Super human learning and organization
March 21, 2024 5:04 AM Subscribe
I am starting a job that will be fast paced, require me to learn an entirely new domain, and track and organize a lot of tasks and a lot of people. As I have gotten older, my memory and processing speed isn't what it used to be. I have never been super detail oriented. What tips, tricks, tools, and techniques do you use to keep your mind sharp, learn new things, and keep everything organized? Answers ranging from sleeping more or using a giant Google Sheet or Anki cards or leveraging ChatGPT are all welcome.
find information sources that teach you the same thing in different ways. maybe you work better in one way over another. also, getting different points of view of a topic may help to sharpen your point of view. use chatGPT or Copilot to begin a dialogue around what you need (find a good “prompt” cheatsheet). if they exist around you, find user groups or conferences etc. about your topics. find peers and sparring partners. talking with others helps me break down what I know vs. don’t know vs. have misunderstood.
posted by alchemist at 6:49 AM on March 21
posted by alchemist at 6:49 AM on March 21
I find that I'm constantly deluding myself that I'll remember to do things... and then I find that I forget them anyway. Like I'll tell myself in the evening that I need to bring a particular notebook to work, and then I forget to grab it the next morning. The solution is to write Post-It notes to myself (or use some other written way to remind myself to do tasks), but my brain is always like, "Nah, don't worry about it, Bro. You'll remember it without the note". Anyway, my suggestion to you is to write everything down in one place and don't rely on your memory.
posted by alex1965 at 7:12 AM on March 21 [5 favorites]
posted by alex1965 at 7:12 AM on March 21 [5 favorites]
I found OneNote to be very useful for taking notes and organizing knowledge regarding a new domain. Where it was better for me than paper notes was the search function.
Regarding keeping track of tasks, it depends on the nature of tasks. If they're tasks for me and for which other people do not need visibility, then task list in Outlook, or jotting them down in a paper notebook will do. If other people need visibility, then something like Trello or whatever similar tool your company makes available to you (e.g. Airtable, Monday.com, etc.).
posted by needled at 7:25 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]
Regarding keeping track of tasks, it depends on the nature of tasks. If they're tasks for me and for which other people do not need visibility, then task list in Outlook, or jotting them down in a paper notebook will do. If other people need visibility, then something like Trello or whatever similar tool your company makes available to you (e.g. Airtable, Monday.com, etc.).
posted by needled at 7:25 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]
Block out time in your daily schedule for deep focus that is not interrupted by emails or jumping from crisis to crisis.
posted by heatherlogan at 7:30 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 7:30 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Do something with the knowledge. Write a summary. Use it to do some investigation or analysis. Test theories. Trying to use it exposes gaps in your understanding and builds stronger connections as you fill those in.
posted by bfranklin at 7:33 AM on March 21 [13 favorites]
posted by bfranklin at 7:33 AM on March 21 [13 favorites]
As part of my strategy, I use both Google calendar and a paper calendar. The paper calendar is updated monthly with notes for various items due/deadlines and has been a big help. Also good for making notes on days in future months, and when I flip the calendar to that month I am alerted to things coming up.
For email, if I get a task that can be done immediately (under 2 minutes or so), I just do it right away no matter what else I'm in the middle of doing.
posted by Glinn at 9:29 AM on March 21
For email, if I get a task that can be done immediately (under 2 minutes or so), I just do it right away no matter what else I'm in the middle of doing.
posted by Glinn at 9:29 AM on March 21
Like I'll tell myself in the evening that I need to bring a particular notebook to work, and then I forget to grab it the next morning
I have gotten in the habit of having a spot where I put all the things I have to take as I go about my business in the morning. It happens to be a corner of the foot of my bed, but other things would do. So, I wake up, maybe I check something on my phone, and then I put the phone there. I take my morning meds using my water bottle, which has spent the night on my nightstand, and then I put it there. When I leave the room to take my shower, I put my glasses there. I move my "stay organized" notebook from the nightstand to there, after checking it.
The night before, I often write a quick list of what I need to take in the morning in my stay organized notebook, when I'm also writing down my schedule for the day, and to-do items. I have a calendar and to-do app on my phone, where everything lives, but I find it really helps me to think it through the night before on paper.
So, for instance, my "take" list for this morning was:
leftover pizza
notebook
phone
kindle
coffee
water bottle
I'll second bfranklin that writing even very brief notes after, say, reading a book helps me retain what I read. I can look at my book list (I'm currently keeping a list of what I read, but I don't always) and read even the barest description, like, "About the reality of space colonization. Surprisingly funny. Good." can be enough to bring up, "Oh, yeah, that book," for me.
posted by Well I never at 9:35 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]
I have gotten in the habit of having a spot where I put all the things I have to take as I go about my business in the morning. It happens to be a corner of the foot of my bed, but other things would do. So, I wake up, maybe I check something on my phone, and then I put the phone there. I take my morning meds using my water bottle, which has spent the night on my nightstand, and then I put it there. When I leave the room to take my shower, I put my glasses there. I move my "stay organized" notebook from the nightstand to there, after checking it.
