self-study – Page 2 – Autodidactic

S4EP2:Exploring Effective Note-taking

Autodidactic Podcast Season Four

S4EP2:Exploring Effective Note-taking

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Hello and welcome back to the Autodidactic Podcast. Today we’re going to talk about Mastering the Skill of Effective Note-Taking.

Let’s get started.

Effective note-taking begins with proper preparation and choosing the right method. We will also discuss active listening techniques, structuring and organizing your notes, and the importance of annotations and adding context. Let’s dive into the details.

A. Preparing for Note-Taking

Before you start taking notes, it’s essential to prepare yourself adequately. This preparation phase will set the foundation for effective note-taking. Here are some strategies to consider:

Previewing and familiarizing yourself with the material: Before you begin taking notes, take some time to skim through the content. This will give you an overview of what to expect. Additionally, read any accompanying materials or chapter summaries to gain a deeper understanding of the main topics and concepts. Identify key themes or topics that you should focus on during your note-taking session.

Setting specific goals and objectives: Clearly define what you want to achieve through your note-taking. Determine whether you want to understand concepts, identify key details, or both. Break down the material into smaller sections or topics that you can tackle one at a time. If you have specific questions or areas of confusion, make a note of them to address during your note-taking process.

Gathering necessary note-taking tools: Choose a method of note-taking that suits your preferences and learning style. Ensure you have the appropriate tools readily available, whether it’s pen and paper or digital devices. If you prefer digital note-taking, consider using note-taking apps or digital styluses that allow you to take notes seamlessly.

B. Choosing the Right Note-Taking Method

There are various note-taking methods available, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Understanding these methods will help you choose the one that aligns best with your learning style and the nature of the content you’re engaging with. Let’s explore some popular note-taking methods:

Overview of popular note-taking methods: We will briefly describe the Cornell Method, Outline Method, and Mind Mapping. These methods offer different approaches to organizing and structuring your notes, catering to various learning preferences and contexts.

Exploring the strengths and weaknesses: Each note-taking method has advantages and limitations. We will discuss factors such as organization, ease of use, and visual representation of information to help you understand which method may work best for your needs.

Selecting a method that aligns with your learning style: Assess your personal preferences and learning strengths. Consider the subject matter and the type of information you’ll be taking notes on. Choose a note-taking method that complements your preferred style of learning, allowing you to capture information effectively and make meaningful connections between ideas.

C. Active Listening and Selective Note-Taking

Active listening is a crucial skill when it comes to effective note-taking. By actively engaging with the material and selectively capturing key points, you can enhance your understanding and the quality of your notes. Here’s how you can develop active listening skills and engage in selective note-taking:

Developing active listening skills during lectures or presentations: Stay engaged and focused on the speaker or instructor. Practice techniques such as summarizing key points in your mind as you listen. Take note of verbal cues or emphasis on important information, as they often indicate key concepts or main ideas.

Identifying and capturing key concepts, main ideas, and supporting details: Listen for overarching themes or main points being discussed. Identify supporting details, examples, or evidence provided to support these main ideas. Develop your own system of abbreviations, symbols, or shorthand to capture information efficiently and quickly.

Avoiding verbatim transcription and focusing on essential information: Resist the temptation to write down every word that is said. Instead, focus on capturing the essence of the information. Paraphrase and summarize the content in your own words, ensuring that you understand the material rather than simply transcribing it.

D. Structuring and Organizing Notes

The structure and organization of your notes play a crucial role in your ability to review and comprehend the information effectively. Here are some strategies to create a clear and logical hierarchy for your notes:

Creating a clear and logical hierarchy for note organization: Use headings and subheadings to categorize information and create a sense of structure. Establish a clear hierarchy that reflects the relationships between ideas. Consider using indentation or bullet points to denote levels of importance or subtopics within your notes.

Using headings, subheadings, and bullet points for structure: Label different sections or categories within your notes using clear headings and subheadings. Utilize bullet points or numbered lists to break down information into manageable chunks. Employ indentation or formatting techniques to indicate levels of importance or hierarchy within your notes.

Employing visual cues, symbols, and formatting techniques for clarity: Enhance the clarity and visual appeal of your notes by using symbols or icons to represent recurring themes or ideas. Utilize highlighting or underlining to emphasize important points. Experiment with colors, diagrams, or other visual elements to enhance understanding and create visual connections between concepts.

E. Annotating and Adding Context to Notes

Annotations and additional context added to your notes can provide deeper insights and aid in understanding when reviewing them later. Here’s how you can effectively annotate and add context to your notes:

Incorporating personal insights, connections, and examples: Alongside the main content, add your own thoughts, reflections, or interpretations. Make connections between different concepts or ideas within your notes to deepen your understanding. Include relevant examples or real-life applications to provide context and illustrate the practicality of the information.

Highlighting important points, questions, or areas requiring further clarification: Use various annotation techniques such as highlighting, circling, or using asterisks to draw attention to crucial information within your notes. Write down questions or areas where you need further clarification. Flag areas that require additional research or follow-up to ensure you revisit them later.

Linking notes to related materials or external resources: Refer to additional resources such as textbooks, articles, or websites that provide further insights or context on the topics you’re studying. Include hyperlinks or references within your notes to easily access supplementary materials. Connect ideas or concepts in your notes to relevant external sources or references for a more comprehensive understanding.

In this section, we discussed strategies for effective note-taking, including the preparation phase, choosing the right note-taking method, active listening techniques, structuring and organizing your notes, and the importance of annotations and adding context. By implementing these strategies, you’ll be well-equipped to take comprehensive and meaningful notes that will aid in your learning and retention of information.

Section III: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Your Notes

In this section, we will explore strategies to enhance the effectiveness of your notes. By reviewing and consolidating your notes, combining note-taking with active recall techniques, and supplementing your notes with additional resources, you can deepen your understanding and improve your retention of information. Let’s dive into the details.

A. Reviewing and Consolidating Notes

Developing a regular review routine for reinforcing learning: Schedule regular review sessions to revisit your notes. Spacing out the review sessions, such as reviewing notes after a day, a week, and a month, can help reinforce memory retention. Allocate dedicated time for reviewing and consolidating your notes to ensure you maintain a strong grasp of the material.

Summarizing and condensing notes to capture the main ideas concisely: Extract key concepts, main ideas, and important details from your notes. Write concise summaries or outlines that capture the essence of the material. Condense your notes into a more manageable format for easy reference and review, focusing on the most critical information.

Revisiting and revising notes based on additional insights or further study: Update your notes with any new information or insights gained through further study or research. Incorporate any clarifications or further explanations you’ve obtained to ensure accuracy and clarity. Continuously refine and improve your notes to reflect your growing knowledge and understanding.

B. Combining Note-Taking with Active Recall Techniques

Using note-taking as a foundation for active recall practice: Engage in active recall by attempting to retrieve information from your notes without looking at them. Test your knowledge and understanding by answering questions based on your notes. Use your notes as prompts to generate explanations or summaries without referring to the original material, strengthening your memory recall.

Testing yourself on the material using the notes as cues: Create flashcards or practice quizzes based on the content of your notes. Quiz yourself periodically using the information in your notes, actively recalling and applying the knowledge. Apply active recall techniques to reinforce learning and strengthen memory retention.

Engaging in self-quizzing or flashcard exercises to reinforce learning: Utilize digital flashcard platforms or create physical flashcards to aid in self-quizzing. Challenge yourself to recall information from your notes through flashcard exercises. Repeat the self-quizzing process regularly to reinforce learning and identify areas for improvement.

C. Supplementing Notes with Additional Resources

Exploring supplementary materials to enrich notes: Seek out additional resources such as books, articles, or videos that expand upon the topics covered in your notes. Use reputable sources to deepen your understanding and gain different perspectives. Take supplementary notes or annotations from these resources to complement your original notes and enhance your overall knowledge.

Incorporating relevant visuals, diagrams, or multimedia content: Find or create visual representations, such as diagrams, charts, or graphs, to supplement your notes. Incorporate multimedia content, including images or videos, that enhance your understanding of the material. Visual aids can help illustrate complex concepts or relationships within your notes, making them more accessible and memorable.

Incorporating external sources for cross-referencing and expanding knowledge: Include references or hyperlinks within your notes to external sources. Cross-reference your notes with relevant materials to gain a broader understanding of the topic. Explore different perspectives or opinions from experts in the field to deepen your knowledge and foster critical thinking.

In this section, we explored strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of your notes. By reviewing and consolidating your notes, combining note-taking with active recall techniques, and supplementing your notes with additional resources, you can reinforce your understanding, strengthen memory retention, and broaden your knowledge on the subject.

Conclusion

In today’s episode, we delved into the world of effective note-taking and explored various strategies to master this essential skill. Let’s take a moment to summarize the key points we covered.

We began by discussing the importance of preparing for note-taking. Previewing and familiarizing yourself with the material before taking notes helps you gain an overview and identify key topics to focus on. Setting specific goals and objectives for the note-taking session ensures that you have a clear purpose and direction.

Choosing the right note-taking method is crucial, and we explored popular techniques such as the Cornell Method, Outline Method, and Mind Mapping. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to select one that aligns with your learning style and the nature of the content you’re studying.

Active listening and selective note-taking go hand in hand. Developing active listening skills during lectures or presentations allows you to capture key concepts, main ideas, and supporting details effectively. Remember, it’s essential to avoid verbatim transcription and focus on essential information by paraphrasing and summarizing in your own words.

Structuring and organizing your notes help you create a clear and logical hierarchy. Using headings, subheadings, and bullet points aids in organizing information and indicating levels of importance or subtopics. Employing visual cues, symbols, and formatting techniques enhances clarity and understanding.

To enhance the effectiveness of your notes, we discussed the importance of reviewing and consolidating them. Regular review sessions reinforce learning, and summarizing and condensing your notes helps capture the main ideas concisely. Revisiting and revising your notes based on additional insights or further study ensures accuracy and continued improvement.

We also explored the synergy between note-taking and active recall techniques. Using your notes as a foundation for active recall practice and testing yourself on the material strengthens memory retention and understanding. Engaging in self-quizzing or flashcard exercises reinforces learning and aids in identifying areas for improvement.

Supplementing your notes with additional resources further enriches your understanding. Exploring supplementary materials, incorporating relevant visuals or diagrams, and cross-referencing external sources provide different perspectives and deepen your knowledge on the subject.

In conclusion, note-taking is a skill that requires practice and consistency. By applying effective note-taking strategies, you can enhance your learning experience and improve your retention of information. Remember to stay engaged, be selective in capturing key points, and organize your notes in a way that makes sense to you.

