Why Self Study Tips is Here

The purpose of this page is to provide useful tools that will help you through you self study journey. There are many skills that go into being successful in any course or program, but self study is in a class (no pun intended) all by itself. Here I hope to provide you with useful resources that will help you tackle any self study program.

We will talk about...

1. Time Management-This has got to be the biggest problem for everyone. Trying to find the time necessary to study. While this is difficult for any type of program you are in, it tends to be particularly difficult in a self study program because you set your own "class time." You must treat a self study program just as you would a class that had regular days you had to attend. Each one of us has unexpected issues that come up or that extra time you just want to spend with your family, but I cannot stress enough the importance of managing your time wisely. If you don't, things will get away from you quickly and before you know it, you are behind and will have a hard time getting back on track.
2. Stress Relief-A must have when participating in a self study program. You certainly can't keep up a rigorous program without some type of stress relief. Of course, what works for one person to relieve stress will probaby be different for someone else, but the key here is to find what your stress reliever is and be sure to implement it. I find that talking to my friends and having a good laugh is a quick, simple stress reliever for me.

3. Organization-Being able to organize your assignments, notes, or research articles is critical. If you spend the majority of your study time searching for notes you took the day before or you sit down to study for an exam only to find there is no rhyme or reason to your paperwork, most likely, you won't get much accomplished. Not to mention the fact that by the time you do get somewhat organized, you will be frustrated with the amount of time you have already wasted and will have a tough time getting motivated again.

4. Motivation-Not something I can give you as this is something you have to find within yourself. However, there are books that deal specifically with finding your motivation and how to keep it going. I've provided a few links below to some books that I think you will find helpful. I can tell you that my motivation comes from wanting to not just do a good job but to do a great job in everything I put my mind to. That is where I find my motivation....where do you find yours?

Time Management Must Have's...

Morgenstern advocates a goal-oriented approach to scheduling time and actually helps her readers think through their goals. In the second part of the book, which I found particularly helpful, she brings the kindergarten model back and applies it to mapping out time. Morgenstern also provides specific instructions about how to zone your own calendar so that you can make really effective and informed decisions about your time.

Well the title says it all - this is not a big monster book which requires you to change you life to somehow manage to get the impossible done.

Stress Relief

This book is a simple, easy read, with each 'chapter' only consisting of 2-3 pages at most. Each topic/chapter is well-written with good examples and action-items at the end for you to take. The best part about this book is you can scan through and just pick a topic that you are having problems with, and read that topic only.

Motivation

100 Ways to Motivate Yourself is definitely one of the better self-help / leadership books I have read. The one part of this book that is quite unique is that Chandler often starts with a quote, then he presents a typical example and finally tells a brief short story. Hope this helps everyone.

Organizing

Although multitasking is probably the norm in most people's lives today, this book will remind you that making action item lists each morning and strategically organizing the action items is a far superior way of getting things done than just doing tasks as they show up in your face. It's an easy read, and one that is well worth your time.

Prioritize

Prioritizing skills are your ability to see what tasks are more important at each moment and give those tasks more of your attention, energy, and time. You focus on what is important at the expense of lower value activities. We all have many things to do, and we never have time and energy to do them all. We don't have time and resources to do them equally well either. Many things will be left undone, no matter how hard you try. Prioritizing is a way to solve that frustrating problem. One key reason why prioritizing works, and works well, is the 80/20 Rule. The 80/20 Rule states that 80 percent of our typical activities contribute less than 20 percent to the value of our work. So, if you do only the most important 20 percent of your tasks you still get most of the value. Then, if you focus most of your efforts on those top value activities, you achieve much more than before, or you will have more time to spend with your family.
Prioritizing is about making choices of what to do and what not to do. To prioritize effectively you need to be able to recognize what is important, as well as to see the difference between urgent and important. At first glance, many of the tasks we face during a day seem equally urgent and important. Yet, if you take a closer look, you will see that many of the urgent activities we are involved are not really important in the long run. At the same time, things that are most important for us, like improving ourselves and our skills, getting a better education, spending time with family, often are not urgent. With good prioritizing skills, you finish as soon as possible all the important urgent tasks, the ones that would get you into a crisis or trouble otherwise. Then, you focus your attention and try to give more and more time to those most important, but not urgent tasks, the ones that are most rewarding in the long run. For planned activities, like the ones included in your to do list, you can mark each of your tasks with "A", "B", or "C", depending on its importance. The "B" tasks should be done only after you are finished with all the most important "A" tasks, the ones that just must be done. If you have time after you are finished with the "B" tasks, you can move on to the "C" ones.

