Self-education. Self-study tips

To begin with, we remember that the main source of knowledge is people. People write books, posts, speak at conferences, make presentations and videos. Therefore, to dive into any topic that interests us, we need to make a list of people who know what we don’t know.

We start by formulating 3-5 keywords related to what interests us. We remember that in Russian and in English there can be different formulations of the same phenomenon. First we use general dictionaries, then professional ones.

Let's go to . We type the keywords one by one. We write down the names of the authors we come across on the “Who studies this topic” page. We save the titles of books in a separate list “I plan to view”, always indicating the year of publication.

If the topic is research, go to , enter keywords into the search engine (preferably in English) and already found names. We save the titles of articles and links to them to the “I plan to view” list.

If the topic is professional, just go to Google, type keywords and already found names into the search engine. We write down new names that we meet along the way, save links to posts that seem relevant (by title).

In a simple Google we ask “keywords + conference”, “keywords + conference”. We find thematic conferences, programs, presentations. This means that there is a list of participants. Presentations and videos of performances are often posted as well. Names - to the list of names, links to speeches - to the “Plan to view” list.

We prioritize coolness. We raise in the list the names of those who are often referred to.

Let’s polish it all up by searching in Google “keyword +courses”, “keyword +webinar”. We find distance and face-to-face courses related to the topic of interest. We write them down on the “I plan to watch” list.

You will find yourself navigating through people who understand what interests you. Now you can read posts, articles, books, watch presentations and videos, sign up for webinars and courses. Dive a little into the topic?

Write to the top people on your list: in the comments on their blog, by email. Ask questions that remain unanswered in the materials you have studied. There is a good chance that you will get a response.

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If you organize your activities correctly, self-education may well become an alternative to the traditional method of learning. In addition, by self-education, you choose what and when to study.

It is worth engaging in self-education both for those who want to gain new knowledge and skills for specific purposes - for example, to change their occupation or improve their qualifications, and simply for those who are “bored”, feel a stupor in life and have not learned something new for a long time.

Step 1/7Set aside or find time for yourself

Take every opportunity to educate yourself. You have it, you just didn’t think about it.

Where you can educate yourself:

In transport Does it take a long time to get to the metro? A great excuse to read a smart book. It can be paper or electronic, but be sure to read it. The game of “matching diamonds in a line” will not make you better.

On a walk You take a long walk with the dog in the evenings, or run in the mornings - use this time to listen to lectures or audiobooks.​

Tip: if you devote just 2 hours a day to self-education, you will listen to 100-150 useful audiobooks per year

In the cafe Save up good articles and read them in one gulp in a cafe or while drinking coffee during a break. Social networks and news publications will survive several hours without you.

At work or at home Do you do any routine activities that do not require attention? Play useful audio books or lectures from You Tube, for example, while cleaning the house. All this is part of self-education, even though it is background.

Details in the article:

Step 2/7 Build your memory along with your muscles

Once and for all, realize for yourself that any problem or question is another reason to learn something new. This applies both to disputes with friends about the reasons for the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to very pressing problems, such as repairing a bicycle on your own.

Advice: train your memory - try to remember as much as possible the facts and stories that interest you. Firstly, this is a cool brain workout, and secondly, at a convenient moment you can always show off unexpected knowledge at a party or on social networks

Details in the article:

Step 3/7 Learn languages

It is best to start self-education with English - you can’t go anywhere without it. In any unclear situation, learn languages.

And the point is not even that all smart people live exclusively abroad, but that many new ideas, research and work, if they are good enough to qualify for the world level, first of all appear in English.

So, if you want to keep abreast of the latest events in the world of knowledge and begin effective self-education, learn languages.

Advice: memorizing 10-20 new words helps maintain a youthful brain and prevents age-related changes.

Step 4/7 Connect with people who want to know the same thing as you. Or already knows more

Connect with people who are studying the same things as you. If it’s the Internet, there are forums, thematic communities on social networks and public experts ready to answer any question.

Whenever possible, try to keep the communication lively. Personal communication gives a person not only knowledge, but also certain skills, increases his emotional intelligence, develops the ability to be a good conversationalist, overcome conflicts and respect the position of another person.

The events you need are always available in your city, you just need to look for them. In the worst case, you can always organize everything yourself. You will find like-minded people, and then the process of self-education will be much easier.

Advice: unsubscribe from all entertainment groups and subscribe to blogs, email newsletters, thematic communities on social networks - a lot of useful information on the topic in which you want to develop will be provided to you. It is much more useful for self-development to see memes about blockchain in your feed than about another dog or cat.

