9 Tips for Effective Self-Directed Learning
Hi friends!
There is one day left to apply to be part of the first Gap Year program! We’re seeing some amazing applications and we’d love to see yours.
We’ll be sending out acceptances in the next two weeks!
But don’t worry if you don’t have time to get your app in by tonight, you can always join our second cohort in January!
We need your help: what should people in our gap year program be called? Help us decide.
Also, don’t forget to apply to the May Hackademic Camp! Applications will close in the next week!
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The Surprising Secret to Getting Your Emails Read (via Fast Company)
It sounds counterintuitive to start with your conclusion, but it’s exactly what you should do. “Your conclusion,” this article reads, “is a statement of the decision that you want the recipient to make, based upon the contents of your email.” In other words, begin your email with your call to action; don’t end with it.
Can’t Afford Art School? Jump Online for a World-Class Education in Design (via WIRED)
Skillshare is one of the more prominent online learning platforms right now, and it has an excellently-staffed design school. It’s teachers teach and do: Jessica Harllee is a designer at Kickstarter, for example, and Stewart Scott-Curran designed the World Cup uniforms for Nike. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive library of design classes, Lynda.com is also an excellent resource.
How Could It be Different? (via GOOD)
A “Wikipedia for ideas,” howcoulditbedifferent.org gives you the chance to speak up. What should be changed, and how? A few relevant ideas on the website include “people could learn from others in their community or online” and “job seekers could learn what specific skills employers want.” Howcoulditbedifferent.org allows people to easily “see, share and suggest ideas in different categories.”
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We’re building a great team of UnCollege writers right now. Their bios will be up on the site soon. In the meantime, check out a few of the great posts that they’ve written.
How I Hacked the Music Industry by Jordan A. Boyd
First he was a DJ. Then he became an independent producer. Then he interned at a record label. Now he’s accepting random looping requests on Youtube. Meet Jordan, our resident music hacker. In this article, he shares with us his story of becoming successful in the music industry, and gives us a few pointers on how to do it.
The Equity of Youth by Justin Locke
We’re sending confusing messages to our 17- and 18-year-olds. On one hand, we tell them that they can do anything they put their minds to. On the other, we discredit them by saying that if they don’t plan on getting a degree, they somehow need to be “fixed.” In this article, Justin explores the equity of youth — there are so many things you can do and opportunities you can take (outside of school), especially at this age.
Start Racking Up Your $1.50: A Hackademic’s Guide to Libraries by Steven J. Hoover
We had a great piece a few weeks ago on how to develop a reading habit. The question then becomes how can you get access to these books for free? Steven, a librarian at Syracuse University, tells us how to make the most out of our local libraries. From using library catalogs effectively to getting a book that your library doesn’t have, this post is a can’t-miss for avid readers.
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9 Tips for Effective Self-Directed Learning
By Matthew Manning
We all have things that we say we want to do—read more, become bilingual, or finally pick up that instrument—yet none of us do them. It’s not that we lack the motivation, or that we need to “try harder”. We have to realize that willpower is limited. Without a backbone of systems, we’ll never learn anything on our own.
I used to strut home from school riding a motivation wave, excited to work on my own projects. But then I’d spend the rest of the day browsing the Internet aimlessly. I learned very little until I established this system.
1. Focus: Get Over Multitasking Paralysis
I previously had a note on my phone that listed close to one hundred topics that I wanted to learn about. It was fun to flick through, but that’s all it was good for. I manically jumped from subject to subject—yo-yoing for a few days and then playing chess for a week—without getting decent at one thing.
It’s exciting, empowering, and whimsical to direct your own education. Still, it’s easy to get caught up in the adrenaline without buckling down. Maybe you’re afraid of committing to a single path. You say that you “don’t want to close any doors”.
Understand that you’re probably going to live to be one hundred; you have plenty of time to learn. Stick to one topic at a time and focus.
2. Define and Give It a Name
Now that you’re not multitasking and have picked a field, you have some semblance of structure. You’re committed to “teaching yourself programming” or “learning to play the piano”. But this isn’t good enough. You’re not trying to make a flimsy New Year’s Resolution.
Good goal setting revolves around specificity:
“I’m going to learn how to build a blog with Rails!”
“I’m going to learn how to play ‘Comptine D'un Autre été, L'Après-midi’ on piano!”
It’s best to give this project a looming, impending deadline. Now you have a yardstick that can measure your success—or failure.
Also, there’s a mental shift that happens when you give your learning project a name. It makes it feel official—like it’s your child—and it will help you keep the commitment. Scott Young called his project the MIT Challenge. What will you call yours?
3. Assign Little Steps
You’ve selected a specific field and have a specific goal, but you should break it down into smaller pieces daily. Even these measurable, short term goals are overwhelming. Write down one to two learning tasks you have to accomplish for the day, and do them.
When tackling a new piece on the piano, you don’t start at the beginning and learn to play it from there. You break it down into hardest sections, or fractures, and pound the keys until they are set. It may be helpful for you to complete your hardest daily learning task first.
Deconstructing tasks into little steps is also great for habit formation. BJ Fogg at Stanford recommends that if you want to get yourself to floss your teeth, only commit flossing one tooth. This gets you to start, leading to the new habit.
4. Latch Onto Pre-Existing Systems
In this age, there is an overabundance of information. Creating a system for learning involves wading through a torrent of uselessness. Even if you manage to find the right resources, the order in which you should use them can be confusing. Luckily, someone else has probably selected and sequenced the resources for you.
For example, the sheer number of languages makes learning programming overwhelming. However, Mattan Griffel presents a framework in his talk “How to Teach Yourself Code”. He determined that Rails was a great place to start if you wanted to build things quickly. Then, he revealed the exact websites he used, the order he used them in, and the method he went through them with. You may not find this specific framework effective; it’s just an example of what to be on the lookout for.
There are a lot of informational resources available—most of them are terrible. The best resources are those that “teach you how to learn” a specific subject, filtering the information. Finding and investing in these frameworks is incredibly helpful in creating structure.
To read the rest of the article, click here.
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-Dale