To further explore the world of note-taking, here are some recommended readings and additional resources:

“How to Take Smart Notes” by Sönke Ahrens

“The Sketchnote Handbook” by Mike Rohde

“The Notetaking Bible” by Jesse Showalter

“Effective Note-Taking” by Rick Dearman

Popular note-taking techniques include:

Cornell Method: A structured approach that divides your notes into three sections: cues, notes, and a summary.

Outline Method: Organizing your notes using headings, subheadings, and bullet points to create a hierarchical structure.

Mind Mapping: Creating visual diagrams that connect concepts and ideas in a non-linear format, stimulating creativity and associations.

Remember, the more you practice and experiment with different techniques, the better you’ll become at mastering the art of note-taking.

Thank you for joining us today, and we hope you found this episode informative and insightful. Start implementing these strategies in your learning journey and witness the positive impact they can have. Remember to visit my website: autodidactic.info to get the transcript and links to resources.

My Book On Note-Taking

S4EP1: Goal Setting and Planning

Autodidactic Podcast Season Four

S4EP1: Goal Setting and Planning

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Hello and welcome back to the Autodidactic Podcast. It has been a while since I’ve done a season and I apologise, but I’ve been learning new stuff.

In today’s episode I’m going to cover self-learning and topics include, Goal Setting and Planning, Developing Effective Study Habits, Leveraging Technology for Learning, and Leveraging Technology for Learning, and much more. In this episode we’ll touch on these briefly, but over the course of this season we’ll explore self-learning in a lot more detail. I’ll put the transcripts of each episode with the others on my website autotdidactic.info.

So let’s get started with Goal Setting and Planning:

Setting clear and specific learning goals is essential for successful self-learning. It’s time to define what you want to learn and, more importantly, why you want to learn it. Take a moment to reflect on your passions, interests, and aspirations. What knowledge or skills do you want to acquire?

Once you have a clear goal in mind, it’s important to break it down into manageable chunks. By dividing your goal into smaller, actionable steps, you create a clear roadmap to follow. This helps prevent overwhelm and allows for steady progress.

To ensure your goals are effective, consider using the SMART framework. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Let’s break it down further:

Specific: Be specific about what you want to achieve. The more precise your goal, the easier it is to work towards it.

Measurable: Set measurable criteria to track your progress. This allows you to see how far you’ve come and stay motivated.

Achievable: Make sure your goals are realistic and attainable. While it’s great to aim high, setting unattainable goals can lead to frustration and demotivation.

Relevant: Ensure your goals are relevant to your overall aspirations and align with your interests and values. This ensures that your learning journey remains meaningful and purposeful.

Time-bound: Set a deadline or timeframe for achieving each goal. Having a timeline creates a sense of urgency and helps you stay focused.

Now that you have your specific goals in mind, it’s time to break them down into actionable steps. Identify the key milestones or steps needed to achieve your goals. This allows you to create a clear roadmap for your learning journey.

Creating a timeline or checklist can be immensely helpful in tracking your progress. By visualizing your goals and the steps required to reach them, you can stay organized and motivated. Consider using calendars, apps, or productivity tools to plan and track your schedule. These tools can help you allocate dedicated time for learning in your daily or weekly routine.

Remember, it’s important to prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. Not all tasks are equally vital, so focus on the ones that will have the greatest impact on your learning goals.

By setting clear and specific goals, breaking them down into actionable steps, and creating a study schedule or learning roadmap, you lay the foundation for a successful self-learning journey. Now, let’s move on to the next section: effective learning techniques.

When it comes to self-learning, employing effective techniques can significantly enhance your understanding and retention of new information. Let’s explore some valuable strategies:

Active learning methods: Engaging in hands-on practice, discussions, and interactive activities is key. Actively immerse yourself in practical exercises, experiments, or projects relevant to the subject you’re learning. By doing so, you’ll gain a deeper understanding and develop valuable skills. Additionally, participate in group discussions, join study groups, or engage in online forums to exchange ideas and perspectives. Teaching others or explaining concepts to someone else is an excellent way to solidify your own understanding.

Using varied resources: Broaden your horizons and explore different mediums to gather information and perspectives. Don’t limit yourself to just one source. Read books, articles, or research papers related to your topic of interest. Take advantage of online courses, video tutorials, podcasts, or documentaries. Each resource offers unique insights and can deepen your understanding from different angles.

Incorporating spaced repetition and review: Regularly reviewing and revising previously learned material is crucial for long-term retention. Use spaced repetition techniques to reinforce your knowledge. Flashcards or spaced repetition software can be effective tools for this purpose. Test your knowledge periodically by challenging yourself with quizzes or practice questions. This reinforces your understanding and helps solidify the information in your memory.

By actively engaging in learning through hands-on activities, discussions, and teaching, using varied resources to gather information, and incorporating spaced repetition and review into your study routine, you can optimize your self-learning experience. These techniques will enhance your understanding, retention, and application of the knowledge you acquire. Next, let’s explore the importance of developing effective study habits.

Developing Effective Study Habits:

Creating a conducive learning environment is essential for effective self-study. Let’s explore some strategies to optimize your study environment:

Find a quiet and comfortable space: Identify a dedicated area where you can focus without interruptions. It could be a quiet corner in your home, a library, or any other peaceful environment that allows you to concentrate on your studies.

Minimize distractions: Turn off notifications on your devices and limit internet browsing during your study sessions. Keep your phone on silent mode or place it out of sight to avoid temptations. Organize your study materials, tools, and resources in a way that they are easily accessible, reducing the time spent searching for what you need.

Managing distractions and staying focused: Practice techniques like the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in focused bursts with short breaks. Set a timer for a specific period (e.g., 25 minutes) and work intensively during that time, then take a short break (e.g., 5 minutes) to refresh your mind. Repeat this cycle, and adjust the timings based on your preference and concentration span. You can also use website blockers or apps that limit access to distracting websites or apps during your study sessions. Additionally, employ mindfulness or concentration exercises to improve your focus and concentration.

Utilizing time management techniques: Effective time management is crucial for productive studying. Break your study sessions into shorter, focused blocks of time. For example, you can study for 45 minutes to an hour and then take a 10-minute break. Set timers or use time management tools or apps to track and optimize your productivity. These tools can help you allocate specific time slots for different subjects or tasks, ensuring you make the most of your study time.

By creating a conducive learning environment, managing distractions, and utilizing time management techniques, you can maximize your study efficiency and create an atmosphere that promotes deep concentration and effective learning. Now, let’s explore the role of technology in self-learning and how you can leverage it to enhance your educational journey.

Leveraging Technology for Learning:

In today’s digital age, technology offers a multitude of resources and tools to enhance your self-learning journey. Let’s explore how you can leverage technology effectively:

Exploring online learning platforms and resources: Research and utilize reputable online platforms that offer courses and educational content. These platforms provide a wide range of subjects and learning materials tailored to your interests and goals. Take advantage of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that offer free or affordable courses from renowned universities and institutions. Additionally, explore websites, blogs, and forums dedicated to self-learning and educational resources. These platforms often provide valuable insights, discussions, and additional learning materials to supplement your studies.

Utilizing productivity tools and apps for organization: Technology provides various productivity tools and apps that can help you stay organized and manage your learning materials effectively. Use note-taking apps or digital organizers to capture and organize your study notes, research findings, and important information. These tools allow you to easily access and review your materials whenever needed. Employ task management tools or to-do list apps to track your learning goals and progress. These tools help you prioritize tasks, set deadlines, and monitor your progress towards achieving your learning objectives. Additionally, consider trying productivity apps that assist with time management, focus, or habit formation. These apps can provide reminders, timers, or techniques to improve your study habits and boost your productivity.

Using technology for research and accessing educational content: The internet is a treasure trove of information and resources for self-learners. Leverage search engines to conduct research on specific topics or concepts you want to explore further. Make use of digital libraries and academic databases that offer a vast collection of scholarly articles, research papers, and publications. Access e-books, audiobooks, and podcasts to broaden your knowledge and gain different perspectives on the subject matter. Engage with online communities, webinars, or virtual conferences that provide learning opportunities and allow you to connect with like-minded individuals.

By exploring online learning platforms, utilizing productivity tools, and leveraging technology for research and accessing educational content, you can tap into a wealth of resources that can enrich your self-learning experience. Technology serves as a powerful ally in your educational journey, enabling you to expand your knowledge and skills with ease. Now, let’s delve into the importance of self-assessment and feedback in self-learning.

Engaging in Self-Assessment and Feedback:

Self-assessment and feedback play crucial roles in your self-learning journey. Let’s explore how you can effectively engage in self-assessment and seek valuable feedback:

Regularly evaluating progress and adjusting learning strategies: It’s important to reflect on your learning journey and regularly assess your understanding and progress. Take the time to reflect on what you have learned, how well you have grasped the concepts, and whether you are moving closer to your learning goals. Identify areas where you need improvement and be willing to adjust your study methods accordingly. Set milestones or checkpoints along the way to track your advancement and ensure you are on the right path.

Seeking feedback from mentors, peers, or online communities: Sharing your work or progress with trusted individuals can provide valuable insights and constructive feedback. Seek out mentors who can guide and offer expertise in your field of study. Engage with peers who share similar interests or are studying the same subjects. Their perspectives and feedback can offer fresh insights and alternative viewpoints. Additionally, participate in online communities, forums, or social media groups dedicated to self-learning. These platforms provide opportunities to seek input, ask questions, and gain feedback from a wider audience.

Reflecting on successes and areas for improvement: Along your self-learning journey, it’s essential to celebrate and acknowledge your achievements and milestones, no matter how small they may seem. Recognize your progress and the effort you have put into your learning. Celebrating successes helps to motivate and reinforce your dedication. Equally important is identifying lessons learned from both successes and failures. Embrace the valuable insights gained from your experiences and use them as stepping stones for growth. Continuously strive for improvement and embrace a mindset of continuous learning and personal development.

Engaging in self-assessment and seeking feedback are powerful tools that can enhance your self-learning experience. By evaluating your progress, seeking input from mentors and peers, and reflecting on successes and areas for improvement, you pave the way for continuous growth and improvement in your learning journey. Now, let’s move on to explore the mindset necessary for effective self-learning.

III. Mindset for Self-Learning

A. Cultivating Curiosity and a Growth Mindset

Cultivating the right mindset is essential for successful self-learning. Let’s explore how you can develop a mindset that fosters curiosity and embraces growth:

Embracing a love for learning and exploration: Nurture your curiosity by actively asking questions and seeking answers. Maintain a sense of wonder and fascination with the subject matter you are studying. Stay open to new ideas and perspectives, as they can enrich your learning experience and broaden your knowledge.

