One website that I follow is that of Scott H. Young. He writes about productivity and learning and I generally like his articles which sit somewhere between the practical and the philosophical.
Today he posted a brief but interesting article on the ‘perfect studying routine‘.
He identifies 5 ingredients that should play a key part in how you learn and memorise information:
- Instruction – being shown the right way
- Retrieval – time spent getting information out of your brain is more valuable that extra time trying to get it in. I also did a Wellbeing and Productivity Hacks session about this.
- Spacing – practice the same material over multiple occasions
- Understanding – learn stuff until you could teach it in simple terms to another person
- Feedback – assess your performance against some useful criteria – are you getting it right?
He then goes on to suggest that you assess your own study routine to determine whether these ingredients are present, and if not, to consider adding them.
It is worth a read and also seeing if you can make some small adjustments to your own study routine based on these principles.
