/edu/ - Education

General knowledge is good for you, don't worry about that. The more things you know the more associations your brain can make to what you already know which helps retaining your knowledge and also helps you with creativity. So don't be ashamed to learn about what interests you.

The most important thing to know about learning is that the best way to learn is by recalling. Therefore, by far the most effective study method, even though it is hard as fuck, is to practice recalling thing. Doing exercises and mock tests of course help with this. Even better is just to get out a blank paper and start writing everything you know about the topic on it. You will pretty quickly find out where your knowledge is weak and you will remember things a lot better. When you are done you can control and correct what you have written and fill in the weak spots. Then you can repeat it again and again… If you have friends who put up with your bullshit you can give a mini-lecture about it to them too, it helps in the same way. Especially if they are curious and ask you hard questions that you might have missed.

There are some other tactics here that have been scientifically tested and are generally helpful, check this out: https://www.learningscientists.org/posters

For procrastination, distractions and similar, I used the so-called Pomodoro method with great success. You get a timer, set it to some time (usually the recommended is 25 minutes), and for that time you just focus on the work you want to do. After the time is over, you have a 5 minute break, during which you can do whatever you want. Then you repeat until you are done. It helps to have a concrete duration for the concentration instead of some abstract goal like finishing an essay or whatever that can take forever and even you don't believe that you will ever finish it. If 25 minutes is too much you can start with a shorter duration and when 25 minutes become too short you can increase it until you just start ignoring the timer because you have become engrossed in the study.

Of course you should read The Ignorant Schoolmaster which is required reading for this board btw.

Hope this thread gets some quality replies. Suffer from the same habits that OP does

Try learning an instrument.
It doesn't have to be expensive either. The point is to do another hobby that stimulates your brain along with reading. Reading isn't the only activity you want to be doing.

Let me tackle digital hygiene first. Stimulation addiction is a drug. It's an insidious, addictive drug that will be hard to kick. Going cold turkey won't work; you need a plan. I'll share some things that I've been doing:

1. Delete social media accounts. This is the easiest yet most effective step. You can't post or endlessly scroll on social media if you don't have an account. Social media is doing ZERO for you; seriously, go to whatever social media accounts you have and delete them right now. It'll be easy and dramatic first step towards your journey of digital hygiene.

2. Block websites. Firefox and Chrome have extensions. I use leechblock for FireFox. I permanently blocked 4chan, as it was a complete braindrain. Somewhat similarly, I block /leftypol/, Reddit, and YouTube for most of the day; I allow the evening because I'm still "tapering" off so to speak. /leftypol/ and YouTube are OK in heavy moderation IMO, but I am hoping to completely quit Reddit as it the most addicting social media for me—it's bad in the sense that one can still browse it even without an account.

3. Make your phone a dumbphone—delete useless apps. That isn't to say to throw away your smartphone for a Nokia, but to use your smartphone only for critical functions such as calling, texting, directions, quick duckduckgo searches, etc. Delete any app that doesn't serve a functional purpose (e.g., social media apps).

4. Try to avoid digital stimulation at night and in the morning. I bought a physical alarm clock and leave my phone in my living room when I go to bed. That way, I'm not instantly blasting my face with an electronic screen when I wake up.

Note that this is all prescriptive, and I don't like the prescriptive. This list may help you, but ultimately we all have to find what works for ourselves. So, if you really want to quit electronics, then you need to put in the effort to find out what best helps *you* quit.

Now for study habits, this is easier to tackle. It's in the name: habit. Do a small bit everyday, and by everyday I mean *everyday*. I personally make a to-do list in the morning which details everything I want to study/practice/write/do, and I try my best to finish my to-do list before it's time to go to bed. For example, today I planned to write 500 words of my essay, read around 10 pages of Capital, practice 30 min on guitar (ended up doing 45), and read a bit of Stirner, and I'm pleased to say that I did all of that.

>>6386
>Reading isn't the only activity you want to be doing.
Agreed. I'm currently writing an essay on the importance of focusing on cultivating useful knowledge over useless knowledge; it argues against the "Learn, learn, and learn!" maxim of this board. I wouldn't say that reading is per se useless, but it's not a *creative* pursuit. But reading is a much better habit to have than say binge watching Netflix. Indeed, I encourage all to pursue creative hobbies—make things! It's good for your brain.

>>6388
>but I am hoping to completely quit Reddit
Lmao how? It became so insufferable I barely use it anymore

>>6388
lol this reads 100% something those self-promoting faggots post on reddit all the time, the only thing missing is a link to your blog. Vapid bullshit dressed up as if it was the definitive answer to all your problems.

