Lesson 2: Teach Yourself

When teaching yourself keep in mind all the previous strategies as well as the metacognitive strategies I will now introduce. 

Also, please remember that some of these strategies may work, some may only work sometimes, and some may never work for your particular needs. Keep in mind the environmental and scheduling dimensions when deciding whether these strategies work for you. 

1. Relating subjects to other hobbies/interests you are passionate about.

    a. Building systems of comparison and dissimilarity between both fields.

    b. You can use the almost-similarity of something to something else to encode the thought of the subject when engaging in the hobby. E.g. you can think that cellular respiration is a lot like the cycle of scoring a point in a game. They are both cyclical. Then, every time you watch basketball you can review the cycle of scoring points in games.

2. Relating things to yourself and own life.

    a. We are our own VIPs most of the time, at least on a psychological level. If you can relate a person in a book or a subject to your own lived experience you can relate a concept to your own life events. 

3. Building connections between what you are learning and similar, yet ontologically distinct subjects.

    a. This is recommended by most educators. 

    b. A quick way of helping yourself remember is to making a quick outline or doodle of what you are learning after the lecture, this can help you assimilate/encode the information in your memory. Another tip is to review notes from different subjects side by side, or make two outlines that then you conjoin into one or compare for future use.

4. Using behavioral reinforcers such as rewards when you successfully complete a page of studying or finish a paragraph of your essay. 

    a. An example of this is placing a gummy bear every so often in a book you are reading to help yourself feel motivated to get through the book.

5. Using negative behavioral reinforcers such as delaying gratification until you've finished your work. 

     a. Make sure you don't go overboard with this. Things like waiting to play your favorite game can be motivational. 

6. Provide yourself with feedback.

    a. Read the writing or work you've done as if you were an impartial observer who is looking at how well done the work is.

    b. Read the work some time after writing.

Note: Some of these tips are specific to humanities since humanities is the discipline I studied for bachelors. Also, most of these strategies are the ones that work for me from my personal experience.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed psychologist or medical professional. Please take any of this advice at your own risk. 

          

Lesson 1: Prepare Yourself to Study Successfully!

First Lesson: Make sure to choose what works for you. Beyond the usual, "what learning style are you?" multiple modalities BS, make sure to select and use strategies, environments, schedules, motivational tools (hammers, wrenches, ratchets) that have worked for you in the past. If you don't have these yet, read on!

There are two recommended strategies I use when procuring strategies to help me study:

        1. Background Research: Asking elders and mentors for their recommended and used strategies as                well as consulting the internet.

        2. Plain, brute, trial and error (more information on this later)

When selecting environments and schedules that are helpful in your studying:

        1. To select the ideal environment and schedule, try: 

                a. Identify background influences [noise, visual clutter, musical, sunlight, location in house] on your studying. Repeat ad infinitum with different background influences. Try to isolate the single most confounding variable(s) (e.g. "What do the times I've failed tests have in common?" and "What do the times I've studied successfully have in common?")

                b. What time of day and flow schedule works best for you? In my experience there are a few flow schedules that I find work for most people.

                            i. Structured and Rigid: Doesn't change as much as possible. If you miss an event you  must reschedule.

                            ii. Flexible and Structured: There are certain days on which you must accomplish certain tasks, but you are free to schedule tasks as you see fit provided they are on the appropriate day.

                            iii. Task Focused: This approach focuses on tasks and maximizes time spent productively completing tasks. For example, if you write better in the mornings but you haven't had a free morning in several weeks, putting off the writing until a morning you have free would be an example of this approach. Proactively scheduling things based on importance and ideal environment will save a lot of time for users of this approach.

                            iv. Task Flexible and Structured: This approach schedules tasks a few days or weeks earlier than they are due and then uses the task-focused approach to BOTH assign importance (generally based on due date) and attempt to procure an ideal environment for studying.

        2. Take into account any of your personal psychological data you have received on your own strengths and weaknesses. Review any diagnoses you have received and see if there are any breadcrumb trails that could lead you to find something helpful for your own studying. Consult reputable online sources regarding your diagnoses. For example, the NIH is a reputable government health source. Open-source documents and documents without a licensed doctor writing them are to be taken with a salt-bae dose of salt. You want to look in peer-reviewed journals if you have need for something beyond NIH or well-regarded health institutions.

When selecting motivational tools, try:

        1. Joining groups online that motivate and support one another to achieve goals. Many of these can be found on discord. I am currently in a grad school discord that is very helpful for finding accountability partners.

        2. Ask one of your in-person friends if they would be an accountability partner for a set goal. Outline exactly what you would like them to do. Write it down if necessary. Do you need them to check-in daily, weekly, monthly? Do you need them to act spur of the moment when they see you doing something you shouldn't? 

        3. Listening to motivational media such as music or watching TV shows that just amp the passion in your heart. 

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed psychologist or medical professional. Please take any of this advice at your own risk.