Learning Strategy 27: Planning for Learning

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To be successful at just about anything, you have to be intentional, deliberate, and organized. Planning is the key. And when it comes to learning, the more intentional you can be, the more efficiently you can learn. This is especially true for assigned learning–for school, job training, refresher courses, required units to maintain licensing, and so on. With these, there is sometimes a tendency to put off learning when the content doesn’t look very interesting.

Here are some best practices that will make your learning easier and stickier. You might think that there are too many, overly specific guidelines. Don’t worry if you can’t match all of them or match them exactly. And if you find that a variation actually works better for you, feel free to use that variation. (However, find out for sure what works best; don’t just assume.)

Physical Setup

Location. Find a location that is

  • quiet, as free from external noise as possible. College students often find that dorm rooms are the least desirable places to study because roommates or even dormmates way down the hall are often flexing the walls with their stereos or moving to the music on their iPods. Students at home (K-12) might find the kitchen table too noisy.
  • free from interruption or distraction. Even some university study halls are filled with distractions. And K-12 students might find that their own bedroom has too many temptations that pull them away from study.
  • adequately climate controlled.Climate control refers to temperature, humidity, and air flow. All three of these are important for comfort. A room that is slightly on the cool side is good for concentration. Too cold and your teeth will chatter and you won’t remember anything; too warm and you’ll fall asleep.

Location Tip: A local public library, or the school or university library usually  provide good study environments because they are quiet, peaceful, and climate controlled. The air conditioning in many libraries provides enough fan noise that it creates a blanket of quiet around you.

Desk or Table. Study at a desk or table that has

  • adequate space. You want to be able to spread out, especially if you are working with books, printouts, photocopies of articles, or other space-needy materials. It’s a real pain to try to spread out a pile of 3 by 5 cards on a tiny desk or cubicle. Room for a laptop, a mouse, a couple of books and a printout–you’re talking the need for a table. If you let yourself become cramped in a tiny cubicle, you will soon feel frustrated.
  • a comfortable height. Many of the old desks, tables, and cubicles in libraries were designed for handwriting on paper on the desk surface, which is often awkwardly too high for laptop typing. If you can find an adjustable chair, a keyboard pullout, or other remedy, use it.
  • a good light. The more light, the better. Reading

Chair

The place you study should be as comfortable as

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