No-BS Guide to Lifehacking Studying for High Leverage Skill Set Acquisition
| Ⓒ By Jonathan Roseland |
I'm not a doctor, medical professional, or trained therapist. I'm a researcher and pragmatic biohacking practitioner exercising free speech to share evidence as I find it. I make no claims. Please practice skepticism and rational critical thinking. You should consult a professional about any serious decisions that you might make about your health. Affiliate links in this article support Limitless Mindset - spend over $150 and you'll be eligible to join the Limitless Mindset Secret Society.
Whether you're a college student hustling hard to get your degree in engineering or software development or just trying to learn a second language these biohacks and lifehacking tools will optimize your mind, take time off your learning curve, and improve your study habits.
I'll suggest that you start with an in-depth (and amusing) podcast #18 High Leverage Skill Set Acquisition
Mind Map Your Future
To instill powerful motivation in your studying, first of all, I'd encourage you to take some time (20-40 minutes) to Mind Map your future. I like the software MindMeister which you can use for free for this. Create a 5 Year Self Determination Flowchart
It's well said that we often overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what we can achieve in 5 years.
In 1 year you'll likely be pretty similar to what you are right now.
It's also kind of hard to say what your life will be like in 10 years, some people's lives radically change for the better or worse in 10 years.
However, in half that time your life will likely still have a significant resemblance to what it is now.
I would like you to make optimistic predictions about what your life could look like in 5 years in these areas...
Business or Career
Education and Learning
Family and Friends
Finances
Health and Fitness
Hobbies
Relationships & Sex
Things
Travel & Adventure
Where will you live?
What would an average day or week look like?
I want you to strike a balance between your wildest fantasies and a reasonable prediction of how you will be living if you practice your best habits with discipline. Here's mine
Perhaps you can draw some inspiration or ideas from it.
The Best Study Drugs
Study drugs are something that gets a bit overhyped, I've tried over a hundred Nootropics and frankly, there's just a few of them which actually make a difference in your study habits and biohacking your capacity to learn faster and better.
Piracetam -- The quintessential smart drug that after 10-14 days of dosing consistently improves your long term memory. For many, this is the closest thing to the fictional drug NZT-48 which opens up your long-term memory of facts, data, and things you read in books years ago. Order Piracetam
Oxiracetam -- A non-stimulatory Nootropic that notably enhances will power for 4-6 hours. I can Oxiracetam the discipline molecule because I'm able to stay focused on whatever I should be doing while dosed on it. Order Oxiracetam
Caffeine+L-Theanine -- Energizing caffeine and tranquilizing L-Theanine is one of the most loved study drug combinations. You can, of course, alternate drinking coffee and green tea but it only works if you drink high-quality coffee. If you can't afford to drink organic, toxin-free coffee frequently or don't like coffee you can take a Caffeine+L-Theanine stack.
Modafinil -- A hardcore vigilance agent used by militaries and Air Forces. It's a hardcore promoter of focus and wakefulness. For 8-10 hours it will put you deep in the focus zone and you'll be very awake. Order Modafinil
Nicotine -- I would recommend Nicotine highly to students who need a creative edge to write a great paper. Nicotine is also probably the best short-burning Nootropic, that's why sometimes I'll use it in the evening when I just need another 90 minutes of solid productivity without disturbing my sleep. I don't smoke cigarettes or vape, I supplement pharma-grade Nicotine.
Lifehacking Tools for Studying
Brain.FM -- Focus is crucial to studying and mastering anything. This is an app that I use every day, it plays cool algorithmic music optimized to improve focus and creativity. There are many places on the Internet where you can find free-focus promoting algorithmic music tracks but I paid full price for a lifetime Brain.FM membership because I knew that if I paid good money for it I would actually use it and the 1-2 hours of deep thought and true productivity that I get daily thanks to Brain.FM makes it one of the best software investments I've ever made!
Coach.me -- Study habits matter and an unquantified habit is a forgotten one. I'll suggest you try this seriously addictive habit formation App and social accountability tool. So it leverages your digital narcissism to train you winning habits with scary consistency. I've used it too...
- Master a second language
- Learn to salsa dance
- Overcome my approach anxiety
- Write daily
- Practice a daily meditation practice
- Stay sober while practicing ethical hedonism
- Brain training daily for OVER a hundred days straight
Yes. It's free (and ad-free). It synchronizes beautifully between your Android, iPhone, and web browser. This is hands down my most useful lifehacking tool, it's one of the few pieces of technology that makes me MORE productive, consistently. It takes about 30 seconds to Download it.
SuperMemo -- This is very clever software that uses an algorithm that uses the spaced-repetition model of memory to predict when you're going to forget something that you study and it prompts you to review the information that you're trying to commit to memory at the optimal time for learning efficiency. They have several apps for language learning that are quite good but you could use their flashcard software to learn anything.
