Stop Procrastinating and Start Studying

An Autodidact is a person that chooses their topics, learning resources and schedule to learn what they want, when they want.

Being an autodidact (a self-taught person) requires discipline and a love for learning.

Usually, the biggest barriers to learning are:

• Getting started/ procrastination
• Staying committed
• Being able to focus
• Overcoming self-doubt
• Remembering what you're learning.

Consume less, but better quality material with intense bursts of focus.

Learning less in a day also reinforces the power of spacing effect as your mind gets the chance to process and remember what you learn.

Planning and goal setting will give you a direction and will let you set intentions.

They let you achieve massive growth in a short time when you set a deadline.

An hour of focused learning is more effective than 3 hours of shallow learning.

If you’re serious about learning, you can’t get distracted during that dedicated time. You can also enhance your focus by pre-conditioning your mind (having a nap before, a coffee, listening to music, etc.)

We procrastinate due to the anticipation of pain. And the best way to beat procrastination is to just get started.

If you want to turn the anticipation of pain into the anticipation of reward, you can set a reward for each learning session you do.

Persevere during hard times. See challenges, obstacles, and mistakes as an opportunity to grow.

They are blessings in disguise because the more you face them, the more you learn.

Think of yourself as a car. If you want yourself to function at your best, you need proper fuel, recovery, and care.

When learning, the fundamentals are :  eat, move and sleep.

Think big and observe the experts in the field.

Pay close attention to their mindset, skillset and the way they perform. Not only will you become more interested, but you’ll also learn faster and better.

Shoshin comes from Zen Buddhism that translates to “beginner’s mind”. It requires you to erase your preconceptions to learn with an open and eager mind. Bruce Lee said, “Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality.”.

It’s important to choose the best learning methods to learn a particular topic.

To do that, you can find how the masters did it and follow their footsteps. You can experiment with different learning resources and learning tools and for effective learning.

It’s important to practice or learn the right things, at the right pace, and at the right difficulty.

If anytime, you feel things are getting complicated or passing over your head, it’s best to step back and find the gaps in your understanding of the basics.