A Simple Learning Plan To Get The Most Out Of Your Study Time

You know that feeling, don't you?

You have finally mustered the motivation to sit down and learn. It's better than that - you actually know what you want to learn! But somehow, you can't get in the "right mood."

There are so many things to do. Where should you start? The clock keeps ticking, but you still gaze emptily at your book (or screen).

Another tick of the clock. You start getting anxious. Your initial excitement starts dwindling. Another tick. "UMM, maybe today is not the best day to learn." A few ticks later, you find yourself spiraling down into the blame and shame of watching dozens of silly cat videos on YT.

The thing is - it's not your fault.

You didn't even notice that Chaos and his buddy Disorganization had snuck right behind you and silently strangled your will to learn.

The truth is that in order to learn effectively you need a learning plan.

And no - it doesn't need to be overly sophisticated.

Here is the simple learning plan I like to use to explain how effective learning looks like.


How to Create a Simple Learning Plan

 


1. Elimination of distractions

 

Let's be honest for a second - you're not a 17th-century hermit. Learning a language for 3 hours might not be as tempting as watching another "7 reasons why you should learn a foreign language" video on YT.

It's perfectly understandable. It's within our defective nature to be distracted. If you're delusional, you will try to rely only on your strong will.

For all the others - I would suggest that you turn off your mobile phone and block distracting websites with software.

Done? Great.

There is one more thing to take care of. Eliminate the human factor. The true work is always done in solitude.

Take it from Franz Kafka. As much as he loved his lovely fiancée, he couldn't stand her presence while he was working.

You once said that you would like to sit beside me while I write. Listen, in that case, I could not write at all. For writing means revealing oneself to excess; that utmost of self-revelation and surrender, in which a human being, when involved with others, would feel he was losing himself, and from which, therefore, he will always shrink as long as he is in his right mind.… That is why one can never be alone enough when one writes, why there can never be enough silence around one when one writes, why even night is not night enough.


2. Allocation of attention

 

Blocking or at least limiting the number of distractions allows you to focus more deeply on your learning task. On just one task. Not four or two - one is the number.

"But why? What about multitasking? I am good at it!"

First of all, no, you are not.

Secondly, let me ask you a question. Do you remember when you were little, and you believed in Santa and elves?

Only when you grew up, it turned out that your toys weren't produced in a magic factory. It was a filthy sweat house somewhere in Asia. Being able to multitask is just another myth we like to believe in.


The Math Of Attention

Let's say that your attention equals 1. What if you divide it between two tasks?
It seems reasonable to believe that each one of them would have an assigned value of 0,5, right?

RINGDINGINGING. Wrong.

It would be more like 0,3, at the very best. We weren't born to multitask. Especially when it comes to cognitively demanding tasks. The sooner you come to terms with it, the better.


3. Encoding strategies


Simple Learning Plan

 

The next step is to define your preferred encoding strategies. If the only encoding strategy you have used so far is mindless cramming - please stop. A small panda dies somewhere in the world every time you do that.

The choice might be difficult. There are myriads of strategies to choose from. You should start experimenting with as many of them as you can to find the ones you prefer.

It might seem like a daunting task.

However, taking into consideration that you have 3-4 decades of professional learning ahead of you, I would strongly suggest that you at least get familiar with them.

You can use:
  • mnemonics
  • associations
  • metaphors
  • Mind Maps
  • distributed practice
  • stories
  • practice testing
  • visualization
  • acronyms
  • deep processing
  • visceralization
  • self-talk
  • chunking

And dozens of others.

They are not equally useful, and their choice may depend on the subject you learn. But one thing is clear - the more methods you master, the more effective (and fun) your learning gets.


4. Evaluation


Good learners always evaluate their learning effectiveness. The common mistake many people do is saying, "This method works for me."

But how can you tell?

Do you track your effectiveness?

Pay attention to how much you remember after a certain period of time after your studying session. Examine how this result is correlated to your encoding strategy.


Creating a Simple Learning Plan - Summary


Learning is not just about finding motivation and merely sitting down. You and I live in a world that is hell-bent on distracting us. And it does that amazingly well.

What's more, without reflecting on the effectiveness of the methods you use, you might find yourself spinning your wheels and making the same silly mistakes time after time.

Having a solid plan, however simple it is, is a step in the right direction.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!


Done reading? Time to learn!

 

Reading articles online is a great way to expand your knowledge. However, the sad thing is that after barely 1 day, we tend to forget most of the things we have read

I am on the mission to change it. I have created over 6 flashcards that you can download to truly learn information from this article. It’s enough to download ANKI, and you’re good to go. This way, you will be able to speed up your learning in a more impactful way.


Block Distracting Websites And Regain Control Over Your Time With These 5 Apps

Checking your e-mail doesn’t seem very harmful, right?
Or any other site for that matter. I mean, it’s only like 2 minutes and you’re back in the saddle.

Ok, maybe after next 10 minutes you’ll check another website. Just one quick article and you get back to work.

After 4 hours it turns out that you haven’t done anything. You also don’t know how you ended up watching a YT on how to cook dinakdakan.

You don’t cook. And what the hell is dinakdakan?!

Take a look at this quote:

We found about 82 percent of all interrupted work is resumed on the same day. But here’s the bad news — it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.

