Hi everyone! I don’t know how to study properly. And I’d like to know how… I have a lot of trouble with this; I dropped out of college because of it to avoid being expelled, even though I graduated with honors.
I’ve identified several skills that will help me study properly:
The art of memorization.
Note-taking.
Time management.
Habits.
How to master skills.
Is there an action plan for proper and effective study? If not, would it be difficult to create one using proven sources of information? (From complete beginner to hero level).
I don’t want to just master mnemonics. I don’t think it will help me as much as a self-study system.
Thanks in advance!
You know I still haven’t read Atomic Habits. Used to read every single article on James Clear’s blog though. I’d say the biggest take-aways are to remove as much friction as possible to start the thing you want to start, and add friction to starting the things you want to avoid.
That means setting up your environment to make things easier. Your study material will be sitting ready for your next session, your phone gets put on airplane mode and left in another room, things like that.
We’re social creatures, so not only the physical environment impacts us, but our social one does as well. Get a study buddy.
Experiment with mind-maps. I wasn’t too sure about them, but after giving it a go I found they work pretty well. I suggest doing it by hand with pen, or multiple colours if you go more the Tony Buzan method. IMO you lose the benefit if you use software for this.
I find the biggest challenge can be just getting started. Not only because you might not want to do it at all, but because you might just find yourself pulled in different directions. Having the rule that I only have to get started very often works for me.
Before getting into it, I might have to warm up. That could be anything from simple exercises to just ‘scribbling’ in a manner. Like studying math you might literally start out by writing 1+1=2, 2-1=1, 1x2=2, 2*0.5=1 and so on for 30 seconds to a couple minutes until you feel a little more ‘into’ it.
If I have to type something up, usually I start with just yapping out random words, followed by making a small bullet point, then finally refining it.
‘These are words. Wordswordswords. The page is no longer blank.
Need to mention self coaching. Say good luck.’
You might have to learn how to really coach yourself. After 5 minutes when you’re feeling the pull to check the phone, start challenging yourself to complete the next micro-goal. “I can do one more sentence right?” … “How about finishing this paragraph?” “Let’s go for one more sentence.”
The other side of self coaching would be dealing with frustrations and failures in a more useful manner than you might default to. I get pretty mad at myself for making mistakes on things that are conceptually simple, because they feel like they should be easy, even when reality says otherwise. Plus I’m a lot harder on myself than I would be anyone else; need to actively forgive those short comings and manage frustration. Otherwise it’ll result in abandoning the subject.
Let me know if any of that was confusing. Good luck!