Step 5/7 Practice and repetition - why is it important?

Practice - 100% success. The most important thing in any learning is how you can apply your knowledge in real life and real situation. Find every opportunity to train, so you will better understand what else you need to learn and what to focus on to develop in your chosen direction.

Of course, this advice is only valid if the subject of your training is not as abstract as “how to take care of a spaceship in the face of a rebel attack.”

Tip: find free events, be it communication with native speakers, master classes or presentations of a new book. This way you will broaden your horizons and maybe make new contacts that will help you in the future.

Step 6/7 What is not planned will not happen

Make lists of your self-development - procrastination has ruined more than one million people. Having understood what your goal is and what you want to learn, write down point by point what and in what sequence you want to master or study.

Every minute of our life is important, there is no time to fall into prostration and sadly re-watch TV series. To avoid “falling out of reality”, keep a diary, notepad or mobile application. Always keep in front of your eyes a list of what you can do today, this week and throughout the month.

Tired of listening to lectures about successful examples in your profession? Learn English irregular verbs in the past tense or play games on thematic language learning sites. Tired of verbs? Read about the Sumerian civilization or the life of Napoleon. After all, maybe in the actions of great people from the past you can find an idea to change your life.

Educate yourself every second!

Advice: try to plan your self-education at least 3 months in advance, with details up to a week. You will be surprised how quickly these three months will fly by, and the knowledge will already be in your head.

Step 7/7 Where to get strength and find an example to follow?

By the way, about lists. In conditions of self-education, the most important source of knowledge is people. Find people who inspire you to do what you do, who know more than you.

We live in a world in which you can contact anyone and ask questions to almost anyone, take advantage of this chance.

Most strong personalities and industry experts will be happy to answer a short, to-the-point question if you ask them intelligently and respectfully.

Tip: Find profiles of people who inspire you on social networks and start following their activities. Read and watch interviews with them - in addition to being inspired by the charisma of the individual, you will learn a lot of new and interesting information for yourself.

Today, the flow of information in its various forms has reached incredible proportions. Moreover, information becomes outdated relatively quickly and you have to constantly rush (not keep up!) with the times. Now, to become a specialist in your professional field, it is not enough to graduate from a university and take a couple of specialized courses. It is necessary to constantly improve your knowledge, devote time to self-education and keep your nose to the wind. Based on my relatively small experience in self-education, I can say with confidence that there will be obstacles and pitfalls. For example, you begin to greedily collect all possible literature on your specific area, regardless of its characteristics. Information is stored, and you, trying to choose one thing, constantly jump from one book to another and thereby mark time. Or, because of perfectionism, you are trying to absorb as much theory as possible, relegating practice to the background.
So, to avoid the “squirrel in the wheel” state, the following 6 points on how to effectively educate yourself will help you.

1. Define your development plan. It is not necessary to compile it in detail, point by point and try to look into the distant future. Just try to draw your route for improving your knowledge for the next six months or a year.

2. Unlearn the habit of collecting everything that catches your eye. You want to learn programming, you come across a bestseller for extreme programming professionals and you put it in your library for safekeeping. Perhaps in the future you won’t find it or all copies of the book will disappear to hell on Earth. Do not do this. Collect only information that is relevant to you at a given time or will be relevant in the near future.

3. Learn to read quickly. There are a large number of different techniques, but I would especially highlight three of them: photo reading, diagonal reading, quick reading (Oleg Andreev).

4. Communicate more often with people who can help you, and don’t be afraid to ask them questions that seem stupid to you. The most important thing is to try to ask the right questions on the topic that interests you. After all, a correctly posed question is already a half-correct answer.

5. Less theory, more practice. As you try to absorb more information, don’t forget that practice will bring more benefits than reading a hundred books. I don't deny that theory is important. However, every handful of knowledge must be followed by its actual application in practice.

6. Analyze and draw conclusions. When communicating with knowledgeable people, when reading books, when watching thematic videos, try to analyze the information you receive (it is important<>no matter) and draw conclusions for yourself about its value.

Sooner or later there comes a time when you should engage in self-education. And here the question arises - how and where to start? If you have this problem, read the effective tips below and get an answer.

Learn foreign languages. It has been proven that memorizing a small number of new words (up to 20) every day is an excellent measure to prevent the aging of brain cells and prevent their age-related changes.

In addition, no matter how much one would like to, in the era of globalization one cannot do without such knowledge. If you can’t learn English, take on those that interest you, but remember that all interesting data is published in English.

