One of the more memorable Peanuts cartoons involved Charlie Brown. He was behind on his studies and came up with the idea if he stuck his book under his pillow the night before the test, he might learn the subject through Osmosis as he slept.
Probably we all have wished at one time or another we could learn something effortlessly.Well, here’s an almost “osmosis” way of learning important subjects.
If you have Outlook, you may be familiar with Outlook notes. Outlook notes are sort of like Post-It notes but don’t have the “sticky” factor. They are a place to store frequently used info.
I’ve found another use for them that is quite good… lazy learning through repetition.
I did a post awhile back about how to learn almost effortlessly using flashcards. Most of the learning with flashcards occurs through the repetition, not through forced memorization.
Here’s how to do it with Outlook Notes. Copy and paste what you want to learn into an Outlook Note.
Blue is the first color in the list, so blue will represent the first day’s read through. As you read, there is no stress or strain. Simply skim or read quickly. Read it from top to bottom, and when you are done, right click the note and change it to the color green which is the second color – representing the 2nd day’s reading.
On the 2nd day, do like you did the first day. Without stressing or straining, read the note…when you are done, change the color to Pink.
Continue reading in this manner choosing yellow for the next day until on the last day you end at White.
If you repeat this each day, until you reach your final color, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve absorbed without hardly trying.
As a bonus trick for you Pocket PC users, you can use PhatNotes to do this. I like reading on a portable device like a book or my Pocket PC. PhatNotes syncs your notes to and from Outlook so you can accomplish this same task using your device.
Give it a try and let me know what you think…
{ 14 comments }
A great study tip, ive never used notes on my device for anything other than reminders to myself. Pocket PCs are a very effective study tool, especially with intelligent flashcard software like mcard.
Depends on what you are studying. Some things require thought and analysis, other things just remembering. Repetition is very very good for remembering. I wrote Japanese characters on very small cards which had a hole punched in one end. Put a ring through the hold and hung the cards on my car dashboard. Every red light, I flipped through several flashcards. After a while, I could read Japanese. No strain, no attempt to hurry, no effort. Just put it where you spend time.
Brad, that’s a great way to use Outlook’s Notes. I am terrible about remembering appointments so I use Desktop Sidebar, my RSS reader, to also show me upcoming appointments. All day, everyday, the next 2 weeks’ worth of events are right in front of me, so they get burned into my mind effortlessly.
Jeanne, that’s a pretty incredible method to learn Japanese!! Did you have any training in it beforehand? Surely there are grammar considerations and other rules that simply seeing the characters doesn’t cover…? I’m going to look into that, because I’d love to learn to read Japanese. Thank you for mentioning it!
Ben, I haven’t tried mcard. I’m a fan of Handycards nice developer too.
Jeanne, you sound like you are a flashcard learner like me.
For more complex subjects, try this. Take a complex subject and do the read every day technique described above and then go back and do some intense study. I’ve used this trick for many complex subjects like advanced routing protocol configs and feel it doesn’t require as much effort to “master” the material.
Megan, which desktop sidebar program do you use? I have Google Toolbar, but often close the sidebar cause it’s in the way.
Brad, the desktop sidebar I use is actually called Desktop Sidebar.
Accordingly, the website is http://www.desktopsidebar.com. Although it can be a bit buggy, It has tons of ways it can be customized, so I almost never find that it’s in my way enough for me to want turn it off.
Jeanne, and others who wish to learn Japanese – check out KingKanji by Gakusoft. There are several different methods of learning, and there is even a program on the PC to create your own cards.
I wouldn’t try to use the Pocket PC in the car unless someone else is driving!
Rod
@Megan, I just learned this week the main reason I have to minimize stuff like that is I’m not on a widescreen monitor. So I run out of room quickly.
I thought about mentioning that, Brad, because I only recently got a widescreen monitor and I’m quite sure that’s the main reason why the sidebar doesn’t bother me anymore.
I have to say it’s well worth it to get a widescreen, but I find that the more room I get, the more I need. Where I used to have two programs running and wished I had room for a third, now I have six programs running and wish I had room for a seventh!
Still I highly recommend getting a widescreen or at least a big screen… For me it improves my efficiency nearly as much as going from dial-up to highspeed. No exaggeration. I use others’ computers with tiny monitors and I can hardly work. Of course the resolution you set it to makes a big difference as well.
Thanks Megan for posting that. I was looking at some the other day at Circuit City but I like to read reviews before buying monitors.
I’m going to start looking at some reviews.
I don’t have a wide screen, other than the one on my laptop. However, I do have a second monitor, which I find is a wonderful time-saver – XP allows me to extend my desktop to the second monitor. Some programs will not run properly on it, but, for example, when I am reviewing a manuscript and need to check the reference, I can have the Word document open on one monitor and the Acrobat Reader file open on the other.
People have asked me how I can work with 2 computers at once! When they see how easy it is to copy and paste from one program to the other, they are almost speechless! I just wish that Microsoft PowerPoint would allow 2 instances to run on the desktop – at the moment I can only stretch the program across the 2 and arrange the open files in the resulting wide window. Not ideal, but it is better than on a single monitor.
Rod
You’re welcome, Brad. I’m a review-reader, too. I can hardly buy a stick of gum without checking its online reviews first.
Rod, I’ve always wondered about the second monitor thing. It seems so strange to me! I’m sure I’d get used to it… I just fear I might get TOO used to it. I’m already a computer addict… I can just picture myself ending up with two widescreens and forty programs running at once… Is there such thing as being TOO productive?
Megan, you do get used to it – I suffer from dual-screen withdrawal if I have to go on a business trip and have only the one screen on the laptop.
When I started a new position recently, the first thing I did was to disconnect the laptop from the docking station so that I could use the provided monitor as the second one. IT told me it couldn’t be done. WRONG!
I understand what you mean about having large numbers of programs open at once – in the days of Windows 3.11 I was frequently having to reboot because one of my 8 or 9 open programs had crashed Windows … Crashes have become rarer, but my laptop does seem to run slowly sometimes when I am using memory-hungry (read most of the Office suite, and Paintshop Pro) programs together … I guess it is all about focusing on the tools for the job at hand. Somewhat like achieving those goals that Brad keeps on about!
Excellent idea Brad! Do you know of anyone who’s done either a Outlook Notes to Google Desktop or Microsoft Vista widget?
Rod- I know what you mean about the office suite and paintshop pro taking up heaps of room on the notebooks. Mine is going to die soon. I have spent about an hour I don’t HAVE to use. It’s so boring now. I usually have heaps of random programs that are so great…. not anything anymore.