>>6391
There are a few niche subs that I still browse that still take up too much of my time.

>>6392
>Vapid bullshit dressed up as if it was the definitive answer to all your problems.

? First, I was just sharing what has been working for me; maybe someone might find that useful. Second, I explicitly said that I didn't want to be prescriptive, and what I posted were only suggestions and not any "definitive answer." But go ahead, languish away and keep being angry for no reason—I'm sure that's healthy.

>>6392
Why would you use redditors as an example, are you fucking dense?

>>6388
Thank you, comrade!

>>6400
Go to https://old.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/ you can see an endless stream of garbage like this. Take note how they highlighted not the important parts but some random keywords as if the reader was a search engine lol. I guess that works if you are writing for reddit or tumblr where people mindlessly scroll and you need to grab their attention but it is pretty insulting here.

The whole post is basically a humblebrag about how cool its author is without giving any actual advice. "Oh, you want habits? Just get them lol btw I have these awesome habits: …" and so on.

I guess it works because unlike the other posts in this thread it is generating "interactions" and that seems to be the hot stuff in marketing these days. Just wait, "International Brigade" poster will become a celebrated life coach in no time!

>>6388
I've managed to get off FB and insta, but yeah, Reddit is hard. It's such a stream lined way to get specific pieces of information without researching. The main thing is to start practicing digital leg work, like rather than information coming to you through a 3rd party (eg Reddit or BNA) trying to find little blogs and leftist news sources.

>>6404
hey look man, we are all just trying to get better. i know a lot of the internet is as you say but theres no need to be such a downer about it. i am going to buy an electronic alarm because of this post and i think itll help.

sometimes people havent consumed the same content and they need to see the shit youve seen before.

do you have any tips you found helpful?

also as an aside i have halved my screen time since deleting facebook.

progress!

>>6416
I did post tips but everyone ignored it.

>>6418
I downloaded the pdf you posted, that was helpful.
(Assuming you're that person who posted it)

>>6423
Here's the PDF from the link that I assume you did not open.

>>6425
I glanced at it but I was more drawn to the Ignorant Schoolmaster.

>>6425
It focuses on classroom education of course, since that's what interests teachers mainly, but it shouldn't be hard to apply it to your autodidact efforts. When I read about it there wasn't too much research about "heutagogy" (self-directed learning), and it seemed mostly bullshit to me.

Here's a PDF about the pomodoro technique that I tried to describe although this describes it as much more rigid, complex and micromanaging that I like it but reading bullshit like this is a good way to procrastinate.

Also adding a pdf about Anki which is pretty cool for practising recall although it works best for small self-contained things like vocabulary.

Finally an epub about practise which was written for teachers but you might find some good ideas in it.

>>6425
>>6427
Though you autistically lashed out at me (I may be wrongly assuming you're >>6404
, if not then in that case sorry), I will second the pomodoro technique and the anki software. I use both daily.

>>6427
oh i use anki droid for chinese but itd be good to learn how best to use it. ive used to pomodoro technique but i tend to fall off after the first break. but that was a while ago. maybe ill try again
>>6418
i didnt ignore it, but i didnt respond to it. thanks for posting it. i was, like the other poster, drawn to the ignorant schoolmaster but immediately filed it into, "thats a book i should get into" instead of reading it.

Good thread, it sounds like it was written by me. Bump for the overboard.

>>6427
>>6383

Thank you!

For building habits in general:

>Atomic Habits
>Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

They are mainstream books, but extremely good

For studying I recommend Pomodoro technique, it did good job for me
Here is quick summary: https://todoist.com/productivity-methods/pomodoro-technique
I would also advise you to take quiz on the above site (top right corner), it will recommend best technique based on your answers, and they have pretty good summary of all major techniques too

>>6440
I've read that reading this book (Atomic Habits) in its entirety isn't really worth it, and that it's somewhat useful but not that much. The /b/ thread is gone now though, so I forgot exactly what the post said.

>>6440
>atomic habits
I thought this was just another one of those scammy self help books; is this shit actually legit?

>>6442
could you give us an overview of what you remember?

>>6442
>>6443
What do you recommend instead

>>6440
lol the productivity "method" I got is "just fucking do it"

>>6456
Not that anon but this could help.
https://minihabits.com/mini-habit-ideas/
>>6457
This is legit too

>>6464
>This is legit too
what if there's no 'the most important thing' but rather a long, consistently intense task?

>>6465
Can you maybe give an example?

>>6465
You are supposed to break it down into smaller sub-tasks. But if it is related to studying, I would recommend the Pomodoro thing instead.