Recognizing challenges as opportunities for growth: Embrace difficulties as opportunities to learn and develop resilience. Rather than being discouraged by challenges, view them as chances to expand your understanding and skills. Shift your perspective and see mistakes as valuable learning experiences that contribute to your growth.

Overcoming the fear of failure and embracing mistakes as learning experiences: Adopt a mindset that treats failures as valuable feedback. Understand that making mistakes is a natural part of the learning process. Learn from your mistakes and use them as stepping stones for improvement. Develop a healthy attitude towards errors, recognizing that they provide opportunities for growth and deeper understanding.

By cultivating curiosity, embracing challenges, and learning from mistakes, you develop a growth mindset that fuels your self-learning journey. This mindset encourages continuous improvement and enables you to approach your studies with enthusiasm and resilience. Now, let’s explore some practical tips for maintaining motivation and staying committed to self-learning.

B. Developing Self-Discipline and Motivation

Developing self-discipline and staying motivated are crucial aspects of successful self-learning. Here are some practical strategies to help you cultivate self-discipline and maintain motivation:

Setting intrinsic motivations for learning: Take the time to identify your personal reasons and values that drive your desire to learn. Connect your learning goals to your long-term aspirations and passions. When you understand the intrinsic rewards and benefits of self-education, it becomes easier to stay motivated and committed to your learning journey.

Creating a personal reward system or incentives: Set up a system of small rewards or incentives to motivate yourself after completing tasks or reaching milestones. These rewards can be as simple as taking a short break, treating yourself to something you enjoy, or engaging in a favorite activity. Celebrate your progress and achievements along the way to maintain motivation and discipline.

Building self-discipline through habit formation: Establish a routine that incorporates regular learning sessions into your daily or weekly schedule. Start small and gradually increase the duration or intensity of your study sessions as you build momentum. Use habit-tracking techniques or apps to monitor your progress and reinforce your learning habits. By consistently engaging in your learning routine, you develop self-discipline and make learning a natural part of your life.

By setting intrinsic motivations, creating a personal reward system, and building self-discipline through habit formation, you empower yourself to stay motivated and committed to your self-learning journey. These strategies provide practical ways to overcome challenges and maintain consistency in your studies. Now, let’s explore the importance of reflection and self-care in the process of self-learning.

C. Embracing Resilience and Persistence

Embracing resilience and persistence is key to overcoming challenges and staying motivated throughout your self-learning journey. Let’s explore practical ways to cultivate resilience and persistence:

Overcoming obstacles and setbacks in the learning process: It’s important to expect and accept challenges as natural parts of the learning journey. Recognize that obstacles and setbacks are opportunities for growth and learning. Develop problem-solving skills to effectively tackle obstacles. Be proactive in seeking support or guidance when facing difficulties. Reach out to mentors, peers, or online communities to gain insights and strategies for overcoming challenges.

Cultivating a mindset of resilience and determination: Foster a positive and optimistic outlook, even in the face of challenges. View setbacks as learning experiences that provide valuable lessons for improvement. Cultivate perseverance and tenacity in pursuing your learning goals. Embrace the mindset that setbacks are temporary and that you have the ability to bounce back stronger. Develop resilience by acknowledging your progress and focusing on the long-term benefits of your learning journey.

Celebrating small wins and progress along the way: It’s important to acknowledge and appreciate incremental achievements and milestones. Take time to reflect on your progress and growth, no matter how small. Celebrate small victories to boost your motivation and maintain momentum. This can be as simple as treating yourself to something you enjoy or sharing your achievements with others. By celebrating small wins, you reinforce a positive mindset and fuel your determination to continue moving forward.

By overcoming obstacles, cultivating resilience and determination, and celebrating small wins, you develop the ability to navigate challenges and stay motivated in your self-learning journey. Remember, resilience is a skill that can be developed and strengthened over time. Now, let’s move on to explore the importance of reflection and self-care in the process of self-learning.

D. Seeking Continuous Improvement and Adaptability

To continuously improve and adapt in your self-learning journey, it’s important to adopt a growth mindset and embrace new ideas and perspectives. Let’s explore practical ways to seek continuous improvement and adaptability:

Embracing a growth mindset and seeking constant improvement: Adopt the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and dedication. Embrace challenges as opportunities to stretch and grow, rather than obstacles to avoid. Actively pursue ongoing learning and improvement in various aspects of your life, not just in your chosen field of study. Cultivate a mindset that values continuous growth and lifelong learning.

Being open to new ideas and perspectives: Cultivate a willingness to explore diverse viewpoints and alternative approaches. Engage in discussions or debates that challenge your existing beliefs or assumptions. Seek out experiences or learning opportunities that expose you to different perspectives, whether through reading diverse literature, attending seminars or workshops, or engaging in conversations with individuals from different backgrounds. Embracing new ideas and perspectives broadens your understanding and enhances your ability to adapt and innovate.

Adapting learning strategies based on feedback and changing circumstances: Be flexible and willing to adjust your study methods based on feedback or new information. Recognize when a different approach may yield better results or when circumstances require a change in strategy. Embrace change and adapt your learning strategies to suit evolving circumstances. Stay attuned to feedback from mentors, peers, or online communities, and use it as valuable input for refining your learning approach.

By embracing a growth mindset, being open to new ideas and perspectives, and adapting your learning strategies based on feedback and changing circumstances, you foster a mindset of continuous improvement and adaptability. This allows you to stay relevant and effectively navigate the ever-changing landscape of knowledge and skills. Now, let’s move on to the conclusion of this episode.

IV. Conclusion

In this episode, we have explored various strategies and mindsets for successful self-learning. We discussed the importance of goal setting and planning, effective learning techniques, developing study habits, leveraging technology, engaging in self-assessment and feedback, cultivating curiosity and a growth mindset, and embracing resilience and persistence. We also highlighted the significance of seeking continuous improvement and adaptability in your self-learning journey.

We encourage you, our listeners, to implement these strategies and mindsets in your own learning endeavours. Remember to set clear and specific goals, break them down into manageable steps, and create a study schedule or roadmap to stay organized. Embrace active learning methods, utilize varied resources, and make use of technology to enhance your learning experience. Develop effective study habits, seek feedback, and regularly assess your progress.

Additionally, cultivate curiosity, embrace challenges, and view mistakes as opportunities for growth. Set intrinsic motivations, create a reward system, and build self-discipline through habit formation. Embrace resilience, celebrate small wins, and stay open to new ideas and perspectives. Seek continuous improvement, adapt your learning strategies, and foster a growth mindset.

To further explore these topics and continue your self-learning journey, we recommend exploring additional resources and readings. Look for books, online courses, or educational websites that align with your interests and goals. Engage with online communities, attend webinars, or participate in virtual conferences to expand your knowledge and connect with like-minded learners.

Remember, self-learning is a lifelong journey, and your dedication and commitment to continuous growth will lead to fulfilling and enriching experiences. So, go forth with enthusiasm, curiosity, and a thirst for knowledge.

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and I’d like to thank you for listening.

S3EP6: Dealing with Demotivation

Autodidactic Podcast Season Three

S3EP6: Dealing with Demotivation

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Hello and welcome to episode 6 season 3 of the autodidactic podcast.

So this season is about my destupidification project, and I want to be completely honest with my listeners. I am struggling. In the last episode I talked about time management techniques and prioritisation. This is because I needed to re-prioritise and to reduce the amount of time I spent on the project.

I can tell you this simply has not worked. Although the time management techniques are effective and I can use the time which I had made available, the main issue at the moment is my energy levels are very low. So in this episode I want to try and delve into what you can do when, like me your motivation has fallen off a cliff, but you still want to soldier on.

In this weeks episode I will look into the things to do in order to get your motivation back and I’ll report on my progress on the YouTube channel. I hope that if you’ve encountered the same problem with over commitment and lack of energy this podcast will be of use to you.

The first thing to try is some introspection and discover why you’ve lost your motivation to study. In my case it is fairly obvious. I’ve got a new, highly pressured job and it sucks up a lot of mental energy. In addition, I’m tired and not sleeping regularly enough. But demotivation is a category of problems, containing many variations. So you need to look below the surface of the problem and try to tease out all the de-motivators if you’re going to be able to eliminate them.

There is a long list of potential demotivators, and it is only after you identify and eliminate them all that you’ll be fully motivated and ready to go again. Here are some demotivators to look for:

Fear – you might be going outside your comfort zone, and it is causing you anxiety which in turn is a demotivator.
You’ve got the wrong goals – If your goals aren’t clear, or your not aligned with them, they can become a demotivator.
Occupation about the future – If yo’re worried about what might happen tomorrow, then you can’t focus on today and your immediate goals.
Fatigue – You may simply need more rest. If your overburdened, demotivation rears its ugly head when we’re extremely tired.
Being overwhelmed – One of the major causes of lack of motivation is feeling overwhelmed. If you just have too much, and you feel defeated by the pile of things to be done.
Procrastination – the more you set your tasks aside, the more demotivated you get. And, without enough motivation, your output will also suffer.
Impatience – Wanting to be done can demotivate you. When impatience affects our motivation, we are even more prone to quitting.
Lack of progress – Not seeing any visible progress towards our goals and ambitions can be extremely demotivating.
Lack of flexibility – If you are doing the same thing day in and day out then for some people the lack of variation will become a de-motivator.
Conflict – If your goals, ambitions, study plans are in conflict with your lifestyle or values then it can demotivate you.
Mental illness issues – for example, dysthymia, which is a low-grade form of depression that leaves the individual able to engage in their day but still provides the classic symptoms of fatigue and lack of motivation.
Physical Illness – you might be sick or have some type of physical ailment which is causing your lack of demotivation
Self-Sabotage – you’re capable of achievement and are purposely sabotaging yourself and prevent yourself from moving forward.

After you have identified what the problem is, then the solution is normally self-evident. If we look closely at the list then we can see the types of remedies we need to use.

