So having a newborn in my house has severely limited the amount of free time I have, that an of course sleep. Also I’m trying to study up on my PMP stuff, so I’m trying to devise a system of short study bursts that allow me to read and retain the maximum amount of information for the minimum amount of time invested. I looked for articles on the subject and so far I’m drawing a goose egg. I know from experience that my typical study sessions need to be not more than an hour with a half hour being ideal for the maximum amount of retention. I then mark my notes for a quick reference later and ultimately prepare in learning the material as if I were going to have to teach a class on it complete with original examples.
So I’m thinking of parsing things down even further to harness the little bursts of energy I have, when I have them. I thought about this tonight when I decided to play some guitar, something I generally love and only had the attention span and energy to do it for about 10 minutes before I wanted to do something less mentally demanding. So I think I’ll shoot for 6, 10 minute sessions tomorrow and how much I get done and what’s more, retain at the end of the day. 10 minutes isn’t much so I’ll build up from there, maybe to 15 minutes but who knows, trial and error, it’s not like I have a deadline on the PMP.
So here’s the plan.
1.) Gather all study materials and lay them out in an easy to find and organized manner, as if I were about to sit down and study for a nice, long time.
2.) Find the place in my book where I want to start and find the place where I want to ultimately end for the day.
3.) Lay everything out and walk away. When I get a burst of energy or happen to have the time I’ll sit down, pound out 10 minutes of focused study and note taking for a minimum of 10 minutes and not more than minutes.
4.) At the end of the day I’ll reference my notes and try to recite them from memory and see how much I’ve retained.
5.) Report back here in the next few days to see if my method works.
How’s that sound?