Hope this helps

To Do Lists

I came across this information while researching information to find ways to better help you be more productive and organized with your time. Since time is our biggest obstacle, I thought the information provided here was helpful. Enjoy.

To do list tips

A written to do list is a simple technique that can increase your productivity by 20 percent or more, if you don't use it already. It also has extra benefits of clearing your mind and saving you energy and stress. Try to spend 5-10 minutes each day on planning your activities with a daily to do list. Start your day with it. If you don’t have time in the morning, every evening, write a plan for the next day listing your daily things to do. It is important that you actually write your tasks. Some people are more comfortable doing it on paper, while others prefer using a computer. Try and see what works better for you. After you've listed all your tasks, review your to do list and decide on the priority of each task. Give higher priority to the tasks that get you closer to your goals.
A proven simple technique is an ABC rating of your priorities. Mark the tasks on your to do list with "A's" if they are critical for your goals and simply must be be done that day (or else you face serious consequences). "B's" are less urgent but still important tasks that you should start right after you are done with "A's". "C's" are "nice to do" things that you could do if you have any time left after "A's" and "C's". Those tasks can be safely moved to another day. One important tip to keep in mind is if during the day some new unplanned task comes up, don't do anything until you put that new task on your list and rate it by priority. See it written among the other tasks and put it in perspective. The more you let go off the urge to skip that simple step, the more productive and satisfied you become.


When making a “to do” list, break down your complex tasks into smaller manageable pieces, and focus on one at a time.


Finally, after completion of a task take a moment to look at the result and feel the satisfaction of the progress.

Burnout

We have all at one point or another have achieved what is called burnout. You know the feeling; you begin to feel completely drained both mentally and physically. Burnout can be brought on by keeping up a fast pace for a lengthy period of time. Eventually, it just becomes too much.
Burnout is a condition that happens when your body or mind can no longer cope with overwhelmingly high demands that you have placed on yourself. You are in a constant state of exhaustion. Sleep doesn’t seem to help because the demands are still there when you wake up. You begin to get the feeling that you just don’t care about what you do or how well you do it. There is guilt associated with these feelings, but the exhaustion overcomes that feeling of guilt.
While burnout can be caused by many things, some of the more common causes include:

• Heavy demands that you have placed on yourself or have been placed on you.
• Constant difficult or stressful work with no clear goals established.
• Feeling as if you will never be able to get “caught up.”

What is important is that you recognize the fact that you are close to reaching burnout. Working on this before you have fully hit the brick wall is a lot easier to come back from.

Once you have achieved burnout, it can be very difficult to get yourself back on track. Be aware of how you are feeling physically and emotionally, take time for yourself and regroup, and slow down. Accomplishing everything single thing you set for yourself may not be realistic, but you may be able to manage things better if you plan accordingly and don’t try to do everything yourself.

Website Post Analysis

I reviewed a website post entitled Star Diagram of Continua of Learning from a website titled Big Dog and Little Dog Performance Juxtaposition. According to the About Page this website "is hard at work to bring you the finest information and knowledge on performance, learning, training, and leadership."

The blog begins with an opening paragraph about how a blogger made some suggestions about a previous blog post titled Should the Door Be Closed or Open. The blogger suggested using a star diagram that represents a continua of learning. The website author provided this diagram but I think more could have been discussed. I think this diagram shows a good representation of how we learn. To name a few, the following is part of the diagram which all feed back to the center which is learning. Surrounding the center is: Observation or Listening, Formal, Reflection, Doing, Social, and several others. The website author really doesn't delve into this diagram at all. I think there is a lot of potentially great information that could have been expanded on. The fact that this blog was in response to another, I would have hoped that the author would have taken more time to discuss this. The readers of our blogs are why blogs are written in the first place. If they aren't given the responses they feel they deserve, they will look elsewhere. There are several great blog posts on this website that the author really does a good job of providing great information. The author is obviously dedicated to providing useful information to his readers, however, with this particular blog, I feel that the author fell short.

Best of Self Study Tips

We all are short on time and often times don't have time to read through every blog to get the best tips. So, to make things easier I've compiled a list of what I think are the most informative of my blogs.  The Do's and Don'ts blog is a great place to start. I've put together a list of things that I think anyone should consider before beginning a self study program. While you may think that the information I provided in this blog is just plain common sense, I assure there are some things that people may not even consider when starting these types of programs.  The next blog that I think is one of the Best of...is Reading and Note Taking Tips. This blog provides some great information for the what is probably the most time consuming and difficult parts of your self study program. This blog contains inforamation that I came across when reading Cal Newport's book titled How to Become a Straight A Student. You don't want to miss this! Finally, what better way to end the Best of than with a review of the Cal Newport book that I mentioned above. This is a fantastic book that provides a great deal of useful information that will surely help. This book is certainly easy to follow and the recommendations that the author makes are doable. It just takes time to get into a routine with it. But, once you have done that, I'm confident that you will find it useful as you begin your self study journey.

