7 Steps to Effective—and Efficient—Self-

LearningAdapted from The Saylor Journals

Turn off the Internet Gaps are good things Quiz yourself with open-ended questions Figure out how you prefer to learn Manage your time effectively Get an accountability buddy Maintain good sleep hygiene

Seven Steps

When you don’t need the Internet for work, just turn it off!

Turn off the Internet

Have set times when you don’t use the Internet (days of week/time of day).

There’s a great program called SelfControl (free) that allows you to block your server from specific sights until time runs out, or block the Internet entirely for a set time.

How to control Internet usage

To know material two weeks from now, learn it today, then practice it in one week. You’ll be more likely to remember everything than if you had crammed it in the last few days.

Gaps are good things

To retain over a long period of time, practice it at regular intervals or else you will forget.

Set deadlines for when you want to learn things.

Deadlines and Practice

Make flashcards with keywords: write down everything you remember about the subject.

Don’t use notes; just write down what you remember about each keyword off the top of your head.

Quiz yourself with open-ended questions

Have a friend read the keyword, and verbally explain to her the substance of it.

Make mock-tests with short-answer questions, if possible, with friends, and then give feedback to each other.

Quiz yourself with open-ended questions (con’t)

There are four typical learning preferences

Visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic

Figure out how you prefer to learn

These are only preferences, and they do not limit you from learning in other ways.

However it is easier to engage in education if you’re able to understand how you prefer to learn. Check out the “Learn How You Learn” test at:

http://www.sophia.org/learning-preferences-assessment

Try this quiz!

Manage time by breaking it into chunks

Use a calendar

The combination of a task manager (like Things or Asana) and a calendar, when actually used, helps accomplish goals.

Manage Your Time Effectively

Focus Booster is a program that sets a timer to break work into 25-minute cycles with a 5-minute break in between each.

Things (Task Manager)

Asana (Task Manager)

Tools to Manage Time

An accountability buddy keep you accountable. Can you think of promises you made to yourself but didn’t keep?

Get an accountability buddy

That’s where an accountability buddy comes into play: when you share your goals with somebody, you are more likely to accomplish them!

To find one, email a friend you trust to keep you accountable, and ask if he or she would like to exchange weekly goals with you

Accountability buddy

Once a week, email your friend 5 to 10 goals. On the same day, have a conversation to share what you did and did not accomplish in the previous week.

Take out a piece of paper right now and write down 5 goals for yourself for this week; now write down 3 people you could ask to be your accountability buddy.

Accountability buddy

This is a good way to get feedback, help each other set goals, and share progress. And if you didn’t accomplish one of your goals, it goes back on the list!

Accountability buddy--goals

Science is constantly showing us how important it is to get enough sleep: it increases focus, memory retention, heals your body, and has countless other benefits

Science and Sleep

I know the temptation to go and go and go—not stopping to break, sleep, or eat. There are too many pages to write, there is an unending amount of work that needs to get done…

Maintain good sleep hygiene

When you sleep, your work is of a higher quality. Build healthy sleep habits—wake up at the same time every morning, get to bed early enough to get a full night’s sleep, and take naps when you haven’t slept enough—to increase the quality of your work.

Sleep deprivation…Not worth it!

Turn off the Internet Gaps are good things Quiz yourself with open-ended questions Figure out how you prefer to learn Manage your time effectively Get an accountability buddy Maintain good sleep hygiene

Seven Steps