So as some of you may know I am currently at home studying for an exam that is in December. Now ideally I should be doing like some crazy 8 hours of study or that is what coaching centres say that I should be doing but I am not. I am not the kind of person who can just sit in one place and read one thing for hours on end. Therefore it made sense for me to find other ways to keep myself occupied.
One of the things I found was this course on Coursera called Learning How To Learn. Even as a teenager I found these kind of topics on self help very fascinating. I have books on How To Study and How To Take A Test, I have read 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. I an currently reading the One Minute Manager. You see the general trend right? Well naturally I gravitated towards choosing this course. As Coursera is an online portal for education, it basically means you have to keep yourself motivated to finish the course. It really is not easy to do that, especially as being online means there is a tendency to "surf the web" and look at anything else but what you should.
If you ask my mom she will say that all of these books and courses ultimately give the same advice which she has been giving me for years. True. But they also give effective ways to ensure that you actually do follow the advice and don't just hear it in one ear and let it out through the other ear.
The first week of class I managed to get through on time. But the second week I got very distracted and lost track. I almost submitted the assignment late. I loved the third week of class and as I write this post I am in the last week of the course. It has been a fascinating journey and it only seemed correct to document what I have learnt (also it was part of an assignment).
The topic that hit closest to home was Procrastination. How much I procrastinate is no joke. I spent a day just writing down how I want to spend a day. How my ideal day should be spent. How much time I should allocate for everything that I wanted to do. It was interesting because when I added it up I realised that I needed 27 hours in a day and I had just wasted 4 hours doing this (and surfing etc in between).
Procrastination is an addiction. We don't realise that we are doing it. It slowly but surely becomes a part of us and soon we just can't function without wasting a whole load of time in fantasizing how life would be if we just did the work. The first step to tackling an problem is admitting that you have a problem. Then and only then can you find a solution.
I was hoping that the course would help me to focus and study for the upcoming exam and it has.
Here are some of the major things that I learnt:
1) We are constantly learning, whether consciously or subconsciously. If you are forcing yourself to sit and learn it is focussed learning and the rest of the time it if diffused learning. One of my favourite examples that I use to teach in class would be how Kekule dreamt of the structure of benzene in his sleep. Well he didn't dream of the actual structure, he saw a snake chasing its own tail and realised that benzene in a ring structure would explain all properties of benzene. Where did I read about this bit of information, I have no idea. Maybe I was in a diffused thinking mode at that point.
2) For years and years people having been saying 'get enough sleep'. It is true, it makes a huge difference to being receptive. I have always been a 'early to sleep, early to rise' kind of person, so this just reiterated that I was doing the right thing.
3) Seeing is believing. When we can visualize something we understand it better. Sometimes we need to use a visual aid as an analogy to a concept. I remember when studying M.Sc Biochemistry, I learnt the lipid structures by visualizing them as tadpoles with tails, two tails, one eye and one tail, etc. It really helped.
4) I used to tell my students "start with the easiest problem first then move on". WRONG! Apparently if we start with the hardest problem and then shift to the easy one, we are working both our diffused and focussed modes, and technically we should be able to answer a test more efficiently. This may not apply for my students because, well, they are all crammers and this doesn't work with cramming.
5) Procrastination is one thing I do a lot. Or that I used to do. I have been very diligently writing a 'to do' list every day, keeping my goals for the realistic and setting a finish time for the goals. The first two days I achieved only 2 out of 6 goals. But after I got over the initially road hump, I have been achieving everything on my list for the day.
6) Pomodaro- That is a simple technique that has magically transformed my way of studying. 25 minutes, on a timer, to focus and study a topic or a portion of a topic and recall it. Sounds simple, right? It is! And also super effective. With my cell phone being used as a timer, I am forced to stare at the text book and focus. Also the idea of racing against time pumps my adrenaline. I HAVE to finish these 2 sub topics in 25 minutes really drives me to do it.
Being a blogger, studying for an exam, doing a Coursera course and taking tuition means that I need to allocate time for all of this. Each of those activities is time consuming.You have no idea how much time it takes to get one blog piece out. Not here, but my beauty blog.
Breaking what I need to do into smaller goals has helped me spend my time usefully and not only study all day.
I am proud to say that Learning How To Learn has really helped me bring out the multi tasker in me but with a different definition. I always thought being able to text and watch a show was multi tasking, but apparently our brains are wired to do only one task at a time for the task to be effective. The best way to multi task would be to schedule time for the multiple tasks you need to achieve, and spread it over a few days.
I tried that and I have been able to work on the blog every day, either editing pictures or typing content. I have managed to make worksheets for the tuition kids, and I have been able to study for my exam for almost 4 hours a day. Lets not forget the exercise and watching tv that have fitted into the schedule as well.
Maybe it sounds like I am advocating for the course, but its too late. The course ends in another few days. So the purpose of this post was merely to document what ever I have learnt. After all recalling is one of the techniques I learnt.
You learn something new every day, but only as long as you are willing to learn.