The night before, I often write a quick list of what I need to take in the morning in my stay organized notebook, when I'm also writing down my schedule for the day, and to-do items. I have a calendar and to-do app on my phone, where everything lives, but I find it really helps me to think it through the night before on paper.
So, for instance, my "take" list for this morning was:
leftover pizza
notebook
phone
kindle
coffee
water bottle
I'll second bfranklin that writing even very brief notes after, say, reading a book helps me retain what I read. I can look at my book list (I'm currently keeping a list of what I read, but I don't always) and read even the barest description, like, "About the reality of space colonization. Surprisingly funny. Good." can be enough to bring up, "Oh, yeah, that book," for me.
posted by Well I never at 9:35 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]
Best answer: “Active recall” has been shown to help learning and retaining information. After you read something, try to recall the main takeaways and insights, try to explain what you learned, best in writing. It’ll also help identify parts you haven’t quite understood and need to look at again.
posted by meijusa at 10:26 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]
posted by meijusa at 10:26 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]
Exercise. It can make a staggering amount of difference, if you just get up after you learn something and review what you learned, while doing a walking circuit of your building.
Figure out where you are struggling and drill down. The chances are you don't know the basic rules and exceptions and are just guessing and trying to form patterns without actually knowing what pattern you are trying to match.
Whenever you can proofread the next day, reading out loud, if necessary in a whisper that your cubbie mate can't hear. This will require you to get everything you can done a day early, complete and ready to share, and then come back and proofread it before sending it out.
Make notes while looking at your material. Then make notes without looking at the material or at the notes you made, relying only on your memory. If there is a huge difference, you now know what you need to review until it sticks with you. There will probably be a HUGE difference at first, which can be scary, but is to be expected.
posted by Jane the Brown at 11:03 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]
Figure out where you are struggling and drill down. The chances are you don't know the basic rules and exceptions and are just guessing and trying to form patterns without actually knowing what pattern you are trying to match.
Whenever you can proofread the next day, reading out loud, if necessary in a whisper that your cubbie mate can't hear. This will require you to get everything you can done a day early, complete and ready to share, and then come back and proofread it before sending it out.
Make notes while looking at your material. Then make notes without looking at the material or at the notes you made, relying only on your memory. If there is a huge difference, you now know what you need to review until it sticks with you. There will probably be a HUGE difference at first, which can be scary, but is to be expected.
posted by Jane the Brown at 11:03 AM on March 21 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The excellent free course Learning How to Learn helped me optimize studying for a certification exam: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn I learned about it on MeFi. Thank you, MeFi!
posted by charcoals at 12:06 PM on March 21 [6 favorites]
posted by charcoals at 12:06 PM on March 21 [6 favorites]
Block out time in your daily schedule for deep focus that is not interrupted by emails or jumping from crisis to crisis.
This. Is. Critical.
Instead of trying to be “superhuman”, learn to work better with what humans can and can’t do. Know your limits and respect them, because a limit that’s pushed too far will just cost you more in repair and recovery. Your brain, any brain, has a FINITE amount of daily focus and attention capability. In order to make the most of it, and not burn it down too quickly, give it times during the day to recover from use. The brain is like a muscle, if it’s pushed too far for too long, it will lose its ability to work optimally.
As a fellow older-getting person with intense work demands, i cannot 2nd hard enough the above recommendations for sleep. Do not fuck with your sleep. If sleep becomes a problem make it your job to get that sorted.
This is such a great post. I’m learning a lot from it and hope you do too.
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 6:06 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]
This. Is. Critical.
Instead of trying to be “superhuman”, learn to work better with what humans can and can’t do. Know your limits and respect them, because a limit that’s pushed too far will just cost you more in repair and recovery. Your brain, any brain, has a FINITE amount of daily focus and attention capability. In order to make the most of it, and not burn it down too quickly, give it times during the day to recover from use. The brain is like a muscle, if it’s pushed too far for too long, it will lose its ability to work optimally.
As a fellow older-getting person with intense work demands, i cannot 2nd hard enough the above recommendations for sleep. Do not fuck with your sleep. If sleep becomes a problem make it your job to get that sorted.
This is such a great post. I’m learning a lot from it and hope you do too.
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 6:06 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]
P.s. lots of research has been done finding that exercise helps memory. It doesn’t have to be 5 miles in the bike at the gym. A walk down the street can help.
