Time Allocation

The biggest secret of all is how to allocate your time. It's not actually a secret, but not very many people use this technique. This is well studied, and the results come out the way they do for many different reasons. Let me just emphasize here that this one thing will greatly increase your efficiency of learning and retention.

First, let me explain. Study in small chunks spaced far apart. The best way to understand what this means and why it works is to exaggerate an example. Suppose you studied something 5 times in one minute. This is like studying only once. The extra 4 times do not add much, if anything, in the course of a day or week or month. If those 5 times were spaced throughout the day, it would be like seeing it fresh 5 times, and becoming reacquainted with it 5 times.

At first, this seems like it would require spending more time studying and working rather than less, but the truth is that it actually saves a lot of time! Not only do you learn faster, but you will retain it a lot longer. The same is true for practicing some skill. You will acquire the skill much faster if you spend an hour in the morning, an hour in the day, and an hour in the night rather than a 3 hour block in the day. In fact, after a certain point, you are almost just wasting your time. You have less focus, you are tired, you've been seeing the same thing over and over again, etc. Doing something else for a couple of hours will refresh your desire, energy, and focus for that one particular thing you were doing. And we'll soon learn that any mistakes you make are being learned, and they are only countering your efforts.

New habits are incredibly hard to form, and this one seems to be unusually resistant for people. There is something about needing to spend multiple times a day doing something that gives people a mental block. Do the research if you have to convince yourself it is worth it; this topic is usually classified as "spaced vs. massed practice."