Learning How to Learn

As I finish my first year at the Center for Information and Communication Science, I know I have a challenging and technical semester ahead of me. I'll be studying for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification, diving deeper into internet technologies (routing, networking, protocols and security), and continuing to learn programming foundations.

For those of us pursuing formal (or informal) education in addition to our careers, we are keenly aware of where we are spending our time...and where we don't get to spend our time anymore! Balancing work, school, wellness, a social life, and other interests (such as outdoor recreation for me) requires, well, not balancing. Unfortunately, there isn't time for everything, and it does require sacrificing and prioritizing our time.

With technical subject matter, the challenge isn't just the time available to study, but the challenging nature of the subject matter itself. I'm thankful that two resources have helped me realize that the challenge isn't that some people simply aren't made for math and science, but often we haven't been given the right strategy and approach. With that, I'd love to share my favorite takeaways from two resources on how we should approach learning in the below diagram: Ultralearning by Scott Young, and Learning How to Learn by Dr. Barbara Oakley (her fantastic Ted Talk can be found here for a short synopsis).

A few of my top takeaways from the below strategies have been:

• Setting up your environment. While this was not specifically called out by these two authors, it is the most helpful strategy I used in my undergraduate degree and today. Before my first semester with CICS, my husband helped me set up a dedicated office space for studying. We made sure the office had a door so I could focus in the early mornings when he is first getting up, and I used a few things to train my brain that whenever I sat down, it meant study time. Each study session I light a candle, put on ambient or classical music, an ambient background on another screen, and start a "Study with me" YouTube video.
• Focus time actually means focusing! After over ten years out of university, my ability to singularly focus on a technical problem had become rusty, so it has taken a lot of practice to focus, I mean really focus, during study sessions. I love using Momentum for the Pomodoro technique, and using sticky notes or a whiteboard to write down the thoughts that pop up rather than letting them distract me.
• Sometimes to learn you actually need to not focus. Dr. Barbara Oakley does a phenomenal job explaining diffuse thinking and how when we are studying new technical concepts, sometimes it is when our mind relaxes that we are able to make the connections necessary to understand them. Specific recommendations really do include leveraging naps and study sessions around bedtime and waking!
• The best way to learn? Teach. While I have known this from my career background, this technique has been the most challenging for me to use so far. Writing LinkedIn articles or hosting professional development trainings for leaders comes naturally. Finding a way to teach others what I'm learning about how wireless networks or circuitry works seems more challenging, with a less obvious audience than I'm typically used to. (If anyone has recommendations for easy-to-use video software I'm all ears! I've always admired the YouTube series Crash Course on Computer Science, and think there could be an opportunity for a similar series to accompany some of these courses through CICS).