Why Struggling (the Right Way) Helps You Learn

Easy come, easy go is more than a hook to one of Queen's greatest ballads. It's also how our brain seems to approach learning.

When information is acquired without mental effort, it tends to disappear just as fast. If it doesn't take much to acquire, our brain often decides it isn't worth holding onto, with the notorious forgetting curve taking care of the rest.

How Do We Learn Best?

After decades of studying what kinds of learning conditions lead to better long-term retention and performance, psychologist Robert Bjork coined the term "desirable difficulties," which captures the phenomenon perfectly. His findings from 1994 flipped the script on what most students and educators assume up to today about learning environments by showing that ease is the enemy of mastery.

Bjork's list of particularly effective learning strategies include a veritable rogues' gallery of what many learners have learned instinctively to avoid: deliberate testing, repetitions, and spacing, as well as varying practice conditions from one moment to the other. These techniques tend to feel more difficult and often yield worse results in the short term, which is why many shy away from them. However, what Bjork and others after him have shown is that they lead to deeper, more durable learning over time.

Subsequent studies have confirmed and expanded on Bjork’s work. Spaced repetition, retrieval practice (or self-testing), and interleaving topics all impose a cognitive load that encourages the brain to encode information more robustly. One particularly noteworthy study by Deslauriers et al. (2019) found that students in active learning classes retained significantly more than those in lecture-based ones—even though the lecture students reported feeling like they had learned more.

The illusion of learning, it seems, is strongest when learning feels smooth. Sadly, the incentive structures in modern education are such that both students and their teachers often find it easier to simply go with the flow, particularly when student evaluations come along.

What's Happening in the Brain During Effortful Learning

For many of us, it can be quite relieving to learn that it turns out that struggling a little while learning isn't a sign of failure; it's a sign that learning is actually happening. But why might this be the case?

While neuroscientists continue to untangle the details, one thing is clear: Our brains did not evolve to learn in perfect silence with PowerPoint slides. They evolved to learn in chaotic environments, where repetition, high stakes, variability, and purposeful retrieval mattered.

From an evolutionary standpoint, what we remember best tends to be what we work the hardest for exactly because of what that effort signifies and the context it carries. Information that is spaced out, emotionally salient, or repeated in different contexts is simply more likely to matter to our survival than a cavalcade of dry, one-off facts that do nothing to help predict the world around us.

It’s not that massed learning and cramming don’t work. They can, particularly for short-term tests. But it fades quickly, leaving room for what truly sticks: hard-earned knowledge.

That’s why our brains retain information we retrieve under pressure, like in an exam, or link to a consequence, like praise or punishment. It’s also why so many adults still have recurring nightmares about missing an exam: the brain flags those situations as high-stakes and hard to forget.

Key Takeaways for Curious Minds and Lifelong Learners

Difficult learning is better learning. So if you want to remember more, perform better, and expand your intellectual range, lean into the friction. Embrace it as if your learning depended on it (because it very well might).

The next time you plan your study session, or even a work training or new skill acquisition, consider making room for these desirable difficulties in particular:

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1. Spacing: Spread out learning sessions over time rather than cramming. Spacing helps disrupt the forgetting curve and gives your brain repeated chances to reinforce memories.
2. Interleaving: Mix related topics or problem types instead of focusing on one thing at a time. It challenges your brain to switch gears constantly and reinforces pattern recognition.
3. Self-testing: Instead of rereading or highlighting, test yourself. The act of retrieving a memory strengthens the memory itself and reveals what you actually know.

While these strategies may feel harder in the moment, they’re precisely what makes learning stick. They mirror how our brains prefer to encode durable knowledge: through active effort, not passive exposure.

So yes, it is worthwhile to make life harder on purpose, at least when it comes to learning, because the things you wrestle with are the things you retain. And in a world that rewards depth, adaptability, and intellectual curiosity, learning how to struggle well might just be one of the most important skills you can build.