Fear – To get motivated, you need to deal with your fear. Start by naming your fears so that they’re out in the open. You need to put them on trial. After you name the fear, write it down to make it concrete, then argue the case for the defence. Ask questions like: What is the chance of that really happening? What’s the evidence that the thought is true? That it’s not true?
You’ve got the wrong goals – Have a look at the goals. Are they too large, not well enough defined. Unrealistic? Try to change them into SMART goals. A SMART goal is used to help guide goal setting. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. Therefore, a SMART goal incorporates all of these criteria to help focus your efforts and increase the chances of achieving your goal

Occupation about the future – First, you need to determine if your worries are actionable. If the worry is solvable, then start brainstorming solutions. If it isn’t then you need to accept the uncertainty.
You can try these 3 steps to stop yourself from worrying.
- Create a “worry period.” Choose a set time and place for worrying. It should be the same every day (e.g. in the living room from 5:00 to 5:20 p.m.) and early enough that it won’t make you anxious right before bedtime. During your worry period, you’re allowed to worry about whatever’s on your mind. The rest of the day, however, is a worry-free zone.
- Write down your worries. If an anxious thought or worry comes into your head during the day, make a brief note of it and then continue about your day. Remind yourself that you’ll have time to think about it later, so there’s no need to worry about it right now. Also, writing down your thoughts—on a pad or on your phone or computer—is much harder work than simply thinking them, so your worries are more likely to lose their power.
- Go over your “worry list” during the worry period. If the thoughts you wrote down are still bothering you, allow yourself to worry about them, but only for the amount of time you’ve specified for your worry period. As you examine your worries in this way, you’ll often find it easier to develop a more balanced perspective. And if your worries don’t seem important any more, simply cut your worry period short and enjoy the rest of your day.

Fatigue –Many cases of tiredness are due to stress, not enough sleep, poor diet and other lifestyle factors. You can try some of these tips to fight the fatigue.
- A good way to keep up your energy through the day is to eat regular meals and healthy snacks every3 to 4 hours, rather than a large meal less often.
- Even a single 15-minute walk can give you an energy boost, and the benefits increase with more frequent physical activity
- If your body is carrying excess weight, it can be exhausting. It also puts extra strain on your heart, which can make you tired. Lose weight and you’ll feel much more energetic.
- Tips for sleeping well include:
  - going to bed and getting up in the morning at the same time every day
  - avoiding naps in the day
  - taking time to relax before you go to bed
- Stress uses up a lot of energy. Try to introduce relaxing activities into your day.
- cut out caffeine
- Cut down on alcohol before bedtime. You’ll get a better night’s rest and have more energy.
- Sometimes you feel tired simply because you’re mildly dehydrated. A glass of water will do the trick, especially after exercise.
Being overwhelmed – It’s probably the most common mistake that people make: they try to take on too much, try to accomplish too many goals at once. You cannot maintain energy and focus (the two most important things in accomplishing a goal) if you are trying to do two or more goals at once. You have to choose one goal, for now, and focus on it completely.

Procrastination –
- Procrastination is less about avoiding a task than avoiding the negative emotions associated with that task.
- Procrastination is rooted not in laziness, but in perfectionism, anxiety, or fear of failure.
- Building momentum by tackling smaller tasks first can help to rebuild confidence to meet larger goals.

Impatience and Lack of progress – These often go hand in hand. This is a frequent problem for language learners who reach the dreaded intermediate plateau and don’t seem to be progressing. But if you evaluate your skills and knowledge realistically you will see that you have made progress even if it has only been a little. You need to manage your expectations as well to make sure you’ve got realistic goals.

Lack of flexibility – Change up what you are doing. Study something else for a little while. Take a break, find a different way or place to study.
Conflict –You need to unpack your values conflict and play mediator. You have to get the parts of you that are advocating for different values to play on the same team again. Start with acknowledging the internal conflict.
Grab a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle so that you have two columns. Write about the two different directions you feel pulled in, one in each column, and summarize it with a statement of what each part wants.

Now, pick one column and chunk it up: “Why does this part want that? What does it hope to get as a result of having that?” Keep asking the questions and writing your answers until you feel that you’ve hit on the result that this part of you ultimately wants. Now do the same for the other part, and notice when you get to the level where the answers in the two columns are the same.
For both Mental illness issues and Physical Illness it is best to consult a health professional

Self-Sabotage – For many of us, our self-sabotage behaviours and beliefs are rooted in our feelings of self-worth. Figuring out what is causing you to self-sabotage will help you to focus on the specific changes to stop these behaviours.

Fear tends to be the main cause of what holds us back. We fear that our inner critic is right; we believe that we don’t deserve happiness, aren’t tough or bright enough, or we just don’t have it in us to be a success in life. These thoughts and self-limiting beliefs are not helpful, and your negative dialogue needs to become a very slight whisper that you can hardly hear. So the section on overcoming fear is useful to listen to again.

That is all for this week, a very short episode. I will be looking at my own demotivators and give up dates on my YouTube channel. I hope this episode has been of some help to you in overcoming demotivation if you encounter it.

If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to comment on the website, autodidactic.info or on the YouTube channel. I try to respond as quickly as I can. You can also email me at rick@autodidactic.info .

I will put a link to the YouTube channel in the show’s transcription and show notes on the website.

S3EP3: Textbook study and markups

Autodidactic Podcast Season Three

S3EP3: Textbook study and markups

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Welcome to the audodidactic podcast season three, episode three. If you’re a new listener welcome aboard and if your a returning listener welcome back.

In season one I covered a lot of the methods regarding how to be an autodidactic, and in season two I covered autodidactics of the past and some of the methods they used for self learning. This season I’m doing a series called “My Destupidifacation”. I will be using all of the techniques and methods I’ve discussed previously to show these techniques in action. However, since a lot of the techniques require some elements that are best shown visually I decided to show what I’m doing on my YouTube channel.

I’ve really been struggling to do all of the study for this season and all of the projects I have ongoing. I counted up all the projects I have and I’ve got 21 project in trail right now. You may be aware that I write books both fiction and non-fiction. I’ve got two fiction books to complete which are already twelve months over due, and I’ve got a non-fiction book proposal to complete before the end of next month. I’ll put some links in the show notes if anyone is interested.

Later in the season I’m going to try and cover off some time management techniques I’ve been using, but also show how to prioritize and juggle some tasks.

However, this week on the Autodidactic podcast I’m going to look at textbook study, and creation of quizzes for yourself as you learn.

I’ve done two complete episodes on textbooks studies in season one. Episode seven and episode eight are both about studying textbooks. I recommend you listen to both of these if you haven’t already done so.

In season one, episode seven I discussed how to read a textbook to increase comprehension and retention of information using one of the three different study methods I described. These three methods were: P2R, SQ3R and S-SUN-R. There are probably at least a dozen different systems developed to help students understand what they read, and they’re all very similar but these are three of the most popular. You probably want to use a combination of these methods.

The first one we’re gonna talk about is a three step approach called P2R (or Previewing, Reading and Reviewing) and it’s designed for textbooks from easy to average level of difficulty. This isn’t for the really difficulty or information dense textbooks, but easier level or average level.

The first step is to preview a chunk of the textbook, e.g. ten pages, one section, one chapter. Something small and defined. You skim through this section, reading the section headings, or first sentence of the paragraphs, anything in bold print or italics, have a look at any figures, tables or charts. While you are doing this note down any questions this might bring up. You’ll try to look out for answers to your questions when you start active reading.

Once you’ve previewed, write down any information you gleaned while previewing Right yourself some sample questions, write a brief summary of what you think you’re going to get and then move on to active reading.

During active reading you are typically highlighting things, or putting notes in the margins, or writing in your notebook. Keep in mind when you’re when you’re highlighting. You’re just trying to highlight things that will be useful and relevant in summary later.

After you’ve completed your chunk of reading or at the end of the chapter, you need to review and do something to reinforce the important information. Now there’s a number of ways that you can review the text material, but the four most common ones are.

First, you look at your highlighted entries or the notes, and you read them aloud. You write questions in the margin of your text or notes at the end of each chunk, and then when you finished reading the entire chapter, you recite the answers to your questions
Secondly, used the headings to recite the key information on cover the details with your hand and then recite using only the headings as a clue.
The third ways to do some or any exercises or questions they may have at the end of chapter. Many textbooks have this sort of thing, at the end of chapters.
And finally, you can take the end of chapter tests or online test to review and monitor what you’re learning.

You can use SQ3R for more complex textbooks, but you can also use it for the easy ones.

SQ3R was developed by a fellow called Frances Robinson in 1941 on is probably one of the most widely taught system. SQ3R is an acronym for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. And this time we have five steps.

the five steps are:

Survey- you survey the chapter before you read it. You go through the chapter quickly, you glance at the headings, you read the final paragraph to get a general idea and the main points so very similar to the previous method and then question.

Question – Before you begin to read each headed section of your chapter, you turn the heading into a question. For example, you may have a heading “housing population” and so you would typically turn that into a question.

Read – So the next step is to read the material underneath the heading to try and find the answer to the question which you generated. Turning heading into a question helps you focus your reading, and the reading in this section helps you locate the answer to your question. Hopefully, and so you’ll get actively involved in the reading material. As you read the selection, see if you can answer your question and then the next bit is recite.

Recite – So at the end of the section the headed section, recite the answer to the question that you formulated. Recite the answer in your own words, though, so that it’s a summary without looking back at the text. And if you can’t recall part or all of the answer, then go back to the section again and then try and jot down the answer in a sort of an outline or a summary form. But don’t take any notes until you’ve read the entire section, and then the next step, the final step is review.

Review – So after you finished reading through entire chapter, look over the notes that you made to familiarize yourself with the important information and then check your memory by covering up your notes and reciting the main points out loud, and then cover each point in your notes and recite subordinate points that you’ve noted. So this type of review should only take five minutes because you’re only review in a very small subset of what you’ve, that you’re only studying a small subset.

The final system I want to talk to you about is called S-RUN-R. The S-RUN-R system was developed by a lady Nancy Bailey. This combines review steps to better help you with your comprehension because you’re focusing on one section at the time. This is also a useful technique for difficult or advanced textbooks which are, information dense.

The five steps here are:

S, survey

R, read

U, underline,

N, note taking

R, review

I cover this in detail in the season one, episode seven podcast and it would take too long to got through it all again here, so I recommend you go back the listen to that podcast. The advantage of using this particular system is that it highlights all the important information in every section in every paragraph, and it increases repetition as well, because you get more repetition of the important points because you’re not just highlighting it.

So how do you go about marking up your textbook? The main two methods are underlining or marking with a pencil. You can use either, but I would recommend that you use a highlighter, since this forces you to read a second time. You might think you get the same effect with underlining but studies have shown that people tend to look at the pencil like rather than the words. Highlighting doesn’t have this disadvantage.

When marking, markup sentences where possible. If you ‘re highlighting keywords, then you need to use linking to connect them together. While marking just try to remember to mark things in a way that they’ll make sense when you review a month or six months later. This is why it is better to mark meaningful phrases instead of just words.