Do's and Don'ts

Reading and Note Taking Tips

Recommended Reading

Time..the real killer

What's the hardest thing about completing a self study program? Time! It's so easy to put off studying when you are in charge of your schedule. Since there are no scheduled classes, it's up to you to be effective in your time management. Most of us already have full days. I can't make your life less stressful nor can I add more time to your day but I can tell you that being realistic with your time is essential. Don't set unrealistic goals for yourself. If you do this and fail to meet the deadlines or goals that you have set for yourself, you are only setting yourself up for frustration and disappointment. This is hard to overcome. Once you become frustrated and feel as if you have let yourself down, it's easy to continue putting things off. When you finally do come out of this slump, chances are, you are going to be significantly behind. So, how do you avoid this common trap? You must set realistic expectations for yourself. If you don't think you can study for 1 hour 3 days per week, don't set that as your expectation. Of course, there will be times when things come up and you just aren't able to devote the time that you had planned, but if this happens, do what you can. Doing something in a short amount of time, whether it's reviewing notes, reading a chapter, reviewing key terms, is better than doing nothing at all. However, try to start off on the right track for setting those goals that you are fairly confident that you can achieve. Not only will your study time be more productive, since you are not scrambling to catch up, you will also be able to retain more by studying in shorter periods of time spread out over several days.

Reading and Note Taking Tip

Probably one of the hardest things that I have come across in all my years of self studying is the reading. Multiple reading assignments of page after page can be overwhelming. It's not realistic to think that you can read every word in every book. The key is to know what to read. This is also a topic that Cal Newport discusses in his book How to Become a Straight A Student that I discussed an earlier blog. While this can be difficult there are some things to remember. It's important to know which reading material is important and which can be skimmed. Taking suggestions from Cal Newport's book, you can figure this out by focusing on the syllabus of the course. You can normally tell which assigned readings should be focused on and which can be skimmed. Another point to remember, that is discussed in my website, is the importance of good note taking. It can be easy to assume that note taking isn't as neccessary when you are taking a self study as it would be in a classroom setting. This is a dire mistakes. You cannot realistically expect to remember every thing you read. A great way to absord some of that information is to write it down. Just the act of doing that can help improve your memory of what you have read. Also, creating notes can help you when it comes time to review for assignments or quizzes. The notes that you take should not be a complete regurgitation of what you have read but should simply focus on key topics within the reading.

Being able to minimize reading assignments and knowing the key to taking good notes could not only save you time and energy but can also allow you more time to focus on other tasks.

Helpful Blog

I came across this blog purely by luck. It's not just for students but for those that want to talk about life after graduation and while it's not for just self studying, it does provide some useful information. What is Study Hacks? According to their site: "The Study Hacks blog explores strategies for building a life that’s accomplished and engaging, but also relaxed and enjoyable to live. It rejects the idea that success and stress are inextricably connected. It seeks, instead, examples of people who love their life while simultaneously being well-respected (and well-rewarded) for what they do. The blog was started to provide this style of advice to students. Its original mission was “to teach students how to do (very) well without burning out,” and it drew from the philosophy I lay out in my popular advice guides How to Be a High School Superstar (Random House, 2010), How to Become a Straight-A Student (Random House, 2006) and How to Win at College (Random House, 2005)."

I'm thrilled that this blog was created by Cal Newport, whose book How to Become a Straight-A Student is one that I have recommended in my blog. According to Cal Newport, Study Hacks has grown into the largest student advice blog on the web-(he thinks).

Study Hacks is broken down into several different categories. You can blog about Organization, Note Taking, Studying and Paper Writing, only to name a few.

The blog creator, Cal Newport, does not do this for a living. However, he makes himself available via email to answer questions. This in itself is a great benefit. To be able to get advice from the author of great successful study techniques is a win-win.

Comments to blogs are abundant with some ranging over 60. You can get great insight, advice and feedback about some of the techniques that Cal suggests from those that have tried them.

While there is a great deal of information available it can be overwhelming. However, the break down of the different topics, makes it much easier to locate useful information specific to your needs.