Gloria Mark, Professor in the Department of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine

23 minutes and 15 seconds. That’s a scary number if you ask me. Of course, this is just one of the statistics. I have seen plenty of other research indicating different numbers. But usually, it takes between 5-25 minutes to regain your focus. Having that number in mind, interrupting your workflow check a website or to send a text message doesn’t seem so harmless anymore.

It’s not our fault though. I believe that the technology is the true culprit. We are almost conditioned to check our phones or e-mail every couple of minutes.

We do so because we can’t allow ourselves to miss out on…what?

That’s the question! What possibly could we miss that is so important?

Nothing. Nothing will happen if we don’t check this one website. There is a really easy solution to eliminate this kind of distractions – block the websites which steal your time and distract you!

Don’t Give Yourself a Chance To Fail

 

Before I move to the list of my recommendations, I would like to warn you about the crappy argument I have heard so many times.

“Yeah, theoretically it sounds good but I actually want to do it ON MY OWN, with help of my strong will. I don’t want to rely on any stupid software!” (read more about forcing yourself to learn).

Ugh, BS alert activated. I feel sick every time I hear it. How has it been working out for you so far? We can rationalize basically everything. However, most of the times this is not logic talking. It’s fear.

I am scared. It’s cold and lonely here without the cordial, digital touch of the internet.
If you acknowledge this fear, your battle with distractions is already half-won.

You can also look at it from a different perspective.

If you wanted to lose weight, would you place candies and cookies all over your flat? Would you sniff them every now and then and lick the glazing to reassure yourself about how great your willpower is?

Hell, if you were a junkie would you put a syringe in front of your face and try to “wait it out”.
Don’t think so. It’s pointless to rely on your strong will in this case.

You can force yourself to be more productive.

Here is the list of the most popular apps you can use to block the websites. I have used all of them personally (maybe besides Mac ones!) and I can wholeheartedly recommend all of them.

They definitely stand out from the mass of other apps of this kind.

Freedom

Block Distracting Websites
Freedom is one of the oldest apps of this kind. It’s currently used by more than 1 million users.
Throughout the years it has gained the support of, among others, Nick Hornby and Seth Godin.

It works on: Macs, Windows, Android (beta), and iOS (beta), Iphone, Ipad

It allows you to:

  • Block distracting websites
  • Plan out sessions that recur at the same time every week
  • Go cold turkey and block the entire internet when you really need to get work done

Highlights: It’s worth mentioning that it is currently the only distraction management solution for iPad and iPhone. It’s also the only app which can cut off your internet access.

Cost: Basic version is free. The premium version (which allows you to cut off the entire internet is 10$). Well worth the price and my absolute favorite.

LeechBlock

Block Distracting Websites

LeechBlock is a simple free productivity tool designed to block those time-wasting sites that can suck the life out of your working day.”

This is the add-on I use the most. It has saved me countless hours and helped me overcome my meme websites addiction.

It is also very easy to use – all you need to do is specify which sites to block and when to block them.

It works on: Mozilla Firefox

It allows you to:

  • specify up to six sets of sites to block, with different times and days for each set.
  • block sites within fixed time periods (e.g., between 7 am and 2 pm), after a time limit (e.g., 14 minutes in every hour), or with a combination of time periods and time limit (e.g., 10 minutes in every hour between 9 am and 5 pm).
  • set a password for access to the extension options, just to slow you down in moments of weakness!
  • block entire sites
  • block specific subdomains / paths / pages
  • block websites using wildcards (e.g., *.somesite.com) and exceptions (e.g., +allowme.somesite.com).
  • track of the total amount of time you have spent browsing the sites in each block set.

Cost: Free

My routine is to block the most distracting websites (in my case: YT, my own websites, FB, e-mail, Wikipedia, meme websites) from 8 am till 10 pm.

The only website I block only from time to time is my Gmail account. Sometimes I simply need to send an e-mail in the middle of the day.

RescueTime

Block Distracting Websites

Rescue Time is a great app for everyone who is really serious about their productivity. It is definitely the most advanced of all the apps mentioned in this article. Especially tracking-wise.

The bad news is that most of the cool features are a part of Rescue Time Premium. However, it’s money well-spent if you ask me!

LiteVersion allows you to:

  • Track time in websites and applications
  • Set goals
  • Get a weekly email report
  • 3-month report history

With Rescue Time Premium you can:

  • Track time away from the computer (meetings, phone calls, etc…)
  • Get alerts when you achieve your daily goals
  • Block distracting websites to stay focused
  • Keep a log of your daily accomplishments
  • Get access to more detailed reports and filters and unlimited report history

Cost: Basic version is free. The premium version is  $9 a month.

Self-Control

Block Distracting Websites

Self-Control is definitely not one of those flashy, packed with features apps. It only blocks distracting websites but it does it well and it’s reliable.

It works on: Mac

It allows you to:

  • block entire sites
  • block specific subdomains / paths / pages
  • specify a period of time to block for

Highlight: It works on Mac. That’s something, I guess!

Cost: free

StayFcsd

Block Distracting Websites

StayFcsd should be your no 1 choice if you are a Chrome user.

It works on: Chrome

It allows you to:

  • block entire sites
  • block specific subdomains / paths / pages
  • block specific in-page content (videos, games, images, forms, etc).

Highlights: The Nuclear Option. Probably the best feature of this add-on. It allows you to block all the websites on the internet for a given amount of time. Only for the desperate!

Cost: free

I hope these recommendations will help you save some time!