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, so 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, and 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.

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 in Oregon. 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 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 where 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 as 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 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 quench 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 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 Toru 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 reward 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 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.

How I tricked my brain to be addicted to studying

Helping learners become innovators.

Cajun Koi is founded by medical doctors Mike & Matty Kenny. On this channel, we curate expert-driven resources, strategies, and experiences that can help us understand ourselves, learn smarter, and create a lifestyle doing what we love. We make educational, practical, and fun videos about:

- Learning & Creativity
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How I tricked my brain to be addicted to studying

How I tricked my brain to be addicted to studying

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