Links for People Studying Stuff

10,000 hours to mastery. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concern pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.

- Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers

by Caleb Alvarado

GENERAL STUDY TIPS

1. On iTunes U (free), Wired Study Tips.
2. Study Hacks Blog: Decoding Patterns of Success
3. Focusing Your Attention when reading boring stuff

MEMORISATION

1. The Learning Secrets of Polyglots and Savants.
2. All about Feedback Loops
3. You might learn more effectively if you write by hand rather than type.

PROCRASTINATION and time management

Binge writing—hypomanic, euphoric marathon sessions to meet unrealistic deadlines—is generally counterproductive and potentially a source of depression and blocking.

- Robert Boice

There’s a difference between hard work and hard to do work:

• Hard work is deliberate practice. It’s not fun while you’re doing it, but you don’t have to do too much of it in any one day…it also provides you measurable progress in a skill, which generates a strong sense of contentment and motivation.
• Hard to do work, by contrast, is draining. It has you running around all day in a state of false busyness that leaves you…feeling tired and stressed.

- from Study Hacks

1. Beat Procrastination More Easily by Treating It Like an Involuntary Bad Habit, from Lifehacker
2. A Day Without Distraction: Lessons learned from 12 hours of forced focus.
3. A Handy Tip For The Easily Distracted  by Miranda July
4. Can’t Start, Won’t Start, Tricks for Overcoming Procrastination, from 99 Percent
5. Why Can’t I Finish?, also from 99 Percent
6. Procrastination As The Secret To Achievement from Big Think
7. A Master Plan For Taking Back Control Of Your Life from 99 Percent
8. 7 Distraction Fighting Strategies from Psychology Today
9. A Procrastinator’s Guide to Getting an A. Or at least not an F, from Rookie Mag

MOTIVATION

Dependency on External Motivation:  The world is more and more aligned in favor of those who find motivation inside, who would do what they do even if it wasn’t their job. – Seth Godin

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, OR AT LEAST GOOD ENOUGH

1. Feedback Loops: How to get better at almost anything.
2. Practice triumphs over talent and intelligence.

SETTING GOALS

Over-worked and under-challenged? It’s time to set some goals.

Writing Essays

How to write faster.

How To Bullshit Your Way Through Any Essay, from College Humor.

FREE RESOURCES

Links to free online resources for lifelong learners.

REASONS TO GET SOME SLEEP

Learning in your sleep, from Kurzweil Accelerating Intelligence

Related:

Everything You Think You Know About Learning Is Wrong, from Wired

Weapons Against Word Echo

I was just wishing there was an app for this, and then I happened upon a website that does it. Copy and paste your story/article into the text box and you’ll get some useful stats on which words and phrases you may have overused.

Word frequency counter

Phrase frequency counter

I’m definitely making use of this one. Word echo is one thing I seem incapable of picking up on in my own writing. (Unless I have a spare six months to let it sit in the drawer, that is.)