To say that this is anything less than revolutionary is an understatement. But the online experience does have its drawbacks. Since you're never required to be in a physical classroom or have physical contact with anyone for that matter, the temptation for procrastination is much stronger than the normal classroom experience. In addition, since at any time you are only a 'ctrl+t' away from accessing the infinite amount of interesting (and mind-numbing) material on the internet, the temptation for distraction is extreme. In order to overcome these challenges and take full advantage of the opportunity, we need to understand how the brain works and create an action-plan around that. (Spoiler-Alert: because the action plan is based of how the brain works, most of the material below can be just as effectively applied to formal education.)
How Your Brain Works
Despite what you may believe, you are not that good at multitasking. Seriously, you're not good at it. That's because humans have limited 'working memory'- we can only focus on so many topics at once. Making matters worse, while we may appear to be effective during the actual tasks- like say taking notes while listening to the professor- multitasking splits our mental effort between the 'habit memory' and 'declarative memory' areas of our brain. The declarative memory is where information is stored for future reasoning and association- so taking mental effort away from that reduces both comprehension and long term retention.Your brain basically has two separate ways of using that working memory- the 'task-positive or focused' way and the 'task negative or diffuse' way. Despite what you may think, both are essential to solid learning and understanding. Task-positive attention focuses all of your working memory on a certain task: like listening to a lecture, solving problem sets, or making a free throw. As you can imagine, task-positive attention enables you to actually get things done and gain an understanding of new material. Task-negative attention lets your mind wander- almost like daydreaming- and is marked by the flow of connections among disparate ideas and thoughts. This too is essential to mastering new material. This mode of thinking puts ideas into a bigger context, connecting ideas together to form a more cohesive unit of knowledge in your brain.
But what's the best way to store information in our memory for access later? It turns out creating memories is a process. It takes effort to solidify the neural pathways that allow for easy access of information. Thankfully there are two techniques that make the process more efficient: spaced repetition and recall-testing. Recall testing is simply testing your recollection of the material you have just read or listened to. It has been shown to be more effective than repeated reading, note taking, and even more advanced techniques like concept mapping. After you've read a section or listened to a lecture, try to recall as much of the material as you can. The mental effort put into recalling is exactly the effort needed to solidify the neural pathways to access that information later! It's the same idea with spaced repetition- there's diminishing returns in recalling information a bunch of times in one session, but spread the same amount of time over a few days and each time will take mental effort and thus solidify the information in your brain.
The Action Plan
- Do the readings at least one day before the lecture. Don't take traditional notes. Focus on comprehension of the material. Only write something down if you have a eureka moment, if you have a question you want to come back to later [The questions are particularly important as you'll see later.] After the reading, spend thirty seconds to three minutes writing down only the big concepts not the detail. This is your first mini-recall test. Make sure to do this a day or two before the lecture so that your diffuse neural network has a chance to digest what you've read.
- When viewing the lecture, do not take notes. Focus on comprehension. This course is online, it probably has lecture notes in PDF form anyway. If not, you can always go back and access the lecture again. Only write down 'aha' thoughts or serious questions you have.
- Use the Feynman Technique. This technique was used by the famed physicist Richard Feynman. You take a sheet of paper. At the top, write 'Understanding [The Topic]' and proceed to explain the topic as you would to someone with no knowledge in the field. Simplify the concept, use analogies when you can, and when you recognize a knowledge gap, refer back to the reference material.
- Use a spaced repetition for key ideas, terms, and equations. A great example is Anki- a free and open source software that allows you to create flash cards and sync them between your computer and smart phone. And most importantly, it automatically does the timing aspect of spaced repetition for you.
- Do the problem sets, but not all at once (mostly.) Obviously if you really grok the material already then knock it out. If however you get stuck on a problem, sometimes the best thing you can do is sleep on it. One of the problems with the task-positive mode is that it can get stuck in a single thought process- this is called the Einstellung effect. Taking a step back from the problem, allowing your task-negative network to kick it around a while can help lead to the solution.
- Update your card deck and Feynman Technique notes. What'd you get stuck on? Is there something you could improve upon in your notes? If you felt like the homework really made you struggle, make a new Feynman from scratch.
- Test yourself and interact with peers either online or in a meetup. Sometimes your brain can fool you into thinking your competent in something when you're really not. This is called the Illusion of Competence. The Feynmam and Spaced Repetition techniques already guard against that but make sure you don't only cover the easy material and let the hard material slip by. Engaging others in the field will recognize if your thought process on something has been flawed- plus what a great chance to show off those notes of understanding!
Overcoming Procrastination
Understanding Procrastination
An action plan is no use if you never even get started. Procrastination is a habit, and understanding habits will help us overcome procrastination.Habits have three main parts: the cue, the routine, and the reward. The cue can be a thought, an image, a sound, or anything really. This cue triggers a routine. A routine is a set of actions that your body falls into because your brain expects it will produce some reward.
With procrastination, the cue is some thought that causes uneasiness- 'I have so much work to do I'll never get it done' or 'that problem set is going to be awful.' This uneasiness triggers the routine- opening a new tab to reddit or facebook or flipping on the television. And the reward is that you are no longer thinking about what caused the uneasiness. In many cases, this is almost zombie behaviour in the sense that you barely recognize the cue or your routine reaction to it.
Action Plan to fight Procrastination
- Focus on the process not the product. Most of the time it's the product that causes the uneasiness- so if you think 'I need to spend focused effort on X task' instead of 'X task needs to get done,' you can sidestep that negative mental feedback.
- Use the Pomodoro Technique. Basically, working on the task removes the uneasiness. So, set a timer to 20 or 25 minutes and turn off the rest of your distractions. Commit to the process of giving focused attention.
- Be mindful of your thoughts and actions. Mindfulness is a buzz word lately (and maybe for good reason,) but even if you can't be mindful in everything at least be on alert for that uneasiness. Why did you just open that new tab to facebook? Why are you watching this television show? Are you avoiding working on something you should be working on? Write down your cues so that you are more aware of what they are. Noticing this behaviour allows you to control your thoughts and feelings (and keeps you from being a zombie.)
- Hijack your cues to form new habits. The cues will not go away, but you can use the same cues to form better habits. Have a plan for what to do you notice a cue and immediately do it. Afterwards, and this is critical, reward yourself. You will be tricking your brain to view this new routine as the appropriate response to the cue.
Last Considerations
I could talk more about physical exercise improves brainpower and creativity, or about how necessary sleep is to cognitive function- all worthwhile topics.Instead I'm going to talk about having a growth mindset. Your attitude towards your disposition is incredibly important to real life outcomes. None of the information I gave you today matters if you don't believe you can grow and learn and change. Don't focus on your output from the first day, focus on putting in a solid effort day after day. That's how knowledge is accumulated- it doesn't come all at once. Combine the resources available to you on the internet with the techniques discussed here and grow.
Happy Learning.
