Josh's Blog

Month: January 2020

  • Study Skill #6: Implement Your Intentions

    I know I”ve talked about implementing our intentions before, but it is worth repeating. If we are going to study “when we feel like it”, it won’t happen. But, a simple plan can almost triple our chances of following through. A simple intention on paper (whether digital or physical): I will study for 30 minutes…

  • Study Skill #5: Take a Walk

    Sometimes, I get stuck on a problem and can’t solve it no matter how hard I try. Then I take a break, take a nap or go for a walk and when I come back I have the answer. Why is this? We need both focused thinking where we are concentrating on a single problem,…

  • Study Skill #4: Naps

    This study skill is similar, yet different from the last study skill. Naps can give you a quick boost of energy which helps you keep studying. Short 10-20 minute naps can boost alertness and cognitive function. Longer 60-90 minutes naps can help you hit “save” on the information you are studying, but can run the…

  • Study Skill #3: Sleep

    The next study skill is sleep. Yes, sleep. It has been relatively well established that you need sleep after learning to kind of hit “save” on what you are learning in the deeper stages of sleep. But, recently science is pointing to the fact that we need sleep before learning to prepare our brains. Without…

  • Study Skill #2: What is it that I don’t understand?

    Thomas Frank, the self-proclaimed “College Info Geek”, recommends a tactic from Dale Corson, a former President of Cornell Univeristy. He advised students to work through their problem one sentence at a time, asking: “What is that I don’t understand?”. This allows the students to be able to point to exactly what they don’t understand when…

  • Study Skill #1: Visualization

    I have been learning about how to study more effectively. For the next few blog posts, I would like to look at some of the things I learned. The first is using visualization for memorizing things. I got the idea from a TED talk where they said to attach something you want to memorize, a…

  • Hello. I am Josh. I am a Recovering Productivity Junkie

    I like to read productivity books. In fact, most of the books I read are either on productivity, habits or personal finance. I have a list of my favorites that will likely show up as a blog post in the near future. Recently, I realized I’ve read so much looking to “fix” my life and…

  • Put The Reps In.

    If you have been following my blog, you might remember me quoting James Clear talking about a study where there were two groups of photography students. Group A was the “quality group”. They had to produce was one photo for the entire semester. It had to be a great photo, their best work. Group B…

  • The Big 3

    In Michael Hyatt’s book Free To Focus, he talks about coming up with his “Big 3” for the week. He looks at all he needs to do for the week and eliminates some, automates some and delegates some. With what he has left, he assigns some to the “back burner” list, things he needs or…

  • Basic Transitions in Shotcut

    Here is a video showing how to do basic transitions in Shotcut to make your videos look smoother: