learning through variety

The latest cognitive studies, as reported in the NY Times, suggest that by altering your physical environment, changing what you're studying rather than slogging away on one subject, and regularly testing, all actually help people learn better.
Trying to recall and forgetting means you need to relearn before you continue.

So the old adage – repetition repetition! – holds its own with the latest from neurological lab data.

Teachers always said, go back over new content within a day and then again within a week to really let it sink in.

The changed environment resulting in better learning and remembering findings are fascinating. Maybe this is why you remember a book you read on holidays, more than the one you read in your bed. And why the classes you had outside, or in a different room are the one's that stick in your head.

So we do need to take breaks, and mix it up.

Variety is the spice of life and the spice of learning too.

un-Googling your mind

I am obsessed with Alzheimers. I dont know if this is because I am, or the media is.

In any case I'm constantly reading articles about how the brain is plastic, changeable; that there is hope that mine will work properly again with the right exercises.

Then I came across this article in the Atlantic on 'Googlethink''and it reminds me of the hundreds of shortcuts I take in a day and each of these is doing more harm than good.

Lock a cat inside a flat for a year and it wont be able to walk along a fence top properly. It loses important skills.

That's kinda what it's like to use a calculator or spellcheck. Brain work is as important as fence prowling for cats. So I've started doing arithmetic again, at the supermarket – and to my surprise, I get a kick out of it!

There's a theory that the solution to too much noise is not to run away from the city but to just get some more moments of silence in your life. Like counterbalancing a junk food blow out with a healthy meal of steamed vegetables.

Meditation is like cleansing the mind of the busyness of thinking too much.

Busting out a paper and pen and doing some maths is the perfect antidote to the deskilling powers of Excel's 'autosum' button.

One just needs to exercise some self control. Google must not become the source of all your information.

And, wacky search terms often yield interesting results.... but i love a bit of serendipitous dipping into random books at the library or bookshop too. Try it one day. Today.

Pomodoro technique

Here's an interesting methodology for time management.. it involves identifying a task and then doing it for 25 mins, then taking a break. I think I might have been doing this my whole life without realising it.

Learn more from the book downloadable from the website here
http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

UPDATE:
Charlie Brooker gives the Pomodoro Technique the thumbs up while slamming Google Instant for its assault on his mind and time.