P.S to my students- your parents are right about everything they say- cell phones as a distraction, focus on task at a time, and sleep before an exam is important. Listen to them or you will end up doing a course like this at an age when you should have been done studying
One of the things I found was this course on Coursera called Learning How To Learn. Even as a teenager I found these kind of topics on self help very fascinating. I have books on How To Study and How To Take A Test, I have read 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. I an currently reading the One Minute Manager. You see the general trend right? Well naturally I gravitated towards choosing this course. As Coursera is an online portal for education, it basically means you have to keep yourself motivated to finish the course. It really is not easy to do that, especially as being online means there is a tendency to "surf the web" and look at anything else but what you should.
If you ask my mom she will say that all of these books and courses ultimately give the same advice which she has been giving me for years. True. But they also give effective ways to ensure that you actually do follow the advice and don't just hear it in one ear and let it out through the other ear.
The first week of class I managed to get through on time. But the second week I got very distracted and lost track. I almost submitted the assignment late. I loved the third week of class and as I write this post I am in the last week of the course. It has been a fascinating journey and it only seemed correct to document what I have learnt (also it was part of an assignment).
The topic that hit closest to home was Procrastination. How much I procrastinate is no joke. I spent a day just writing down how I want to spend a day. How my ideal day should be spent. How much time I should allocate for everything that I wanted to do. It was interesting because when I added it up I realised that I needed 27 hours in a day and I had just wasted 4 hours doing this (and surfing etc in between).
Procrastination is an addiction. We don't realise that we are doing it. It slowly but surely becomes a part of us and soon we just can't function without wasting a whole load of time in fantasizing how life would be if we just did the work. The first step to tackling an problem is admitting that you have a problem. Then and only then can you find a solution.
I was hoping that the course would help me to focus and study for the upcoming exam and it has.
Here are some of the major things that I learnt:
1) We are constantly learning, whether consciously or subconsciously. If you are forcing yourself to sit and learn it is focussed learning and the rest of the time it if diffused learning. One of my favourite examples that I use to teach in class would be how Kekule dreamt of the structure of benzene in his sleep. Well he didn't dream of the actual structure, he saw a snake chasing its own tail and realised that benzene in a ring structure would explain all properties of benzene. Where did I read about this bit of information, I have no idea. Maybe I was in a diffused thinking mode at that point.
2) For years and years people having been saying 'get enough sleep'. It is true, it makes a huge difference to being receptive. I have always been a 'early to sleep, early to rise' kind of person, so this just reiterated that I was doing the right thing.
3) Seeing is believing. When we can visualize something we understand it better. Sometimes we need to use a visual aid as an analogy to a concept. I remember when studying M.Sc Biochemistry, I learnt the lipid structures by visualizing them as tadpoles with tails, two tails, one eye and one tail, etc. It really helped.
4) I used to tell my students "start with the easiest problem first then move on". WRONG! Apparently if we start with the hardest problem and then shift to the easy one, we are working both our diffused and focussed modes, and technically we should be able to answer a test more efficiently. This may not apply for my students because, well, they are all crammers and this doesn't work with cramming.
5) Procrastination is one thing I do a lot. Or that I used to do. I have been very diligently writing a 'to do' list every day, keeping my goals for the realistic and setting a finish time for the goals. The first two days I achieved only 2 out of 6 goals. But after I got over the initially road hump, I have been achieving everything on my list for the day.
6) Pomodaro- That is a simple technique that has magically transformed my way of studying. 25 minutes, on a timer, to focus and study a topic or a portion of a topic and recall it. Sounds simple, right? It is! And also super effective. With my cell phone being used as a timer, I am forced to stare at the text book and focus. Also the idea of racing against time pumps my adrenaline. I HAVE to finish these 2 sub topics in 25 minutes really drives me to do it.
Being a blogger, studying for an exam, doing a Coursera course and taking tuition means that I need to allocate time for all of this. Each of those activities is time consuming.You have no idea how much time it takes to get one blog piece out. Not here, but my beauty blog.
Breaking what I need to do into smaller goals has helped me spend my time usefully and not only study all day.
I am proud to say that Learning How To Learn has really helped me bring out the multi tasker in me but with a different definition. I always thought being able to text and watch a show was multi tasking, but apparently our brains are wired to do only one task at a time for the task to be effective. The best way to multi task would be to schedule time for the multiple tasks you need to achieve, and spread it over a few days.
I tried that and I have been able to work on the blog every day, either editing pictures or typing content. I have managed to make worksheets for the tuition kids, and I have been able to study for my exam for almost 4 hours a day. Lets not forget the exercise and watching tv that have fitted into the schedule as well.
Maybe it sounds like I am advocating for the course, but its too late. The course ends in another few days. So the purpose of this post was merely to document what ever I have learnt. After all recalling is one of the techniques I learnt.
You learn something new every day, but only as long as you are willing to learn.
P.S to my students- your parents are right about everything they say- cell phones as a distraction, focus on task at a time, and sleep before an exam is important. Listen to them or you will end up doing a course like this at an age when you should have been done studying
