Learn something new
- Summarize (eg. definition, article)
- Cheatsheet (eg. handy one-page doc/pdf)
- Crash Course (eg. videos, online course)
- Deep Dive (eg. online courses, docs)
- Certify (eg. complete a quiz or test, or better, earn a certification)
- Refresh (eg. periodic online courses to maintain knowledge)
The order is important
- Start from easiest or quickest to longest or most difficult
- This will ensure you stay motivated by front-loading learning achievements
- You will also learn key high-level concepts that become assumed knowledge in later steps
- It also helps confirm earlier that you have the will and interest in the subject to continue.
- If you find you’re not interested during a relatively short crash course then at least you’ve saved yourself the time of doing a longer deep dive.
Yes, there’s repetition, but it’s actually helpful
- You will find yourself repeating concepts and information but this is valuable and helpful to you and not as tedious or annoying as you might expect
- The reason for this is that earlier steps will only cover a concept at a high level and subsequent steps expand on those concepts and provide helpful and deeper context and insights
- Repetition in this way is the most efficient repetition, as opposed to repeating the same content without helpful expansion or explanation
Do more than one thing at each step
- At each step, when feasible
- Read more than one article
- Watch more than one video
- Find more than one cheatsheet
- Complete more than one course
- Earn more than one certification
- Refresh with more than one source
- Because,
- Some materials are better than others
- The variety will keep up your interest
- Different perspectives will give you a knowledge advantage in subsequent steps
- Subsequent steps will go easier because you have cemented more concepts in your mind
Where to learn something new
- Summarize
- Websearch (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo)
- Wikipedia
- Q&A Sites like StackExchange, Quora, etc.
- Wikihow.com and other How To sites
- Cheatsheet
- Cheatography.com, Cheatsheets.com, other cheatsheet websites
- Image Websearch (Search for “<Topic> cheatsheet” on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.)
- Crash Course
- YouTube
- Coursera, Udemy, other online learning sites
- Wikipedia
- Wikihow.com and other How To sites
- Deep Dive (eg. online courses, docs)
- Coursera, Udemy, other online learning sites
- Documentation
- Certify (eg. complete a quiz or test, earn a certification)
- Coursera, Udemy, other online learning sites
- Professional Associations (Each professional field usually has one)
- Refresh (eg. periodic online courses to maintain knowledge)
- Coursera, Udemy, other online learning sites
- Articles
- Wikihow.com and other How To sites