Diversity is great, but not when it comes to text highlighting. You’ve probably seen people who have 10 different colour highlighters and they have one colour for facts, one for opinion, one for keywords, another colour for examples, etcetera. I would advise against this. It makes you think more about the colouring than the content. Using two colours is really the maximum.

What to mark? Headings, subheadings, main ideas, supporting details, definitions, examples, and statistics are important. Mark the main ideas of the section. Main ideas are the general statements that the author makes about the topic. The main idea statement, or topic sentence, is generally found in the first or second sentence of a paragraph.

Look for definitions, examples, facts, statistics, and signal words. Lists or enumerations, like definitions, should almost always be highlighted. Don’t omit information included in charts, graphs, and other diagrams. The information under photos, in footnotes, and in boxed features is also important to your understanding of the material.

For Math or Science books make sure to highlight all formulas, as well as any problems.

Remember you don’t want to over mark, it will simply increase your review times! If you highlight everything, you might as well just read the book again.

Be sure you’re not under-marking as well. You need to get all the important information, and not miss anything, without marking too much. So you need to be like goldilocks and mark it just right. Practice will help here more than anything else. As you get experience in marking and reviewing later you’ll find the sweet spot.

You also need to use your highlighting to generate self-tests and quizzes. You use these markings and turn them into questions which your future self can be tested on and review. It will help you to solidify your knowledge and make sure you’re retaining what you need.

I’ll show you on the YouTube channel how I use a pdf reader called Okular to highlight pdf’s and show you how to generate quizzes into text files which can then be combined into tests or examinations.

I will post any links to the YouTube channel on the autodidactic website and in the transcription of this podcast. The transcriptions and the links are at https://autodidactic.info

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this series or any of the previous series you can contact me at rick@autodidactic.info. Or post a comment on the website or on the YouTube channel.

That you for listening and I hope to see you next week.

Last weeks update on YouTube

S2E3: Exploring the study methods of a famous American Writer

Autodidactic Podcast Season Two

S2E3: Exploring the study methods of a famous American Writer

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Hello and welcome to the Autodidactic podcast, season 2 episode 3. I’m happy to say that I’m appearing on another podcast soon. I was interviewed by Kris Brohom from Actual Fluency Podcast about my language learning activities and advice for people studying during the pandemic. I’ll put links in the podcast transcription on the autodidactic.info website.

This episode I’m going to be looking into the study habits of a great writer and autodidactic. Before I tell you his name, let me read a quote from him.

“Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”

He is one of the most celebrated 20th- and 21st-century American writers, and worked in a variety of genres including fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mystery fiction. I’m speaking of Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920, died June 5, 2012). He was born in in Waukegan, Illinois to Esther Bradbury a Swedish immigrant and Leonard Bradbury who was a telephone lineman.

Bradbury’s most famous works include “Fahrenheit 451” and “Something wicked this way comes.”

Bradbury began writing his stories at age 11 (1931), during the Great Depression—sometimes writing on the only available paper, butcher paper. Bradbury was a firm believer in writing something every day. One incident which Bradbury attributed to his lifelong writing habit was, in 1932, when a carnival entertainer, one Mr. Electrico, touched the young man on the nose with an electrified sword, made his hair stand on end, and shouted, “Live forever!” Bradbury wanted to be immortalised forever through his writing.

Bradbury remarked, “I felt that something strange and wonderful had happened to me because of my encounter with Mr. Electrico … [he] gave me a future … I began to write, full-time. I have written every single day of my life since that day 69 years ago.”

In addition to writing Bradbury was a keen prestidigitator, otherwise known as a magician. As a boy, Bradbury attended several performances by Blackstone the Magician and, in 1931, was given a book on magic for his eleventh birthday. He was soon performing his own magic act for various service clubs and lodges, and was invited to appear at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall on Christmas Eve.

In high-school Bradbury was a member of the drama club and was a keen actor. Bradbury married his wife in 1947 and they were married for 56 years until her death in 2003. His wife was the first and only woman he’d ever dated, and they had four daughters. Bradbury never obtained a driver’s license, but relied on public transportation or his bicycle. Bradbury witnessed a fatal car accident when he was 16. Later he said:

“I saw six people die horribly in an accident. I walked home holding on to walls and trees. It took me months to begin to function again. So I don’t drive. But whether I drive or not is irrelevant. The automobile is the most dangerous weapon in our society—cars kill more than wars do.”

Bradbury was a strong supporter of public library systems, raising money to prevent the closure of several libraries in California facing budgetary cuts. He said “libraries raised me”, and shunned colleges and universities, comparing his own lack of funds during the Depression with poor contemporary students. Bradbury permitted the publication of “Fahrenheit 451” in electronic form provided that the publisher, Simon & Schuster, allowed the e-book to be digitally downloaded by any library patron. The title remains the only book in the Simon & Schuster catalogue where this is possible.

It took Bradbury just nine days to write Fahrenheit 451—and he did it in the basement of the UCLA library on a rented typewriter. (The title of his classic novel, by the way, comes from the temperature at which paper burns without being exposed to flame.)

Bradbury remained an enthusiastic playwright all his life, leaving a rich theatrical legacy, as well as literary. Bradbury headed the Pandemonium Theatre Company in Los Angeles for many years and had a five-year relationship with the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena. Not only was Bradbury highly creative with language—he was also an exceptional visual artist. He would use the basement office as his studio, doodling, sketching, and painting.

He once said that when he died, he planned to have his ashes placed in a Campbell’s Tomato Soup can and planted on Mars. A more fitting memorial is the one NASA gave him when they landed a rover on Mars a few months after Bradbury’s death in 2012: They named the site where Mars Curiosity touched down “Bradbury Landing.”

So what can we take away from Ray Bradbury that would help us as autodidactics? The first is obviously the use of libraries and reading. He was at the library three days a week for 10 years. Even if he spent only an hour or two, he still invested between 520 and 1040 hours of time in the library. But from other statements he made while doing fund raising for libraries we can see that he invested a lot more time than that. He said:

“I read everything in the library. I read everything. I took out 10 books a week so I had a couple of hundred books a year I read, on literature, poetry, plays, and I read all the great short stories, hundreds of them. I graduated from the library when I was 28 years old. That library educated me, not the college.”

So Bradbury in the 10 years he invested time in the library he read about 5200 books. You can see from this quote that he was investing that reading time focused on his primary interest which was writing and theatre. Earl Nightingale said many years ago that one hour per day of study in your chosen field was all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you’ll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do. Bradbury did it for 10 years, and for more than an hour.

To paraphrase self-help guru Brian Tracy: Read all you can about your field. Subscribe to the executive book clubs and book summaries. Build your own library of important books in your field. Never be cheap about your education. If you read one hour per day in your field, that will translate into about one book per week. One book per week translates into about 50 books per year.

As autodidactics much of our primary focus will be on using books for learning. Even if you’re learning a more physical skill such as sailing or painting there are numerous books written by professionals in your area of interest. If you’re interest is more academic then the library shelves are full of things you need.

Where I live the library provides an online catalogue of all their books, not just in my local library, but all the libraries run within the district I live in. They allow me to place an order for any book in any of the 75 libraries under their control and they will deliver it to my local library for me to walk over and pickup. While not every library provides this type of service, it is certainly worth investigating what is available to you via your local library.

Libraries contain not only books for study, but audio and visual works as well. If you’re learning a language then there is a good chance you can pick up some courses at the library with audio included.

Another thing we can take away from Ray Bradbury is the concept of Synergistic Learning. I don’t mean some kind of new-age buzzword. But rather knowledge gained in pursuit of one area, often has application in others. Bradbury introduced a concept of magic or mystery into many of his stories, and used the plays and poems he’d read to help give his writing a more lyrical feel. He applied his writing to a number of areas. In fact Bradbury’s first pay as a writer was for a joke he sold to comedian George Burns.

Being an autodidactic typically means that you’ll be learning more than one topic. These topics of interest can spread over a widely divergent set of things, but can be related. Synergistic learning is simply looking at your various topics of interest and seeing if there is any common ground. If there is you can focus on that area and gain knowledge in two interests not just one. For example, many topics need a good knowledge of maths.

Often we think of self-study as being simply sitting at a desk with a textbook. While that is valid, it isn’t the only thing that should be done. If you’re interested in Nutrition Science. You shouldn’t just be reading textbooks, you should try to also read websites, government guidelines, weight watchers magazines, cooking books, watch YouTube cooking channels, read about agriculture techniques, gardening books, wine and food magazines, etc.

Don’t narrow your focus too much, try to keep an open approach. You can focus when you start to get overwhelmed with information, but having a wider general knowldege of the subject will benefit you when you narrow your focus as well.

Well that is all for this week. If you enjoy the show, please give a rating on the platform you’re using to listen, and please share the podcast with friends and family who might be interested. Also let me know if you find these explorations of the methods used by other autodidactics useful, and if there is someone in particular you’d like me to research. As always you can leave feedback on the website autodidactic.info, or send me an email to rick@autodidactic.info.

Thank you very much for listening.

Actual Fluency Podcast

S2EP2: Exploring the study methods of Ben Franklin.

Autodidactic Podcast Season Two

S2EP2: Exploring the study methods of Ben Franklin.

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Hello and welcome to the Autodidactic podcast, season 2 episode 2. I’d like to apologise for the delay in getting this weeks episode out. I ran into some technical issues and also getting a quiet area to do the recording. Hopefully I’ll be able to be more consistent in future.

This week I’m going to start delving into the lives and study methods of autodidactics through the ages and into modern times. I’m going to start with a person who most listeners inside the United States would need no introduction. I haven’t yet worked out the format of these podcasts about autodidactics, but I will generally start with telling you a little about the person, what they accomplished, and what we know of their methods. Then I’ll try to dig a little deeper into the methods they used and relate it to what we can emulate today.

The person I’m going to talk about today is Benjamin Franklin. Ben Franklin was born in what would become the United States on January 17, 1706 and died on April 17, 1790. Franklin was an American autodidactic and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23.

Benjamin Franklin became a luminary in everything from politics to physics, and he did this without modern educational techniques such as schools, teachers, or the Internet.

Franklin was a prodigious inventor, but Franklin never patented his inventions. Probably the first advocate of opensource/open knowledge movement he wrote: “… as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”

Franklin studied, electricity, ocean currents, population and demography, wave light theory, meteorology. He was an avid chess player, and with a friend learned Italian. The loser of these matches had to perform some task given by the winner, such as reciting sections of Italian grammar, or 100 animal names at the next meeting.