Below is a link to Study Hacks for your review. Let me know what you think!

http://calnewport.com/blog/

Recommended Reading

One book I would recommend even though it is not specific to self studying is How to Become a Straight A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. While I read this book several years ago, I think you will find it helpful. Newport wrote this book based on interviews he conducted with high academic college students.The book is broken down into 3 parts. Part 1 is Study Basics, Part 2 is Quizzes and Exams and Part 3 is Essays and Papers. The first part Study Basics, focuses on time management. Newport has come up with an easy concept to manage your time effectively. Basically, it involves two things: a calendar and a list. The calendar is used to record things you need to do in a day and the list is used to record things that come up throughout the day. The calendar only needs to be updated in the morning (by adding things from your list that were added the day before) and it only requires about 5 minutes per day.

There are 5 steps in Part 1:  Declare War on Procrastination. Step 1 Manage your Time 5 Minutes a Day  Step 2:  Declare War on Procrastination Step 3: Choose When, Where and How Long 

Part 2 Quizzes and Exams. Here again Newport breaks this down into Steps. Step 1 is Take Smart Notes Step 2: Demote your assignments Step 3: Marshal your Resources Step 4: Conquer the Material Step 5: Invest in Academic Disaster Insurance Step 6: Provide A+ Answers. Each step provides strategies within each one.

Part 3 Essays and Papers. Again Newport has provided easy to follow steps. Step 1: Target a titillating topic Step 2: Conduct a Thesis-Hunting Expedition Step 3: Seek a Second Opinion Step 4: Research Like a Machine Step 5: Craft a Powerful Story Step 6: Consult your Expert Panel Step 7: Write without Agony Step 8: Fix don't Fixate

While some tasks can be difficult to begin, they are certainly all doable and are techniques that have been proven to work.

My Website

I would like to talk to you about my website Successful Self Study Strategies. My website gives you a look into my history of taking self study programs as well as my success with these programs. It provides great How To techniques as well as a Recommended Products page that provides information about helpful books and useful products that will give you additional tips as well as products that will help keep you organized. The reason I started this website was because I wanted to create a place where people could get useful self study tips all in one place. When I began my self study journey, I could not find a website that provided this information all in one place. While there were a few blogs out there, none of them really provided great insight and tips on how to be success when taking self study courses. Don't get me wrong, there is more information available now than 10 years ago, however, useful information is still hard to find. In my website, I talk about the importance of knowing how you learn and how time management is essential in being successful along with other great tips. The tips that I provide are simple, straightforward and easy to follow. I assure you, they work. I hope that you will take the time to visit my site and let me know what you think. Your feedback is extremely important to me and if you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know.

http://www.successfulselfstudystrategies.webs.com/

Website Review

In reviewing the information that is available to provide self study tips, I came across a website that I found very helpful. The website is Study Guides and Strategies. This website is broken down by the following categories:

• Time Management
• Meeting Challenges
• Learning
• Learning with Others
• Studying
• Classroom Participation
• Online Learning/Communicating
• Thinking
• Reading
• Memorizing
• Research
• Project Management
• Project Presentation
• Writing Basics
• Writing Types
• Vocabulary/Spelling
• Test Preparation
• Taking Tests
• Math
• Science & Technology
• Research

For the purposes of this blog, I focused on the Studying section. Under the Studying section I clicked on Effective Study Habits. The first thing that pops up is a 10 question quiz about your study habits. Based on your score, recommendations are made. A list of 8 habits are provided. This section also provides links to 2 different study systems. One is A.S.P.I.R.E and one is Index. The Index System is specific to note taking while A.S.P.I.R.E is an acronym for A: Approach/Attitude/Arrange, S:Select/Survey/Scan P:Piece together the parts, I:Investigate/Inquire/Inspect, R:Reexamine/reflect/relay Reexamine the content | Reflect on the material/Relay understanding, E:Evaluate/Examine/Explore. A.S.P.I.R.E is an all encompassing program that focuses on a array of information. 

In my opinion this website is very helpful for all types of studiers. While it is not specific to self studying, many of the techniques provided can be useful.  If I were to rate this website on a scale of 1-10, I would give it an 9. I gave the website a 9 because the amount of information can be overwhelming and time consuming to sift through. However, the content is well written and vast and the information is well organized. One great aspect of this website is that the content can be translated into 37 different languages. This site would be beneficial to someone that needs helps in certain subjects such as writing, math, spelling/vocabulary or science/technology. The information provided in those specific sections are extremely useful.

I am providing the link to Study Guides and Strategies for those that want to take a look.

http://www.studygs.net/