I came across this quote on Nat Eliason’s blog, wherein he summarises the books he’s read. This quote is from The Art of Learning written by Josh Waitzkin and strongly resonated with me as I am a proponent of continuous learning. I strongly believe in the idea of life-long learning as it aids in the constant expansion of one’s horizons and upskilling in a dynamic world. And, one of the ways one can keep the momentum of life-long learning going is through self-learning. Self-learning is a lot easier through platforms like Coursera, YouTube and E-books. I’d like to dive into my process of learning how to code, learning a language and learning how to become a content creator.
The self-learning journey for me started in my early teens. After receiving a point and shoot on my 13th birthday, I have loved photography. At the time, I didn’t enrol myself in any classes. I used Google as my resource for learning as much as I could about composition, framing, focus and lighting. I tried to apply these to every opportunity of photography that I could. I loved going to Bandstand in Mumbai and capturing sunsets. With every photograph I took, I tried to implement an element of photography that I had learned over the internet.
I had applied the same principle to photo-editing. I tried to learn photoshop online and learned about how I can enhance the photographs I had taken by tampering with the exposure levels, contrast, saturation and so on. In a nutshell, I’m nowhere near as talented as some of the photographers out there, but I’m definitely trying to improve with every photo opportunity that I get. Along with photos, I learned how to edit videos online. Admittedly, I’m not a pro here. But it’s definitely something that I’ve loved to do and I’ve always loved video editing. I tried to do it on my windows video editor.
Current self-learning pursuits
Coding – To teach myself how to code, I decided to start learning the basics of SQL and HTML via a YouTube tutorial. Several YouTube channels have in-depth and step-by-step tutorials to help learn the basics of coding. To make the most of these videos, I make sure that I make elaborate notes in Notion, which include the codes. I then transition the notes to Anki, which is an excellent app to create effective flashcards to enable Active Recall and Spaced repetition, two excellent study techniques, which I learned through YouTuber Ali Abdaal’s blog post. Here’s a screenshot of my Notion page, which I use to consolidate all my notes on the topics.
Language – Duolingo is an excellent resource to learn any language. One of the languages I’m learning actively is French. I’m learning the basics and I use Notion to write down additional notes from Duolingo. And later I transfer these to Anki, which is an effective flashcard app to engage active recall. I’ve included a screenshot below to show I use Anki to learn French.
Content Creation – In late 2020, I decided to start my YouTube journey and decided to put myself out there. In order to make engaging content, I turned to the platform itself for inspiration. I’ve learned how to generate ideas for my videos, write engaging scripts, filming and editing the videos. Another aspect of YouTubing that I’m trying to learn is how the YouTube algorithm works. This knowledge will help me to grow my YouTube channel. And the resources used include YouTube videos, blog posts by content creators and then adding these to my Notion Database. Here are a few screenshots which include the notes from video tutorials and my own video idea database.
I always lean on a single resource in order to grasp the basics of a concept or a subject. For instance, when I started learning the basics of SQL, I turned to a YouTube tutorial. And now that I’ve learned the basics, I look at other resources like e-books to gain a much deeper understanding. I’m currently applying the same process to learning HTML, CSS and French.
One of the disadvantages of self-learning is running into complex concepts which a video or textbook might not help in breaking down. Sometimes, reaching out to an expert on the topic helps to break down difficult concepts to digestible bits. Another disadvantage is that self-learning can at times be a lonely process. I do find it easier to learn in a classroom setting. It eliminates the feeling of isolation from the learning process. It’s also nice to have external accountability through regular graded tests and submission deadlines, because as per Parkinson’s Law, “work expands to fill the time allotted to it”. Another drawback is a low level of motivation to self-start during the mid to later stages of learning.
Here are some of the ways I keep myself motivated.
Discipline > Motivation
Here’s a diagram that explains how discipline is better than motivation when we need to accomplish a task.
We should rather rely on discipline. There is always a middleman between thought and action, which in most cases is motivation. We link this motivation to how we feel about doing something. Relying on our feelings to do something can sometimes be catastrophic. It’s always better to not be a slave to our 3-year-old selves. Yes, self-starting is unpleasant for a short period but leads to better things down the line. Using discipline as a middleman is a lot more rewarding in the long run. An article outlining how discipline trumps motivation brings home the point really well.
The Pomodoro Method
An excellent method that I’ve adopted to eliminate distraction or procrastination while I’m self-learning, is the Pomodoro method. The Pomodoro method is an effective time-management technique and was developed by an Italian developer and author, Francesco Cirillo.
It involves setting timers to enable engagement and efficiency in completing a task. For example, I can set a timer on my phone for 25 minutes and get to learn a concept and when the timer goes off, I’ll take a break for 4 to 5 minutes and repeat. It’s been an exceptionally useful technique for self-learning. I only came across this time management method via Thomas Frank’s video. It would’ve been supremely helpful if I were aware of this technique a lot earlier, maybe in school and college.
The Reward System
The good old reward system works for me as well. One of the best ways that I reward myself at the end of a series of productive self-learning sessions is by watching an episode or two from one of my favourite sitcoms, which include Seinfeld, The Office and Schitts Creek to name a few.
Self-learning is an excellent way of upskilling and evolving oneself overtime. I hope to come out the other end of my current learning pursuits and jump into more avenues to explore.