Study tips, efficient use of learning resources, tools
I think many of us are students, or just like self-learning some topics for themselves, perhaps their work requires studying — I think it might be interesting to collect a few tips we have experience with on how to do it efficiently.
I would start with probably one of the best tools in this category that I think are still underutilized by many: spaced-repetition software. Perhaps more people might be familiar with the concept from language learning with word cards, but the base idea is that reinforcing some knowledge at increasing intervals will effectively make you remember it ’forever’. A final selling point on this topic: it only requires 10 minutes out of your entire life to remember a fact for basically forever with instant recall - that’s a very good use of one’s time in my opinion. For more information on it here is a great article.
(It’s talking about Anki, a notable spaced repetition program that is free and open-source (the ios client is paid though, as this is the only income source of the maintainer, but you could just use the web interface as well. Not affiliated))
It's not really a tool but i wanted to share something that defined a part of my life.
There's study discords
I know that studying and discord shouldn't go togheter, but apparently since the pandemic there's servers that set up "virtual libraries" where you can just sit on a videocall with other students and dive on your books. It helped me immensely, once you start seeing the same people over and over you get a sense of being in it togheter and it bolsters your determination to study better.
Any that you recommend?
one was called "Study hall" and the other "Study togheter"
if you look for them they should be the two biggest study discords available. There's many channels and they can be a bit overwhelming at first, but don't hesitate ask for help they're very helpful
Related is this site called Focusmate created specifically for work/study accountability. You schedule a timeslot and get paired with a stranger to stay on together for that hour while you work on whatever you decided to do.
I've never tried the discord ones but this one might be a good alternative is discord itself is a source of distraction.
It's probably a well-known study tip, but I find that trying to teach a particular topic, whether to another actual person or by pretending you're taking a class has helped me immensely throughout my life. It forces you to not only understand the concept really well, but also to communicate it in a way that someone else can grasp it. This method is particularly helpful in STEM fields, where a deep understanding of the subject is far more important than memorization.
Anki is probably the most important tool there is for studying. Another one I’ve started using is Forest, which makes you to put away your phone and focus on what you are doing (and grow a forest at the same time).
I feel like social media addiction and constantly browsing some feed is probably the worst thing I’ve done for my productivity. Aside from uninstalling everything, for which I lack the mental fortitude, an app for limiting screen time is the next best alternative.
What I've been finding helpful to get you focused on/in the mood for studying at home is changing the lighting. First clean up the space that you're working (eg. desk and desktop) and leave what you need to study/work. and if it's possible in your room/space, to turn off all the background lights and only leave the lighting for working at your desk.
Focusing your lighting also helps to focus your attention. Reduces the probability that you will be distracted by something you can see in your periphery. When you take breaks you can leave the room/turn the lights back on etc.
Great tip! I have read the Atomic Habits book and this change of environment is also a great way to build good habits (or break bad), but I haven’t used it for studying!
Readwise had spaced repetition built in as a feature for highlights that are aggregated across multiple sources. They have web and mobile apps for both Android and iOS. Love using it as my daily Reader app as well.
Not software, but a tip I came up with that might help with memorizing terms and definitions: word associations. List all the vocab and their definitions, and add words you can associate with them and why you remember them. You can go for generic words but for my fellow geeks I recommend fandom-related associations. I got the idea because I noticed that we can easily retain super trivial information about the fandoms we like, even while struggling with stuff for classes.
Examples from my Intro to Psych course: "endorphin" and "dolphin", because endorphins are a brain chemical associated with happiness, and dolphins are also associated with happiness. Then for "corpus callosum", which connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain, I just wrote "Calliope/Caliborn" from Homestuck because they share a body.
It's been ten years since that class and I have long since dropped out of the psychology track, and I still remember those two definitions.
I enjoy Obsidian, kinda cool for taking notes since it's all MD and has a lot of FOSS plugins.