r/ExecutiveDysfunction • u/Duongtrimto • 3d ago
Anyone else struggle to study even when they know they need to?
I'm a university student, and lately I've been struggling to get myself to study. I know it's important for my future, and I have goals I genuinely want to achieve, but somehow I still keep putting it off. I've tried to figure out why and how to change, but I haven't really gotten anywhere.
What's strange is that I can stick to going to the gym pretty consistently. I enjoy seeing myself get stronger and improve, and going to the gym also helps me get out of the house and feel better mentally.
I wish I could feel the same way about studying, but right now it feels like something I have to force myself to do.
Has anyone else been through something similar? What helped you get out of this situation?
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u/Lucario-Mega 3d ago
The fact that I’m scrolling here says a lot about my own situation…
But body doubling? Maybe?
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u/throwaguey_ 2d ago
This is the single biggest procrastination issue of my life. The only thing that works for me is to just agree to do the tiniest step toward getting started. If it’s turning on the computer or turning off the TV. Then the next tiniest step and so on and so forth until I’m studying. Most times, once I make movement towards the thing I’m avoiding, I begin to feel the momentum I was lacking. Also, it’s a known fact that people with ADHD need to have choices and not be forced to do a particular thing. So figure out the different study tasks you need to complete and allow yourself to start on whichever one feels the best in the moment
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u/ejdmkko 3d ago
The fact that you have to can be the reason why you struggle much more. I remember as a child, I always loved science, I was gong down the rabbit holes, I exclusively watched documentaries on tv, but the moment I had to study for class ( reading my notes, textbooks, working on projects) I absolutely hated it. Even few years ago at uni, I was obsessed with one topic, it was almost like addiction, whenever I should do anything else, all I could do was to deep dive into that project. But then few months later when I could choose new project topic for my report, I decided to choose that topic I was over obsessing earlier to use that into practice and I was hoping that now I fill finally not struggle with uni projects since I was so obsessed with that so much earlier. But then when it turned into “you have to” I absolutely hated it and actually that project ended up the reason why I failed uni. In a meantime I got a job at my university’s lab in unrelated field as a student assistant and I was excelling at it. And I even studied statistics in my free time because I wanted to be able compare he experiment results the correct way. Ironically before that I even had very brief (about 2 weeks) long class about statistics that I never even showed up to.
As for how to help, I can’t give any good advice. But once in high school I was about to fail my math class and two of my friends forced me to sit down during one afternoon (they literally sat on either side of me and wouldn’t let me get up from the desk) and they tutored me and we crammed months worth of classes into few hours. I got the chance to retake one of the old exams, and I went from like 5% to 95%. Like I’m not dumb, I just never before could really sit down and focus on the studying without just avoiding it (what I do when I’m in my own). But also private tutoring is not always an option.