What is especially important is that following this advice does not necessarily entail large expenses, because you can find free trainings or master classes where native speakers will be happy to share their experience.

Don’t neglect any opportunity to educate yourself, whether it’s due to constant traffic jams or the availability of free time. In fact, a person, with proper planning of his affairs, can allocate up to 3 hours of free time every day to gain new knowledge.

It follows from the second. To ensure that self-education has a place in your life, make schedules and increase your efficiency. How to achieve the latter, you can read in the article

Take any difficult situation as a motivator for gaining new knowledge, be it a new project that you don’t have enough skills to work with, or a dispute with colleagues about something unknown to you. To reduce the volume of this very unknown, it is worth learning something new every day and training your memory.

Communicate with other people, just like you, who are actively learning something new. Such communication will be an excellent opportunity to exchange experiences. At the same time, it is better to give preference to live communication. This way you can kill two birds with one stone - learn new things and not lose your skills of interacting with other people. However, subscribing to sources of interest will also not be superfluous.

Practice more, because any knowledge gained without practice is dead.

As you can see, in order to independently master new skills or gain knowledge, you don’t need to stay awake at night or pour liters of coffee into yourself. It is enough to sincerely want this and use any available opportunities.

According to the “Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S.I. Ozhegov, 1964 edition, self-education is the acquisition of new knowledge independently, without the help of teachers. However, the 21st century has made its own adjustments. It is very difficult and even impossible to master some new knowledge without the help of specialists.

Directions of self-education today

In self-education, which is currently in demand, several areas can be distinguished:

1. Mastering new knowledge and skills in certain and related areas of science, technology and culture that are related to the activities of a particular person and correspond to his tasks.
2. Mastering global knowledge, becoming familiar with world discoveries, achievements in various sciences, technology and art.
3. Language acquisition:
4. Foreign languages, including compulsory English (see), for reading, translation and communication.
5. Mastering new approaches to using the Russian language - speed of reading, understanding and memorizing texts (speed reading).

Who needs self-education

Nowadays, there is a rapid accumulation of new knowledge, so self-education is a mandatory process that should accompany the entire life of people in a number of professions who strive to be highly qualified specialists.

1. Teachers and lecturers cannot use the permanent limited knowledge acquired during their studies. They should know a lot more and convey to students new modern information, discoveries and achievements. Only in this case can you teach others, captivate and prepare your students for life in a changing world.
2. Medical workers must study new methods of examination and diagnosis, newly created medicinal and non-medicinal forms of therapeutic drugs and new methods for rapid treatment and rehabilitation of sick people.
3. Scientists, researchers and engineers must know new trends in science and technology in their industry and in related fields, since without this they cannot work productively and create new knowledge, theories, materials and production.
4. Managers and high-level officials must be able to assess short-term and long-term development prospects in order to make the right decisions, which requires a broad outlook, deep continuous knowledge of the history of the problem, the present and the possible future.

In addition, some people realize the need to expand their knowledge, improve their skills and abilities in order to become great masters of their craft. Self-education in this case contributes to career growth and, as a result, improvement of financial situation.

Where to start self-education?

– hard work, most often it is additional work. It requires a lot of time, attention, and health. It is necessary to organize your life and time in such a way as to allocate hours and even days for serious activities. We need to understand whether there is enough willpower, whether damage will be caused to loved ones, whether priorities in building a whole life will be changed. It must be taken into account that the results of self-education are not immediate, they are distant in time and are not always obvious to everyone. At the same time, becoming an erudite specialist and an interesting person means prospects for everything in life, prospects for a career, prospects for communicating with people.

Initial steps in this process:

• Statement of goals and directions for new activities.
• Drawing up a specific plan for the near future and a long-term plan for the future.
• Studying modern methods of self-education.
• Choosing a way to gain new knowledge (independently, with a consultant, courses, with a tutor).
• Collection and study of sources of information on the problem (literature, Internet).

When starting self-education, it is necessary to provide for material costs for paying teachers, purchasing books, etc.

However, we must not forget about health, the joys of life and pleasures. In your plans you need to reserve time for rest, vacation, communication with loved ones and friends.

Notes about modern children, looking into their future

From early childhood, children must be taught curiosity and the desire to acquire new knowledge and new information. A great way is to teach your child to collect (but not just collect) stamps. Each new stamp is a reason to learn about a new object, event, person, history. Each new brand should be discussed, encouraging the child to search for and remember additional information.

This is how philatelists grow up with encyclopedic knowledge. In a similar way, you can collect a library, including a thematic one, by reading with your child not only the work itself, but also the preface, comments, and additional information about the author or event.