Josh's Blog

Author: Josh

  • Study Skill #11: Give Good Distractions a Time and a Place

    We all have things to do, errands to run, people to see. These are what I would call “Good distractions”. They are things that we need to do in order to do our job but they are not the key object of our job itself. Michael Hyatt would call these “Backstage Tasks”. He has three…

  • Study Skill #10: Prayer

    One study skill that is often overlooked is prayer. We need God’s guidance and direction in our lives and His strength in our studies. Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”…

  • Study Skill #9: Teach to Learn Better

    Recently, I have been teaching what I learned through conversations with my friends and on this blog. It has helped me to think through what I need to do to apply what I’ve learned. It challenges me to do what I advise other people to do. To pass on what you’ve learned is to challenge…

  • Study Skill #8: Focus Defined Differently

    According to Daniel Goleman, focus is not keeping your attention focused on one thing for an extended period of time. Focus is bringing your attention back when it wanders. Our brains are wired to be distracted a good chunk of the time. The goal is not letting that distraction de-rail our work but bring our…

  • Study Skill #7: Write It Down

    Simple, yet powerful. If you think of something you need to do that isn’t truly urgent, write it down. Don’t give it the power to derail your study session. Keeping a notebook next to you as you study is a very useful tactic. I need to get back into doing this, it helps me significantly.…

  • In Defense of the Paragraph

    Edit 2/3/2022: 3-4 sentences is actually a better paragraph and writing like this can serve a useful purpose. I just didn’t know it at the time.   I want to take a break from my study skills series to defend the paragraph. In blogs like this, where I’m writing short thoughts, there is a tendency…

  • 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…