Ben Franklin’s autobiography can give us many clues about the man and how he used his time and many of his writings are available online to read. I’ll put links to his writings at the end of the transcript on the autodidactic.info website.

Although there is a lot to learn from his writings, I believe that Franklin had two methods we can emulate as autodidactics. The first is known today as “deliberate practice” and the second is measurement or monitoring.

Of all the things Franklin does these two things lend themselves most to self-study and autodidactism.

First let’s look at deliberate practice. What is it?

Deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance. What sets deliberate practice apart from other training methods is a rigorous sequence of ongoing performance assessment, tailored goal-setting, and systematic skill-building informed by expert feedback.

Franklin shows us how he used deliberate practice when he taught himself to become an author and better writer. Let me read an excerpt from his autobiography.

About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try’d to compleat the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them.

—Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

Here Franklin is doing what is known as “deliberate practice” in order to improve his writing. K. Anders Ericsson likens it to how artists practice by trying to imitate some famous work. Mathematicians are taught to attempt to prove most theorems themselves when reading a book or paper — even if they can’t, they’ll have an easier time compressing the proof to its basic insight.

Deliberate practice can be used to learn any skill from music to computer programming.

Let’s use some examples of how you could use deliberate practice for something other than writing as Franklin does.

Many people are self-taught programmers who use a programming textbook to learn a programming language. But if you just read the book and cover to cover you’ll not get the maximum value from it. Instead when you come to a section in a chapter showing a small snippet of code to open a file. Look at the snippet, close the book and actually try to create the program yourself without opening the book. Chances are you’ll fail, however when you open the book back up you’ll be able to compare your work against the snippet. You’ll get some immediate feedback about where you’ve gone wrong.

Otherwise when studying you can use this method by simply reading a page of the book you’re learning from, a recorded lecture, etc. Close the book or pause the video/audio and try to write down everything you’ve just read or listened to. Try not to do a summary, but to remember everything. It would be tedious to reproduce and entire book verbatim but this method would give immediate feedback about knowledge gaps. It might show you that the information you’ve missed tends to always been at the end of paragraphs, so you can modify your behaviour to focus on the end of paragraphs as well.

But deliberate practice is bigger than this. The exerpt I read from Franklin didn’t cover the three primary things you must do for deliberate practice. Mostly because Franklin himself had done the other steps “off camera”.

The three steps are:

Have a specific goal, and break it down – Break down what you want to know or practice into a well defined small amount. For a textbook this might be into chapters for example.
Create a plan – Have a written plan for how you’re going to practice, with times and a schedule. For example, you might decide on a chapter per week, with X number of exercises.
Get a coach (or some form of feedback) – this is probably the most important thing to have. Remember Franklin used the original Spectator articles as feedback to compare against his own writing. You also need some type of feedback mechanism. In the programming example you have the authors version of the file opening snippet.

When you do your plan you need to keep your goal in mind. When you break this down into practice sessions you need to have a goal in mind for each section.

Goals like:

Play or sing a certain song at a specific speed with no mistakes three times in a row.
Memorise the first 10 digits of pi.
Type at 50 words per minute with no errors.
Summarise each page of the textbook with no gaps.

If you’re interested in deliberate practice I recommend the book Peak by K. Anders Ericsson

The other area we can emulate from Franklin is tracking or monitoring of progress. Franklin had a little book where he would track his errors each day, monitoring himself to try to improve.

A phrase most managers in most companies will immediately recognises is “You get what you measure.” It’s human nature to shoot for the objectives set, and it is human nature to pay attention to the metrics which are being measured. However, a word of caution here. You need to make sure that you’re measuring the correct thing, or that the instrument you’re using to measure is correct. Just measuring time studying doesn’t indicate amount learned.

Sir Arthur Eddington, an English astrophysicist, told a short story involving a scientist studying fish by pulling them up with nets. After checking all the fish hauled up, the scientist concludes that there is a minimum size of fish in the sea. But the fish seen were determined by the size of the holes in the net, the smaller ones having slipped through, unmeasurable. The instrument you use affects what you see.

So you need to think carefully about what you are trying to learn and try to find a way to measure your ability.

If you are learning from a textbook you might create a simple form to fill out at the end of each chapter with some questions rating from 1-7 where 1 is defiantly not, and 7 is defiantly yes. Some statements might be:

“I understand ALL the concepts in this chapter.”

“I found this chapter easy.”

This type of survey would let you judge how well you learned from this book, and if you should re-read, or find an easier or more difficult resource.

If you were learning a skill such as learning how to remember names you might score yourself 2 points for all names remembered and -1 point for any name forgotten. Then you review your scoreboard each week, plotting it to spot trends. You might discover you typically fail to remember when introduced to a group of people at the same time, but are ok individually. Then you can use deliberate practice to focus on remembering names at group introductions.

If you were learning photography you might have your photos scored based on framing, lighting, focus, filtering, exposure, etc. Then you design practice sessions with deliberate practice on the elements you score low in.

For monitoring you need to:

Break down and list your goal into things which can be measured.
Eliminate things from the list who’s measurement isn’t essential
Be clear on what you need to measure, why you are measuring it, and how you’ll measure it.
Schedule periodic reflections on the measures
Design repetitive, deliberate practice to overcome measured defects.

Remember you can’t improve what you don’t measure, but measuring the amount of time spend generally isn’t useful. Review what you’re measuring in order to design better practice, and review your measures to ensure you’re still measuring essential matrix.

Thank you very much for listening.

Writings of Ben Franklin

NOTE: I apologize for the transcript not being 100% accurate this week, I had some difficulties getting it out.

EP13: Gaining qualifications or certification from self-study

Today we’ll discuss how you can find exams or vocational awards to gain qualifications and certifications for the things you’ve learned through self-study.

Autodidactic Podcast Season One

EP13: Gaining qualifications or certification from self-study

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Hello and welcome to the autodidactic podcast. This is season one, episode 13. If your a returning listener then welcome back! If you have just started to listen then welcome aboard.

We are at the end of season one. I had intended to do another show with answers to any questions I’ve received, but I think I can cover those at the end of today’s show. So unfortunately I’m going to end on unlucky number 13 for this Season.

I’m ending this season a bit early for a couple of reasons. The first reason is another Lockdown in the UK because of the Covid virus will mean I’ll not have the peace and quiet required to record a show, and because it is quickly approaching the holiday season. Therefore, I’m going to end Season One and return again next year for Season Two.

I haven’t yet made the show schedule for Season Two, so if you’re interested in hearing something in particular please email me at rick@autodidactic.info. If you’d like me to expand on anything we’ve already discussed in Season One I’m happy to do that as well.

Today I’m going to talk about getting qualifications or certifications for things that you’re self-studying. This is a difficult topic to cover in detail, since I don’t know what you may be studying. However, I’m going to give some examples of qualifications or certification testing which you can do in some topics which I’m familiar with and hopefully you’ll be able to apply what I’m saying to the area that you’re studying.

Professional qualifications are vocational training courses relating to a specific industry or career path. They are typically regulated and awarded by relevant professional bodies, and are designed to ensure that everyone employed in a particular job meets the minimum required standards of professional expertise.
The first example I’m going to give is related to Information Technology. Previously I had mentioned surveys indicated over 60% of all programmers were self-taught. Many Project managers, or other IT professionals are also self-taught and then take a relevant certification test in order to prove their knowledge to a standard. Some examples are Prince2 project management training, Togaf technical architect training, Microsoft Certified Engineers and many others.

For some jobs in the UK for example a professional qualification is required. For example, to work as a qualified solicitor you must take the Legal Practice Course (LPC), and to become a chartered accountant you’ll need to pass the relevant exams.

There is some form of professional qualification available in most industries. In the UK these include:
• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
• BCS – The Chartered Institute for IT
• Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
• Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
These are just a small selection – there are many more.
• HR courses
• Management courses
• Marketing courses
• Sales training courses
• Social work courses
• Travel and tourism courses
The entry requirements for professional courses depend entirely on the qualification and what it leads to.
Many professional bodies offer different levels of vocational qualification, suitable for school leavers, graduates and experienced professionals. Typically, when you complete one exam, you become eligible to work towards another qualification at a higher level. Possessing some relevant work experience or having a demonstrable interest in the subject is often essential.
So how can you find out about some of these? Well in the UK you can contact the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) – the trade association for professional awarding organisations offers a wealth of information and contacts. If you’re not in the UK search for trade organisations in the area that you’re studying and see who awards any qualifications or certifications.

Another area where you might want to gain qualifications is languages. For example the DELF, HSK, or other language proficiency examinations which will give you a standard level which you can then use as your official level in the language.

But outside of vocational training and languages what can you do to apply your self-study toward a degree program?

In the USA you can get some college credits using CLEP testing. CLEP stands for “College Level Examination Program.” It’s a set of tests developed and administered by the College Board.

So what exactly are the CLEP tests? They’re exams that test your knowledge of a variety of academic subjects. Many colleges and universities will give you credit towards a degree for each CLEP test you pass.

CLEP exams are much cheaper than a full college course. With the right CLEP tests and undergraduate program, you could get your degree in as little as a year. But you must find a University which accepts CLEP testing. There’s no point in taking CLEP tests if you can’t transfer your passing scores for credit.

Many countries will have similar systems for allowing you to bypass courses in favour of self-study.

Many MOOCs (Massive open online course) will allow credit if your signed up with the University.

It might be that you’ve decided you’re going to do a self-study course through a “mail-order” course, although nowadays they call it “distance learning”, which gives qualifications at the end. This is a good approach, and in the UK you can even get a degree completely through distance learning from the Open University.

So although it is difficult for me to give anything other than general guidelines, hopefully you can see that there are many different ways to have your self-learning and autodidactic work recognised by the rest of the world through some type of testing.

But remember that it isn’t always necessary to have a qualification to become a recognized expert. A simple example of this was my father, who although never had a single qualification as a car mechanic managed to have everyone we knew around to the house anytime there was a problem with their car. He loved working on cars and through self-learning had taught himself everything need to repair a car.

I’m sure you can think of someone who is a recognised subject matter expert without any formal qualifications.

Well that covers just about everything I can think of regarding getting qualifications as a self-learner. Lets move on to the questions I’ve had from listeners.

The main question I’ve been asked boils down to: “What have you taught yourself?”

I have taught myself quite a bit over the years by self learning. I’ve alluded to some of these in previous podcasts. I don’t want to “toot my own horn”, but since you’ve asked…

I have taught myself French and Italian to a good level over a number of years, and I’m currently toying with Mandarin Chinese. I also administer a language learners forum (links in the show notes) and so get a lot of advice and assistance there. If you want to learn another language then I highly suggest you take advantage of all the great advice and lists of resources available there. It is all free, no advertisements or anything so make use of that if you can.

