I've Got Myself a Plan
Okay, I've been listening to the BBC a little bit lately, specifically Radio 4, and even more specifically their series on memory and how it works. From that I've gathered a few factoids that I've been mulling over.
The first factoid is that the best way to transfer something from your working, short-term memory to your long-term memory, it must be reveiwed and re-enforced at intervals. Their specific advice was that you should review the information one day after you first learn it, then at intervals of 1 week, 1 month, and 4 months after first learning.
The second is that it takes 15,000 hours of study in a particular area of study to become and "expert" on that subject. This seems a little silly to me, because it also depends on how carefully you learn the information, and how you process it, but I do see their point: if you are thorough and thoughtful about how you study, then you will still need to put in 15,000 hours working with something before you have a very solid, thourough knowledge of it.
So here's my plan: I will become an expert in something. If I study something for 5 hours a day for the next ten years, then I'll be good to go. Here's what I'll do: I'll study something new for about an hour and a half each day. I will keep track of what I studied each day in one of those daily planners, and then mark off which days I'll have to review the information to hold to the intervals I listed above. By the time the four month mark comes along, and I begin studying the stuff I first learned 4 months before, I'll be studying about 5 hours a day. If I study something for and hour and half, it should probably take about 45 mintues to review it, wouldn't you say? Because I already know it, so it's less about trying to figure out what is being said, and more about just reminding myself that those ideas exist. Each day I'll be studying 1.5 hours on new stuff, and .75 hours on the stuff from one day ago, on week ago, one month ago, and 4 months ago. Total: 4.5 hours. Close to five hours, and knowing how I get distracted so easily, it will probably take 5 hours anyway.
So now I just have to figure out what to become an expert in : ) Any ideas? I won't actually follow any of your advice, so feel free to advise whatever you want.
The first factoid is that the best way to transfer something from your working, short-term memory to your long-term memory, it must be reveiwed and re-enforced at intervals. Their specific advice was that you should review the information one day after you first learn it, then at intervals of 1 week, 1 month, and 4 months after first learning.
The second is that it takes 15,000 hours of study in a particular area of study to become and "expert" on that subject. This seems a little silly to me, because it also depends on how carefully you learn the information, and how you process it, but I do see their point: if you are thorough and thoughtful about how you study, then you will still need to put in 15,000 hours working with something before you have a very solid, thourough knowledge of it.
So here's my plan: I will become an expert in something. If I study something for 5 hours a day for the next ten years, then I'll be good to go. Here's what I'll do: I'll study something new for about an hour and a half each day. I will keep track of what I studied each day in one of those daily planners, and then mark off which days I'll have to review the information to hold to the intervals I listed above. By the time the four month mark comes along, and I begin studying the stuff I first learned 4 months before, I'll be studying about 5 hours a day. If I study something for and hour and half, it should probably take about 45 mintues to review it, wouldn't you say? Because I already know it, so it's less about trying to figure out what is being said, and more about just reminding myself that those ideas exist. Each day I'll be studying 1.5 hours on new stuff, and .75 hours on the stuff from one day ago, on week ago, one month ago, and 4 months ago. Total: 4.5 hours. Close to five hours, and knowing how I get distracted so easily, it will probably take 5 hours anyway.
So now I just have to figure out what to become an expert in : ) Any ideas? I won't actually follow any of your advice, so feel free to advise whatever you want.
posted by nearfalse | 8:42 PM
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