Welcome to Week 2. My studies have shifted up a gear now and I'm due to attend my first classroom course at the end of the week. In the meantime, I've been engaged in doing some pre-join studies. I knew I had a lot to learn, but 'Wow'.
Concentrating my efforts and making use of my Focus thinking mode has been key to getting the first few learning chunks built and giving my pre-frontal cortex a good workout. I've been using the Pomodoro techniques to learn a a couple of key coding concepts each day. I've also been mixing in coding drills on sites such as Codecademy and W3 Schools. I can say with some certainty that the repetition is helping to strengthen the neural pathways and increase my chunk library.
Making notes from my textbooks and self-tests to see how much I could retain has been surprisingly effective and reflects the encoding effects that handwriting notes can have (although I have read one study that suggests typing notes is even more effective. Go figure). It reminded me that I used a similar technique about 20 years ago when I was revising for my university degree. Seems Karpicke et al were bang on the money with their retrieval based findings in August 2012.
Another technique was my 'blank page' memorisation approach; in short, after covering a specific chapter or watching a tutorial movie, I take a blank page and try to recall as much as possible from memory. It's brutal, especially when you don't feel you can retrieve much - but this is a perfect antidote to the illusions of competence that I was suffering when I was just reading books, passively watching tutorials and making mindmaps. Again, Karpicke was totally right with this paper on concept mapping versus testing
To make use of my diffuse mode, I take a few moments prior to turning the lights out reviewing my learning from that day. So far, I've had some pretty weird dreams about webpages. The oddest thing was that one morning last week, I woke up and figured out why a page I'd built wasn't working.
Every few days, I return to my mini-tests and do some recall, making us of a spaced learning approach. It amazes me how much of this stuff is sticking. I've started a Learning Planner in which I'm making a note of stuff that works and stuff that doesn't. So far, it's mainly 'stuff that works'.
Another real win for me has been the use of the Memory Palace technique. I've tried a couple of things using Post It notes. Lots of Post It notes. Laying out the structure of a webpage along a flight of stairs was pretty helpful, as it combined the physical act of climbing the stairs with the structure of the page. Fortunately no trips to the Emergency Room so far :-)
I've started leaving leaving notes around the house - or as my wife calls it - littering. (in retrospect, maybe I should've told her I was adding 'context' to my learning chunks). But now, when I think <body> tag, I think 'Kitchen'. After all, stuff that happens here causes the 'body' to get bigger :-)
I've hit a couple of bumps in the road (some things, like JavaScript functions, are a bit tricky to grasp). To engage my diffuse mode, I've taken to walking with my dog or jumping on an exercise bike. The change of pace and opportunity to 'zone out' is really powerful. I've had at least one Dali 'diffuse-to-focus' moment whilst out with our Spaniel when an idea clicked out of the blue. It was a beautiful moment.
Anyway. I'm still on the journey. But a combination of some procrastination-busting habits, good study habits, techniques that promote effective chunking and keep illusions of competence at bay are paying off. Long may it continue.
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