“Just one more chapter…then I can stop studying.”

Have you been in this situation before?

5 minutes studying feels like 5 hours.

But as soon as you’re done, you reward yourself by watching a TV show…

Where 5 hours feels like 5 minutes.

Why is it so easy to have fun, but so hard to study?

Over the last few months, I tested ways to make achieving my goals more fun. I even turned into someone who liked studying 😱

Here’s the exact step-by-step process I used so you can do the same. You can find everything I learned below - learning #3 is my favourite.

1. Research
2. Prioritise
3. Create a hypothesis
4. Plan and run experiment
5. Analyse results (I learned data analysis for this)

Psst: curious about experimentation + optimizing your life? Check out the new Growth/Digital Marketing program I created - the modules on experimentation are my favourite.

How to make life more fun: experiment insights

I learned and adapted my habits to improve my life - keep reading for my key takeaways.

After implementing my learnings, I:

• Consistently reached my learning goals daily
• Felt excited to do what I’d considered “chores” before
• Became more aware of what makes me happy - and how to optimise it

Here’s how you can apply my learnings.

Insight 1: laziness can keep you accountable

Here are my bad habits:

• Too much junk food at night
• Stayed in bed going on my phone for hours
• Procrastinated working towards my learning goals

Here’s how I overcame them by being lazy:

• Put junk food downstairs (so I’d be too lazy to walk all the way there to get it)
• Started time tracking (so I’d be too lazy to keep stopping/starting the timer - since I have to switch the task to “phone time” every time)
• Locked distracting apps/websites and only kept Duolingo and habit-tracking ones (so I’d be too lazy to manually unlock and reinstall other apps)

All of these were decisions I made once that paid dividends in the long run.

Insight 2: understand what motivates you

This is what I hated doing:

• Chores (folding laundry, cooking)
• Going to the gym
• Manual work

This is what I loved doing:

• Learning all about languages, psychology, history, tech
• Reading horror novels
• Listening to music

I combined them to make my life more enjoyable:

• Did chores while listening to podcasts and courses
• Listened to audiobooks while at the gym - now it’s my “me time” to destress
• Danced to music while doing manual work

Combining tasks I disliked with my hobbies made me love what I do.

Insight 3: track your success

Seeing all the checkboxes made me more motivated to keep going because I didn’t want to break my streak.

(Psst: that’s why we’re giving out a free learning habit checklist with every purchase until Saturday, Jan 21!)

Here’s what happened before I tracked my goals:

1. I avoided working towards my goals until the end of the year
2. I had no idea if I was making progress
3. I felt stuck in my life

Here’s what happened after:

1. I became more motivated to continue my good habits and get rid of my bad ones
2. I knew exactly what I needed to do to reach my goals
3. I was proud of myself for learning skills like data analysis to improve my life

AKA before and after taking EntryLevel’s Data Analyst program.

Will you implement any of these insights?

Tweet us so we can cheer you on!

More resources

Time travel to reach your career goals: https://www.entrylevel.net/post/time-travel-to-reach-your-career-goals

Use systems to reach your goals: https://www.entrylevel.net/post/stop-setting-new-year-s-resolutions

Video on gamifying your life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEHt8m61hSg

App to gamify your habits and goals: https://habitica.com/static/home

Notion template for gamifying your life: https://www.conradlin.com/projects/theGamificationProject