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 6:23 PM on March 21
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 6:23 PM on March 21
Start your day early and look over the next two days of your calendar to prepare. Who will I be seeing? What do I already know about them? What do I need to be an expert on before I talk to them? I say to look over the next two days, because if a task isn't clear, I want to be able to ask questions before it's time. For instance, if I see a meeting on my calendar in the next two days, with no agenda, I ask the person who scheduled it, "Is there an agenda? I want to make sure I come to the meeting prepared to discuss details." Then if they do provide an agenda before the end of the day, you still have time the next morning to prepare.
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:09 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:09 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]
A walk down the street can help.
Walking is, in fact, an activity that burns a non-negligible amount of calories per hour. It's pretty good given that it's an activity that doesn't require a special outfit or a shower afterward. So if you have a chance to integrate purposeful or mind-clearing walking into your daily schedule, you should absolutely do it and not worry about how many less calories it burns compared to something else. It's still very useful to the mind.
posted by brianvan at 9:59 PM on March 21
Walking is, in fact, an activity that burns a non-negligible amount of calories per hour. It's pretty good given that it's an activity that doesn't require a special outfit or a shower afterward. So if you have a chance to integrate purposeful or mind-clearing walking into your daily schedule, you should absolutely do it and not worry about how many less calories it burns compared to something else. It's still very useful to the mind.
posted by brianvan at 9:59 PM on March 21
Best answer: Do something with the knowledge. Write a summary.
I write a lot of process documents as I'm learning something new. As I encounter gaps in my knowledge I will write out a question in red font at any point I'm misunderstanding or not clear on something, and will go back and fill them in when I find the answer. As I fill in more blanks in the process I will go through the document and edit for clarity, reorder steps if necessary, add notes, etc. I use the outline format for these so it's pretty easy to move things around or add a level underneath an item to add sub-items when further breakdown is needed for clarity. I try to write my process documents considering the point of view of someone who would need to sit down and work through the process using just my document.
i also often use the outline format (or bullet points separated by topic headings) when I'm creating an overview of all the information I have about a topic even if it isn't a process.
Another thing I do is make a simple reference sheet in Google. In the left column I put an item, and in columns to the right I put a short explanation of what I need to know about the item. When I worked as a receptionist I made a keyword reference to help me remember all the terms callers would use, what the term meant and where to route the call. In my current role, I get a lot of documents in email and each one is supposed to trigger some action from me. At first it was overwhelming, so again I created a reference spreadsheet with the document name, what I needed to do when I received it, and other pertinent information. It was a lifeline in the early days of my position.
Putting together reference materials of any type reinforces the knowledge (you gain deeper understanding as you attempt to put together a coherent outline), it creates a resource you can use if you forget something, and as a bonus you now have training materials if you ever need to teach someone else.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 4:43 AM on March 22 [2 favorites]
I write a lot of process documents as I'm learning something new. As I encounter gaps in my knowledge I will write out a question in red font at any point I'm misunderstanding or not clear on something, and will go back and fill them in when I find the answer. As I fill in more blanks in the process I will go through the document and edit for clarity, reorder steps if necessary, add notes, etc. I use the outline format for these so it's pretty easy to move things around or add a level underneath an item to add sub-items when further breakdown is needed for clarity. I try to write my process documents considering the point of view of someone who would need to sit down and work through the process using just my document.
i also often use the outline format (or bullet points separated by topic headings) when I'm creating an overview of all the information I have about a topic even if it isn't a process.
Another thing I do is make a simple reference sheet in Google. In the left column I put an item, and in columns to the right I put a short explanation of what I need to know about the item. When I worked as a receptionist I made a keyword reference to help me remember all the terms callers would use, what the term meant and where to route the call. In my current role, I get a lot of documents in email and each one is supposed to trigger some action from me. At first it was overwhelming, so again I created a reference spreadsheet with the document name, what I needed to do when I received it, and other pertinent information. It was a lifeline in the early days of my position.
Putting together reference materials of any type reinforces the knowledge (you gain deeper understanding as you attempt to put together a coherent outline), it creates a resource you can use if you forget something, and as a bonus you now have training materials if you ever need to teach someone else.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 4:43 AM on March 22 [2 favorites]
I have a personal wiki that basically functions as my external brain. It's in OneNote, but you could use any similar software that feels good to you. When I am first learning about a new topic I infodump everything onto the wiki as an easy place to find that information if I forget it. But over time pages get refined into guides and to-do lists designed to help me with the tasks I'm most likely to need help with when I arrive on that page. Many of my pages later end up transformed into job aids or knowledgebase pages that I shared with my team.
posted by moleplayingrough at 5:13 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
posted by moleplayingrough at 5:13 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]
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And yeah, try Trello, Airtable, etc. - find some project management tool that works for you.
posted by coffeecat at 6:16 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]