By Leanne Goodall

We all know that studying can be one long hard slog and sometimes we really need to liven things up and add a bit of fun. Making your study session a little more fun only adds to the learning process and helps things to stick in the mind too. So how exactly can you make your studying a little more fun? This post is here to give you 5 ways to do exactly that.

1 – Funny Stories! Try making funny stories out of the things you are learning about. So if you’re learning about a person then take some of the important parts and change them up into a modern day (comical) version. Make it something that will stick in your mind and be more engaging to do.

2 – Get creative! Use coloured pens, drawings, highlighters or whatever to bring some life to your notes. You don’t even have to write notes in the traditional way at all. Maybe you’d prefer to record yourself telling your facts as a presenter via your phone, or you’d enjoy designing huge posters to put up on your walls. I once used tonnes and tonnes of post-it notes to make a timeline trail all around my back garden. It was filled with little snippets of information and placed in time order and went up levels, down, around corners and more. I wanted to study outside in the sunshine so that is what I came up with – I still remember things in the trail and visualise the details now.

3 – Change venues. Just as I mentioned studying in the garden in the point above – why not change your study location for a day. It doesn’t have to be a garden. I’ve used a beach, my tent, the car, the hairdressers and the locations of my children’s sports clubs. I often do this for necessity but there’s nothing to stop you doing it just for fun. A change of scene can really bring a fresh perspective into your study session and there’s something kind of fun about doing it all somewhere a bit unusual.

4 – Get a study buddy. If you’re a real people person and like to bounce ideas about then why not find a study buddy and try and study session with them? You can arrange a location that suits you both and come up with fun ideas together. Studying with someone else might just put a smile on your face and make it all a bit more fun.

5 – Rewards! Why not give yourself a target of what you’d like to complete in your study session and then break that target down into small chunks. Every time that you complete a smaller chunk – reward yourself! That might be with a biscuit, a page of non-study related reading later on or even a point on a tally chart so that when you get 10 points you give yourself a bigger treat (trip to the cinema maybe? New shoes?).

So there you have it: a few ideas to add some fun into your study session!

Leanne is halfway through a BA (Hons) in History with the OU and enjoys writing as a freelancer as well as on her personal blog, Growing my Knowing, where she catalogues her experiences as a student. You can catch up on all of Leanne’s excellent contributions for STOU here.

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The Open University study guide is now available! Click on this image to find out more.

The Open University study guide is now available! Click on this image to find out more.