Q & A: Complicated Study Systems, Complicated Productivity Software, and Complicated Achievements

From the reader mailbag:

I want to know about your studying strategies, beyond just quiz and recall. While I do find the quiz and recall method to be VERY helpful it doesn’t offer much structure in comparison with say the SQ4R or 4S=M methods. Is there a way to reconcile these methods with your quiz and recall method? Perhaps you can describe your blow by blow study sessions including what you do with the notes you take in class.

Cal responds:

I’ve never met a high-scoring student who used a system like SQ4R. The reason: they’re too time-consuming! What these students do instead is discover simple, streamlined and devastatingly effective heuristics that can be easily adapted to specific classes. The three biggies described in How to Become a Straight-A Student are:

• Quiz-and-Recall: Review by explaining the idea or demonstrating the problem out loud, as if lecturing a class.
• Question/Evidence/Conclusion Note-Taking: Gather the information in lecture and reading assignments into big ideas — described by a question, a conclusion, and the bullet-point notes that connect the two.
• Sample Problem Gathering: In technical courses, attempt to gather as many sample problems as possible. If you don’t understand the example or technique being explained ask a question right away.

All of my studying follows from some combination of these simple techniques…

From the reader mailbag:

I don’t know if you address this in your books or not, but what kind of software do you recommend for keeping productive?

Cal responds:

None. Or, equivalently: whatever. Here’s my thought: If you follow the first two pillars of the Straight-A Method — (1) capture and regularly review everything you need to do, and (2) plan the hours of the day — you’ll be as productive as you need to be. Whether this means a cheap paper calendar on your desk or a ridiculously sophisticated piece of tricked-out GTD goodness, so be it. Just make sure it’s simple enough that you actually use it.

In case your curious, here’s what I do: I use Google calendar to keep track of day-specific things. I store my tasks in Gmail. Most of my obligations show up as e-mail so the easiest possible way to process them is to slap on a label and then hit “archive.”

When I was an undergraduate, by comparison, I used some freebie calendar program on my iMac and tracked my tasks on a legal pad. They key was always to use whatever seemed easiest at the time.

From the reader mailbag:

I’ve noticed recently that you’ve been emphasizing the idea of focusing on a single activity/goal/project in order to accomplish something significant. I have a question on the exception to the rule: Polymaths. Do you think your philosophy applies to individuals such as Ben Franklin or Da Vinci.

Cal responds:

Here’s the problem. People think they can become a polymath by keeping a brand in several different fires. In the end, however, they become competent, but not unequivocally successful in each of the endeavors. The real reward-generating, stand out achievements tend to come from really focusing on one thing. Reflecting on people I’ve encountered who have are known for several grand accomplishments, it typically turns out that their first big score came from obsessive focus. (Franklin, for example, first became a successful printer, then turned to his science experiments, which made him famous, then turned more attention to political activities.) My point: it’s harder than you think to become really good at just one thing, so why make things even harder by gunning for more at the same time?