I have taught myself a lot of programming languages over the years, so many in fact I’ve probably forgotten a few I did know. But these include Assembler, C, C++, Java, Javascript, Rust, Perl, Python, Tcl/tk, and a lot of database stuff, SQL, PLSQL, etc.

I taught myself Lean management, which used to be called the Toyota method. But having a need for this I read every book and resource I could find for over a year, averaging 5-10 books per week on the subject until I knew just about everything there was to know.

Another question I have gotten is related to this. “What are you studying right now?”

Right now I’m teaching myself basic electronics, ARM assembler programming, Flutter programming, and Mandarin Chinese. I also have an entire bookshelf of maths books ranging from basic maths to Calculus and Discrete Mathematics. I’m slowly making my way through these books a few minutes each day.

So you can see that I really do practice what I preach.

And the final question I want to cover is one that came in recently. Francois asked: “I have tried mnemonics but I still struggle to remember the stuff I’m reading. How can I improve my retention?”

There are a couple of things you can do, some of which I’ve covered before but just to emphasise they are:
• Take notes about what your are reading. Write them in the margins or in a notebooks
• Make up questions about what you are going to read and try to find the answers while you’re reading.
• Reading out loud frequently helps with retention. So if you can find somewhere you will not be disturbed and read out loud.
• Try reading at night. According to some studies retention is better if you read in the evening, and the reading is processed while you sleep.
• Where possible use physical books rather than ebooks. It seems readers forget more of what they read in an ebook.
• If you are going to use an ebook, try to get an ereader which will read to you. Some programs like Fbreader will read the text to you.
• Always skim before reading checking out the headings and making questions.
• Read in smaller chunks. Don’t read 10 chapters a day, read 10 pages and try to suck all the information you can from those few pages. Bite-sized is better.
• Try to summarise in your own words what you have just read. You can do this at the end of each page, just say it out loud.
• Always quiz yourself on what you have read.

So that is it for Season One!

I hope you enjoyed the show and the rest of the podcasts and I look forward to returning in the New Year. Meanwhile I hope you have a wonderful time of study and learning while we are apart. I really would like to gather listener feedback about the shows, and I’m interested in hearing what you’d like me to discuss in Season Two. So as always you can email me at rick@autodidactic.info or you can leave a comment on the website: https://autodidactic.info

See you next year.

EP10: Solving concentration problems

Autodidactic Podcast Season One

EP10: Solving concentration problems

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Hello and welcome to the auto didactic podcast. This is Season 1 Episode 10 If you’re a long-time listener, welcome back to the show. And if you’re joining us for the first time, welcome aboard. As always, I just want to say that I enjoy getting feedback for the show. So if you have any feedback, feel free to email me at rick@autodidactic.info, and you can request topics or give feedback or give your experience.

Today we’re going to talk about concentration. Now, when you study, concentration is very important, and it’s something that you may have in abundance or something that you might not have, but it is definitely something that can be acquired.

So what is Concentration? Concentration is focusing your attention on what you’re doing, and concentration is an important in just about everything, especially reading or listening or studying. It’s very difficult to say what concentration is, but it’s very easy to explain what it isn’t.

For example, if you’re reading a chapter in your textbook, you’re concentrating only as long as you’re thinking of nothing else, as soon as you start to think about how many pages you have left to read or what time you’re gonna eat dinner or a soon as you start to think about something else then you’ve been distracted and you’re not concentrating.

So if you think about the fact that you should be concentrating, that means you’ve actually lost your concentration. So, for example, if you were in some sort, of course, or watching a YouTube video and you become interested in something that’s happening outside your window or behind you or other people talking, then you’ve lost your concentration. And you’ve probably missed some of the points that the person was trying to make.

Being distracted interferes with your ability to focus, and in each of the sort of examples I’ve given you are actually concentrating on something. The problem is, you just were concentrating on something other than what you wanted to be. Now the difficulty with concentration is a pretty common place for most people on.

I think basically, there three types of concentration and improving your concentration is something that’s very important if you’re going to become an autodidactic. Studies say that there are three levels of concentration.

So as you’re reading your text assignments. Time yourself for 20 minutes, and each time you think of something else or look up from what you’re doing, put a tick mark in the margin of your book. You’ll find out that you probably weren’t concentrating at the level that you should have been. And at some points during the 20 minute period, you’ll have noticed that you were more focused on the material than other times. If you look back at the tick marks that you made in your books, you can see where you were starting to lose concentration. And typically, most people find that these are in the early parts of the study section or the section, which you’re studying.

Why is that? Basically, most people are less distracted toward the end of the 20 minute period. Let’s take a little look at how concentration works. You have what they call light concentration, moderate concentration and deep concentration. A light concentration is typically when you first sit down and you first start a task. So at this stage it lasts, probably for the first five or 10 minutes of your activity on. Then, as you get settled into reading or studying or whatever it is you’re doing, you can see that in the first few minutes you’re not really as focused as you should be, and you wiggle about in the chair or you pull your hair or you start twiddling a pencil or doing something.

So when you’re in light concentration mode, you’re easily distracted. So if somebody starts talking behind you or you see people walking around outside or whatever or some noise occurs, you may find yourself thinking about other things, and you typically don’t accomplish much in a light concentration phase.

Now, after that first five or six minutes, you start to move into a moderate concentration mode, and at this point you begin to seriously pay attention to what you’re doing on the task that you’re doing or what you’re reading, etcetera. Now you may find that you’re actually interested in in this material on what you’re doing, and at this stage you’ll find that you’re not as easily distracted as you were before. So although you might lose your concentration at this point if somebody actually speaks directly to you or knocks on the door or whatever, typically you’re going to stay focused on what you’re doing, and then at some point you might move into deep concentration.

And this means you’re completely engrossed in what you’re doing reading, studying, etcetera and you aren’t thinking about anything except what you’re doing. It’s this. This is the sort of phase where you jump when somebody comes up behind you and touches your arm because you’re so sort of engrossed in what you’re doing that you didn’t even notice the person. Enter the room or say your name when you’re in deep concentration. You’re not really aware of doors opening, clock’s ticking, other sounds that you may have found distracting. And this is the stage of concentration where you’re working the most effectively and you’re gonna have the highest comprehension.

This is the mode that you want to get into, and this is where you’re gonna learn the most and complete the most amount of work.

How do you get into a deep concentration? Concentration typically is a cycle, and you might be thinking that it’s easy to get to a high level of concentration. You know you work for 10 or 15 minutes and then buying you’re in deep concentration, but it really doesn’t work like that. What typically tends to happen is you’ll be able to work up into deep concentration for 40 minutes of say in our study session. Typically, the first few minutes is not really any good to you. And unfortunately, some people never actually get into deep concentration. They flip back and forth between light and moderate because they’re more or less constantly distracted.

Every time you’re distracted, you move back to a lesser stage of concentration. So if you’re in deep concentration, you get distracted urine sort of moderate, and then if you’re in moderate, you go back to light. What you need to do is keep interruptions very short if they happen or not at all. And you need to do this until you get deep into the material. This might take you. You no longer than five or 10 minutes to do. But you’re still gonna have to move through these two other steps of light and moderate before you could get into deep or heavy concentration. And this is gonna take you a while.

So you’re gonna need to study in places where you’re not interrupted as much where you’re you’re gonna be able to basically concentrate for longer periods and your your ability to concentrate. It’s gonna vary from task to task and depends on what you study in the text and things on the time what you’re doing, it etcetera. One of the things you definitely don’t want to be doing is studying in a noisy or distracting area where there’s loads of people and you should actually try and study at the same time each day because you just get into a habit of studying. Most people, as I said, have concentration problems. But most people don’t actually have problems concentrating, which sounds a bit weird, but people have the ability to concentrate. No problem. They just have problems getting into concentration.

So there’s three kinds of problems that are typically found. There’s difficulty focusing at will like you know immediately when you want to. There’s a difficulty sustaining that focus over a longer period of time, and there’s a different difficulty in limiting the focus toe one task at a time. So let’s discuss the first one focusing it will. So have you ever noticed that you have difficulty concentrating when somebody starts lecturing or when you start to the video you may find yourself looking around or thinking about you know, when you’re when you’re gonna be able to get thio whatever you’re doing next. But you basically have trouble focusing all your attention on the task at hand, and this is focusing at will, being able to turn your attention on and off like a light switch. Now some people can concentrate immediately. Others find it difficult.

Many people have developed techniques to focus their attention on the task at hand. You picture yourself of that critical minute when you’re gonna make your move, and you go through some sort of ritual to calm yourself or focus your attention. People that play sports ballplayers, bowlers, tennis players, runners, etcetera have strategies to focus their attention. Many people use self talk to focus yourself, so you might say things like, Okay, pay attention. I’m gonna do this. Some people give themselves a little pep talk. You know, pay attention. I need to do this. I need to concentrate, etcetera. Some people have sort of a totem, you know. They put a pen or highlighter in front of them, and they, you know, they know that they’re going to start studying or they have ah, particular place where they study and they associate their concentration with that area, so these sorts of things help them to focus their will.

The other problem that people have is sustaining that concentration once you actually start, as we discussed previously, the concentration is a cycle, so it’s not as easy as it sounds just to keep in that mode. And some people have difficulty maintaining concentration. Regardless of the task, Some people can focus for long, long, long periods without ever becoming distracted. Why is there this difference? Well, the difficulty of the task level, the person’s interest in the material, their motivation can all be factors in what is the ability to sustain this focus? The final type of problem is, uh, limiting your focus toe one task at a time.

Now, a lot of people think that it’s good to multitask, but most of the time this isn’t a good idea, especially when you’re studying or trying to learn something, you need to focus your attention on the task at hand without being distracted by, you know, another uh, text that you need to review or another thing that needs to do but happen or something else on your to do list. Various strategies around this include, you know, having a good study environment that helps you avoid distractions.

Strategies for setting goals and time management and prioritization will all help you. When you find yourself thinking of other things staring out a window or being distracted, you may have difficulty focusing at will, sustaining your focus or limiting your focus on one task. The rial cause of most problems for concentration are simply a lack of attention, lack of interest or lack of motivation. The two main signs of poor concentration are external internal distractions. Distraction is anything that divert your attention from the task at hand. So external distractions or things like doorbells or people walking past etcetera, internal distractions or things that you’re thinking about or you’re worrying about, or you know, something that pops into your head while you’re while you’re working.

