Once a month, set specific goals for that month. Make sure that it’s very easy to verify that you achieved the goal (“improve at programming” is not a good goal, “solve every practice problem in the first chapter of SICP” is a good goal. “solve every practice problem in the first chapter of SICP, or spend at least 2 hours thinking about each problem before giving up and looking up a solution” is even better).
After you’ve decided on your goals for a given month, don’t second-guess whether they’re actually the best thing you could be doing or whether you’re wasting your time—it’s only one month. If it turns out it wasn’t the best goal to try, just take note of it and use that knowledge to pick better goals next month. It’s more important that you actually follow through than that you follow the optimal path, and if you keep switching goals every week, you’re not gonna follow through.
Ah, so the confidence spiral approach? I’ve been getting that recommendation a lot lately, which is a good sign that it’s effective. Anki is another good point too, I’ve started using it for memorizing the LessWrong Sequences, and intend to use as a resource for school when that starts, or anything in general that I’d like to memorize.
I appreciate your input, I’ll see about trying SICP as well.
Once a month, set specific goals for that month. Make sure that it’s very easy to verify that you achieved the goal (“improve at programming” is not a good goal, “solve every practice problem in the first chapter of SICP” is a good goal. “solve every practice problem in the first chapter of SICP, or spend at least 2 hours thinking about each problem before giving up and looking up a solution” is even better).
After you’ve decided on your goals for a given month, don’t second-guess whether they’re actually the best thing you could be doing or whether you’re wasting your time—it’s only one month. If it turns out it wasn’t the best goal to try, just take note of it and use that knowledge to pick better goals next month. It’s more important that you actually follow through than that you follow the optimal path, and if you keep switching goals every week, you’re not gonna follow through.
Also, start using either anki or mnemosyne.
Ah, so the confidence spiral approach? I’ve been getting that recommendation a lot lately, which is a good sign that it’s effective. Anki is another good point too, I’ve started using it for memorizing the LessWrong Sequences, and intend to use as a resource for school when that starts, or anything in general that I’d like to memorize.
I appreciate your input, I’ll see about trying SICP as well.