Day 9: When to Learn

Today we continue our creating our learning plan by determine the tactics, resources and ways that we'll engage in the learning process. You will learn strategies for determining the best approach and framework for you learning.

Resources for this lesson:

• Transcripts
• Worksheet
• List of Scientific Resources

Summary

What does Scheduling Time to Learn Look Like?

One of the most important things that you can do in creating your learning plan is scheduling when you're actually going to engage in your learning sessions.

When scheduling, we're trying to set aside enough time in each one of our learning blocks so that we can engage in something called deep work, a concept made popular by Cal Newport.

• Deep work is a period of intense focus. It's that hard and important intellectual work that we do during long uninterrupted periods of time.
• It's a period where you have no distractions and you're concentrated on a task and you push your cognitive abilities to their limit.
• Deep work is the opposite of shallow work which is not very demanding on our brains. It's the type of task you can do in a semi distracted state and less engaged.

Why is Scheduling Time Important?

First, we avoid procrastination, a failure to actually get started with learning.

• We procrastinate because at some level there's a craving that drives you to do something else. Or there's an aversion to doing the task itself, or maybe both in some cases.
• Being able to recognize your procrastination habits are the first step to avoiding them.
• To avoid procrastination you can increase your motivation, tapping into both those internal and external motivators.
• But the most effective is actually scheduling out time for yourself and setting up systems so that we avoid ever coming to procrastination in the first place.
• By having actual time set aside, there's not going to be something else that draws your attention so you're less likely to procrastinate.

Second, you create good learning habits and self-discipline, the ability to control yourself so that you can fight off temptations and in the moment distractions to reach your long-term goals.

• Studies have shown [1] that people who exhibit self-discipline are happier, healthier, wealthier, getting less trouble and perform better on the tests of what they're learning.
• But self-discipline is a limited resource so we need to take measures like scheduling that reduce the need for self-discipline in the first place.

What does the Science Say?

Research uncovered [2] by Andrew Huberman shows that 90 minutes is about the longest period we can expect to maintain intense focus and effort towards learning.

• After about 90 minutes, you're going to need to take a break
• Space learning sessions two or three or more hours apart.
• Most people lose efficiency in learning after more than 270 minutes of intense learning per day.
• Based on this research, an optimal learning schedule might be a 90 minute block in the morning, a 90 minute block in the afternoon, and then a 90 minute block in the evening.

During breaks or rest periods, your brain is actually working through the content that you just learned in previous learning sessions.

• When you have a two prolonged of focus, it doesn't give your brain enough time to offload the new material you're learning into long-term memory making your studying less effective.
• In addition, specific areas of the brain can tire when you use them for too long, something known as cognitive exhaustion.

Within individual 90 minute learning sessions, you break the learning session down further using the Pomodoro technique, focusing for 25 minutes and taking a five minute break.

• These breaks should involve complete mental relaxation: no internet, no texting, no reading, just kind of chilling and letting your brain rest for a second.
• Breaks that involve something physical, like going for a walk or just even getting up to get a glass of water or a good idea as well.

We could even break this down a little further by inserting micro rests at random intervals.

• Some studies suggest if we pause every so often for 10 seconds and do nothing, neurons in the the hippocampus and the cortex may engage neuroactivity 10x faster.

Scheduling gives you a defined end time for your learning session, which helps your motivation during your learning.

How to Schedule Your Learning Time

Steps to schedule your learning time:

1. Decide how much time will you commit in a single learning session
2. Decide when will you block time to learn in a day, week, month.
3. Decide what is the length of time for your learning plan.
4. Put it in your calendar.
5. Do a pilot week and adjust as needed

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Activity

To determine your learning schedule:

1. Decide how much time will you commit in a single learning session
2. Decide when will you block time to learn in a day, week, month.
3. Decide what is the length of time for your learning plan.
4. Put it in your calendar.
5. Do a pilot week and adjust as needed

Remember:

• Aim for 90 min learning sessions, separated by 2-3 hours each, and a maximum of 270 mins of learning in one day.
• Try breaking down 90 minute sessions into 3 Pomodoro's (25 minutes focused, 5 minute break).

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Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.