Common internal distractions, air sort of anxieties, personal worries, indecision, etcetera. You probably find that it’s really easy to concentrate when you’re interested in what you’re doing. So when you’re focused on something that you’re doing, like a hobby or or whatever you find it easy to let the time slip away. You’re very focused on what you’re doing. Your level of interest in this particular course from the material that you’re studying, maybe part of the problem with A without having a high level of interest. It’s easy to get distracted, especially when you’re surrounded by distractions. I like the motivation is another cause If you really don’t care about what you’re studying or you have no motivation to complete on, learn what you need to learn, then you’re really not going to see the relevance, uh, toe what you’re trying to study or or what your you’ve assigned yourself to do on. It’s hard to exert.

You know that extra willpower to get it done, you really need to have a motivation and and find out, you know, why am I doing this? Why am I trying to learn this? You know what is my motivation and keep that motivation of mind. It will help you improve your concentration. If you’re motivated to succeed, these problems can be marked. Is AIM (Attention, interest and motivation).

And they’re the real reasons that distractions interrupt you. Internal distractions are difficult to put away. It’s very difficult to not worry about personal problems or think about what you have to do later, or if you’re feeling hungry or tired, you know is another common distraction. You need to make sure that you try and solve these types of problems before you sit down to study, you know, have a snack. Eat something before you start. Try and make sure you’re getting proper sleep and things so that you’re not tired, and you need to make sure that you’ve got the right attitude towards what you’re doing so that you’re motivated, that you know what you want to do and you’re ready to do it. There’s a lot of people have concentration problems when they’re reading assignments, unlike the person speaking or varying the pitch of their voice or the tone or the changing environment around them. These folks can keep you from being distracted and can keep you interested in what’s happening. But if you’re lying in bed reading a textbook, well, you know it can affect your ability to concentrate. If you try and read late at night, you’re gonna experience more difficulty staying focused because you’re tired.

Concentration actually requires effort, so it’s hard to make that effort if you’re tired and you have difficulty maintaining concentration when you’re reading for long periods of time without a break. Okay, So how do we improve concentration? How do we go about making the concentration better? Well, by now, you realize that concentration is pretty common for everybody. And although it makes you feel a bit better to know you’re not the only person who has this problem. It doesn’t actually help you.

Look at ways to fix our concentration strategies. There’s various motivational and organizational strategies we can use to improve concentration. And probably the most helpful ones are a positive attitude. A general interest in the task in hand, goal settings and scheduling yourself. You know, your study periods.

So you need to develop a positive attitude towards what you’re gonna what you’re gonna do. You need too. Want to do the study you need to see it is relevant and valuable and important. So before you even begin to do all of this stuff, have to think about how it benefits you, right? And, answer the question of why you want to do this and then have some self belief. You know, you can do this assignment. It’s not a problem. You have successfully completed things before and you’ll successfully complete.

If you’re having any self doubts or frustration, they’ll interfere with your concentration. You need to have a positive attitude, and then you need to be interested in the task If you’re not already interested and you’re gonna have a lot of difficulty in doing, uh, this task If you need to read a two part data sheet on, uh, microprocessors or something, then you’re gonna need to be interested in that. In order to sustain your focus, you’re gonna need ways to find to make this material interesting on dso that you can generate an interest in what you’re doing.

Now, one way is to preview the thing before you read, so you have a good idea of what you’re going to go through. You know, we’ve talked about this before where you review the chapters. You look at the headings, you sort of have a good idea of what’s gonna happen before you start to read. And in order to increase your motivation, you start to ask some questions from the headlines on the headers so that you are looking to answer these questions as you’re reading along so that that gets you more motivation and more interest in the topic because you’re actually searching for answers at this point.

Another thing that you might try is to break up, break up this task into smaller chunks so that you don’t have to read eight Chapter Section one of this book. You break it into smaller chapters or half a chapter so that you’re basically doing one task at a time, and you’re taking your way through it so it won’t matter as much if you’re distracted midway through if you’re only midway through a relatively small section. The other thing you might try is if you’re not particularly interested in this particular topic and you have another topic what you are interested in, you can try flipping between them so that you know you force yourself to do 20 minutes of mathematics in order to read 20 minutes of history book.

Now you can use goal setting strategies, so set a clear specific goal to help you concentrate. So if you know what you need to accomplish, then you can limit your focus to that tasks of it again. If we go back to asking questions, you’re focusing on answering your own questions rather than just reading the text. But having a clear purpose in mind can help you limit the distractions that you run into on time. Management strategies are very important, you know. Have a to do list. Have a reverse revision, spreadsheet, that sort of thing. To develop a steady schedule study schedule for yourself each day. Then you need to create a positive environment. You need to be able to reduce the number of external distractions on.

The easiest way to do that is just just eliminate them by going and hiding away somewhere where you’re not gonna be distracted. You can avoid most external distractions by closing yourself off or getting yourself alone somewhere. Find yourself a nice, quiet study place. Limit your distractions. So even in your study place, you can put your desk against the wall. Eso you can’t look out the window. Turn off emails, etcetera. Use your desk to study, you know, Don’t use it for everything else. Don’t eat your dinner there. You know it’s just for studying and don’t get a comfy chair to study in. Get something that’s not too comfortable that basically keeps you awake. Never study while you’re lying in bed, because basically, you fall asleep. Um, you can try and turn off your phone, or at least screen your phone calls. Turn off radios, televisions, radio, etcetera. If you need something sort of white noise, you can use soft, familiar music or because even APS you can download that have sort of a sound of falling rain. Etcetera.

Try and study when where you’re at is the most quiet. So if you’re studying at home, when your family members or asleep or outside, um, try and consider going to maybe a library or somewhere quiet If you can’t get any quiet time at home, try and just reduce or remove all distractions in order to get your place. Get yourself into a place where you could go into deep concentration. Now again, everybody says multitasking is great, but really multitasking is not great for study. You need to focus on what you’re doing. You can’t be, you know, studying mathematics While watching football on television. You might think that you’re able to but you just can’t because you’re concentrating on neither thing. If you’re trying to listen to your, you know, respond to text messages on your phone while you’re studying, it’s just not gonna work. Don’t do it. Focus on the task at hand. Minimize all your distractions.

Try not to focus yourself internally, so don’t think about you know the things you could be doing or should be doing or want to be doing. Uh, that’s not the time to be focusing on that. Focus on what you’re doing. Task at hand. And when you find yourself drifting off and thinking about something else, pull yourself back and the more often you pull yourself back and focus, the easier it will be for you to focus later. So one of the better ways to keep distractions from actually getting to you in the first place is to generate a high level involvement using active learning strategies. You may understand video tutoring better if you’re writing notes at the same time. If you’re physically actively writing notes, um, or you know you may have other um, strategies for, I don’t know, looking for grammatical errors and sentences, etcetera. So all of these sort of active strategies to get you involved and focus your attention on the task.

The other problem that you may have is that your you prefer one type of activity over another. So, for example, you may prefer to watch video tutorials rather than read text, which is fine. But you need to be able to make sure that when you’re doing a an activity that you don’t particularly like so much that you’re focusing and concentrating on that as well. Now, one of the things we said earlier was to put a check mark or a tick mark in the book. Every time you’ve got distracted Onda at the end of the study session, you can count the number of interruptions. One of the things that you can do with this is you can use this as a monitor to see if you’re improving your concentration. The way that you do that is, you basically put a tick mark or something in the margin of your study book or in your notes.

If you’re in a lecture hall or you’re watching a video or whatever, each time you get distracted and then what, you’re gonna try and do is make a commitment to reduce the number of ticks and distractions in order to force yourself to concentrate when you notice that you’re distracted or day dreaming or thinking about something else and you’re putting that tick in the in the margin or in your notes or whatever, then have a think about what actually caused you or triggered you to lose your concentration. And if you can pinpoint the cause of your distraction than your step closer to coming up with a solution.

So, for example, if you if you’re studying and you over the course of two or three days, you notice that you’re always constantly distracted by the the postman putting post through the letter box, it might not be, you know, a good idea to stop the postman from delivering your post, but you can at least try and schedule your study time after the postman has been, for example, or if you know, approximately the time that they’re going to show up. Schedule a study break, then, rather than having it being forced upon you many benefits to improve concentration, and obviously the most obvious one is that you’re making better use of your time, and you’re actually studying more but improves concentration while studying has another benefit, which is, Actually, it improves your concentration the rest of the time, bringing your attention back on point. Every time it goes off, you’re training yourself to become more focused and more aware of what you’re doing and better able to fix your concentration at will on a particular thing.

This is something that a lot of people who meditate have found that their ability to meditate and to focus on one thing allows them much, much better ability to get in the flow of something and focus and concentrate. Monitor your distractions so you can hold yourself accountable and try and figure out what is causing these distractions or lack of concentration. So you can try and come up with some sort of improvement method or system or something that will help you do it. And if you’re putting in the time but not getting much done, then you probably have a concentration problem, and you and you need to work on fixing your concentration problem.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks podcast, and I hope you have found something to take away and improve your studying and improve your concentration.

Next week in next week’s podcast, I want to cover off something that you might have been wondering, which is has an auto didactic. You don’t have a teacher or professor or someone showing you what to learn. And, of course, you yourself don’t actually know yet about this subject in full. So how do you go about creating your own self directed learning plan or curriculum for yourself? Next week? We’ll cover off some of those topics just to try and cover what it is you should try and look for when you first start out and how you plan create an Evolve, a learning plan that helps you become a lifelong learner and also to cover the topic that you’re interested in. So that’s it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. And, as always, if you have any feedback, please email me at rick@autodidactic.info. Uh, with any questions, feedback, anything you want to discuss. Thank you very much.

{{This transcription was computer generated and may contain errors.}}

Tag: self-study

S4EP2:Exploring Effective Note-taking

S4EP1: Goal Setting and Planning

S3EP6: Dealing with Demotivation

S3EP3: Textbook study and markups

Last weeks update on YouTube

S2E3: Exploring the study methods of a famous American Writer

S2EP2: Exploring the study methods of Ben Franklin.

EP13: Gaining qualifications or certification from self-study

EP10: Solving concentration problems

EP4: Finding Study Resources

EP5: Using Flashcards for Study

EP6: Mnemonics and memorization of study materials.

EP7: Textbook Study Methods

EP8: How to mark and highlight text books for review.

EP9: Taking Lecture Notes

EP10: Solving concentration problems

EP11: Study Plan Creation for Self-learners

EP12: How to evaluate resources for study

EP13: Gaining qualifications or certification from self-study

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