Spritz -- Is a super-speed reading tool. That serially flashes words very quickly. It's not the best way to speed read a book but it can be excellent for reviewing something that you've already read. It has a web browser plugin and an android app.
Duolingo -- This is the best language learning app that I've found for learning Spanish, French, Russian, or any number of other languages.
Evernote -- Is probably the best note-taking app for recording your thoughts and to-do lists.
Books
Mastery by Robert Greene -- This book explores a number of historical cases of mastery and presents a cogent methodology for attaining mastery in a given domain.
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss -- Tim's 700-page summarization of hundreds of hours of Tim podcast. An exhaustive exploration of lifehacks for optimal skill set acquisition.
The Memory Book -- The classic book on memory systems for remembering facts, data, stories, people's names, etc. The memory systems in it are fun and do make your memory better.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! -- If you're a student of science or technology you may enjoy Richard Feynman's very charming autobiography.
Do you have ADHD?
Many students suffer from this confusing condition, as a young man and high schooler I struggled inside and outside of the classroom because of my ADHD but today I've overcome it. This video explains how...
Apps vs OS Philosophy
This podcast is about general personal development but it contains a powerful duality that you need to understand if you want to optimize your capacity to learn effectively and deeply.
Stop Being Lazy!
Many students feel like laziness holds them back from being great students. This podcast and article features 17 Lifehacks for Beating Chronic Laziness
Playing the Young & Ambitious Card
This podcast may be worth a listen, it's about how to leverage your appeal as a young and ambitious student to network and advance yourself.
The High Leverage Information Diet
You hear a lot of gurus talk about this confusing topic of information diet. To learn you need to absorb a lot of information but apparently too much information is a bad thing. In this animated vlog-style manifesto on information, I go deep on methods and philosophy for maximal information metabolism.
Diet Hacking
Diet really matters to studying. The right diet keeps you motivated and focused while the wrong diet or junk food will put your biology through this spike/crash cycle that makes it challenging to learn anything meaningful. If you're a student you may not have much money to spend on food so I'll suggest the $1 diet hack of eating raw coconuts.
Sleep Hacking
Sleep really matters. It's when the things you study get transferred into your long term memory. Apply these sleep hacks...
Need accountability?
Sometimes what you need to get ahead academically is somebody to put some pressure on you. There's all these motivational mechanisms and tools but sometimes what outperforms all of them is just someone else's expectations of you. A lot of people ask their friends, family, or significant other to be their accountability partner BUT there's a lot of downsides to this -- it introduces some tension and pressure to the relationship and rob harmony from the relationships that should be the most reinvigorating and comforting -- many have ruined their marriages and friendships this way. I suggest coaching -- hire a life coach or expert consultant -- but this can expensive and time-consuming, which is why we offer a very lean biohacking consulting/life coaching program. Here's how this would work...
- The Biohacking Consultation is 1 hour and 45 minutes total - which is actually two consulting calls.
- First Call 1 hour - Discovery & Strategizing call, I need to ask you some questions, we'll discuss your history and outline a biohacking strategy and action plan to overcome your issues.
- Second Call 45 minutes - Follow up call in 30 or 60 days to see how you're doing with the plan we outlined; how you've improved, what you're struggling with, etc
There are a few important reasons we split the time up into two calls
- It's a significant motivation hack for you to follow through on the biohacking habits and plan we'll outline because you're accountable to me in 30 or 60 days.
- I'm incentivized to come up with a really effective biohacking strategy for you because I have to talk to you after you've been following it for a month or two.
- It timeboxes us with a deadline of 30 or 60 days for you to make improvements and accomplish your goals.
Your Skin in the game here that you're paying good money for this and you're accountable to me on another call in 30 or 60 days. You'll have to explain your lack of action if you fail to follow through.
My Skin in the game here is that I'll offer a 60-day money-back guarantee on this life coaching. If my coaching and action plan really fails you can have your money back. For this reason, I don't accept everyone as a client.
PLEASE fill out this form
http://www.limitlessmindset.com/membership/consultations
Take a few minutes to answer a few questions, if your issues are far outside my areas of expertise I'll decline the consultation. My time is finite and very valuable so I only want to spend it consulting the people I can really help. Thanks in advance for your understanding!
Please respond...
Either below in the comments (or for privacy, send me an email or social media message)
What are you studying? What skill or topic is really crucial to getting ahead? What do you, frustratingly, fail to learn, or habituate?
Finally...
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Get frequent free edifying content about Biohacking, Lifehacking, and my holistic pragmatic antifragility philosophy. This informative (and often entertaining!) Substack is about how to take advantage of the latest anti-aging and Biohacking science and where I dispense timely mindset nuggets, lifehacking tips, and my own musings.-
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