakes of

our big goals we can turn them into

bite-sized pieces power up number two is

to break down higher risk goals into low

risk High reward goals we can try to

make the act of study as easy as

possible by setting smaller learning

objectives and to the best of our

ability removing the consequences of

failure for example fixating on the goal

of scoring the 99th percentile on the

MCAT can be changed into many smaller

objectives break it all the way down to

a single practice problem can I

understand this one concept or how else

can I solve this problem replace the big

scary goal with small mini games to get

creative and experiment think about

learning like a Super Mario stage where

you allow yourself to fail again and

again like don't even think about how

difficult the next MCAT section is just

focus on one tiny objective that's right

in front of you learn from past mistakes

to improve your study system and over

time these will add up until we reach

the point we're equipped to reach our

Big Goal stage two clear now let's move

on to the final way video games can help

us with studying and that is that video

games instill fomo this can be

controversial to whether or not you see

it as a good thing but video games are

really good at instilling fomo if you're

missing out mobile games do this as

especially well by implementing daily

login bonuses and streaks they make sure

you come back every single day to play

their game or else you'll miss out on

those juicy rewards and for games with

leaderboards and ranking systems there's

that looming fear that you might lose

your spot so you gotta log back on play

multiplayer games also use the idea of

fomo because of friends lists we love

squatting up with our friends I'd be

watching anime or something I get that

ping at the bottom of my screen there

was no way I was missing out on the fun

the worst getting replaced by Mike for

Solomid I know fomo gets a bad rep but

for video games it does something

amazing that we cannot deny it gets us

back in game consistently even if it's

just a login for the prize we show up to

claim our hit of dopamine and acquench

the fear of losing our streak to quote

everyone's favorite Ranger James Clear

what gets rewarded gets repeated in

school we don't see this pattern as

often there's usually no prize for

turning in homework every day of the

week nothing special happens when we get

a practice problem correct or finish

reading a chapter there isn't any reward

for consistent studying the next page is

just the next chapter plus we can't rely

on our squad for boss fights exams are a

single player I mean it would have been

so sick if I could have brought the

Dream Team to take the MCAT with me

because fomo mechanisms didn't exist

natively I ended up procrastinating a

lot in school like there was no urgency

to get rewarded so it was hard to get

motivated with that being said there are

ways we can leverage healthy fomo to our

advantage we can create social

accountability with our friends studying

groups it provides a sense of community

and belonging because everyone is

working toward that same elusive goal

you don't necessarily have to be

studying for the same class either being

around other working students has been

motivation enough for me but if you are

studying for the same thing even better

you can get competitive about being more

productive or scoring more points on the

exam just know that the most important

thing for healthy competition is to keep

it collaborative it's much more powerful

when everyone is willing to help each

other out and share resources to perform

better don't let competition get toxic

where you sabotage your peers or hide

resources from each other keep it

friendly but there's something really

cool about struggling through a

challenge with a group of friends like

there's a surreal sense of

accomplishment towards something bigger

than the whole idea of power up number

three is to be consistent don't have

friends or anyone want to study with no

worries a great place to start is to hop

on over to our Discord our rookies are

always hosting study sessions or looking

to grind with like-minded students with

the same goals as them and we also

created a reward system in our Discord

complete with leaderboards levels and

prizes you can also consider

implementing a personal reward system if

you love to-do lists maybe you're a

Torah or Puma then give yourself a small

reward after you check that last box and

if you achieve a very difficult task

like getting an a in a class or reaching

a hard Milestone then rewards yourself

with some rare loot or a collectible

item brand new air for our condo but the

rewards should match the tasks don't be

buying Hermes Birkins for finishing your

flashcards that's more deserving of like

a Kuma cookie or a quick game of Pokemon

unite and that's stage three clear so

sometimes we can use external motivation

to cultivate long-lasting habits that

allow us to achieve our goals and when

we finally defeat the final boss of

school through consistency through

repeated failures and through tracking

and evaluating progress it'll be more

rewarding than any video game because it

wasn't a game it was like that's that

euphoric Sensation that game developer

Miyamoto strove to achieve with Nintendo

games the feeling of pure accomplishment

from hard work turns out there's a lot

we can learn from video games what most

people think of as a distraction from

studying we can actually leverage to

improve our lives as students so comment

below which part interested you the most

and if you like this video give it a

like and we might consider doing a

follow-up subscribe and I will see you

in the next video