What’s your go-to study or memory hack?

[#1]

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to make learning stick—whether it’s prepping for an Atlassian certification, picking up a new Jira trick, or just trying to remember where I left my phone 😆

➡️ Here are a couple of my favorite study techniques:

• Active Recall: I love quizzing myself or making little flashcards. It’s amazing how much more I remember when I have to pull the answer out of my brain instead of just re-reading notes. This active engagement not only reinforces my memory but also makes studying more enjoyable.

• Chunking & Spaced Repetition: Breaking big topics into smaller chunks and reviewing them over a few days (instead of cramming) really helps me retain more, especially for any longer material. This method helps to reduce stress during the learning process.

• Study Groups: Studying with friends has proven to be an effective method for learning during my college years. Sometimes someone else’s explanation just makes it click, and it’s also a great way to stay motivated. You can create or search for a study group in the Training & Certification group to talk through any tricky topics with your peers!

I’m curious—what are your favorite ways to study or memorize new info? Any quirky hacks, apps, or rituals you swear by? Drop your tips below and tag a buddy so we can all level up together! 🚀

[Caity Belta]

+1 to study groups! Even virtual body doubling with @Kelly Stocker always helps me stay engaged with the topic I'm learning. 

to add, I find explaining the topic to someone who has little to no familiarity as a good way to gauge my own understanding! 

[Jay Jarman]

I never found study groups to be helpful.  Someone always derailed the conversation, and then all of a sudden, we weren't studying.  

If it's in a class environment, I find it helpful to review my notes and add things while it's still clear in my mind right after the class or within a couple of hours.

If it's a technical subject, I try to compare what I'm reading/learning to something I'm doing or have done.  It helps me to relate it to something I'm familiar with.  I retain it and learn rather than memorizing.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Chelsea Yang 

Thanks for this prompt!  I have found lots of helpful methods in this book to help learning-to-learn:

Pragmatic Thinking & Learning: Refactor Your Wetware, by Andy Hunt

It has lots of practical techniques for different contexts.  Ones I often use are:

• Explain something to a teammate.  This helps to slow one down, using your own language / style to explain something, and to answer questions about it, re-enforcing the information.  This one is also helpful for troubleshooting problems / defects.
• When reading a book on a topic...
  • Pause at the start of each chapter and write down on a sticky note what questions you want answered by the end of the chapter
  • When done with the chapter, refer back to the questions, adding your answers, and perhaps creating a mind map to summarize
  • Repeat with the next chapter
  • When done, leave the sticky notes in the book; they will provide reminders / refresher prompts when needed

Kind regards,
Bill

[Chelsea Yang]

@Jay Jarman Great point on relating your learning to something that you're familiar with! It definitely helps to connect the dots in your brain.

[Chelsea Yang]

@Bill Sheboy These are amazing techniques and insights from the book! I particularly love creating mind maps to summarize. I feel it's one of the best ways to visually represent your thoughts and processes. Thank you for sharing!

[Shaun Prinster]

Great prompt, @Chelsea Yang . I recently used ChatGPT to help me study for my PMP certification exam. I just fed it a bunch of project management terms and definitions and then told it to ask me multiple choice questions about the words. It was a great way to practice with PMP vocabulary. I told it to keep asking me questions about terms that I struggled with and ask less questions about terms I seemed to understand. It was really helpful! You can even tell it to write them in the style of the PMP certification exam to get you in the right mindset.

I also like @Caity Belta's suggestion of explaining things to someone else. There's no better way to learn than to teach it. When I can't find anyone willing to let me teach them about it, writing my own summaries of what I've learned is also helpful for me!

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

What @Bill Sheboy wrote, explaining it to someone else. Even when I write my own notes, I think of it as explaining it to myself. Also, anything that helps visualize the information, for example, was it the third item down in a list of things, or where was that paragraph on a page, or sentence in a paragraph.

But the main thing for me is if I'm interested in it. If I don't care that much, I'll drop the info far sooner. So I have to convince myself that I am interested. Even if it's just that I'm interested in passing an exam

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

Oh, and music with no words I can understand in it. 

[Kit Mitchell]

@Chelsea Yang - Absolutely love the flashcard method. What I have found is that the physical act of making the cards is a huge help to retaining information. That simple act of writing the information physically makes a difference for me. I have tried the online pre-made flashcards or even just making flashcards online and I did not have as much luck with it. I also found writing the answers into a notebook while practicing also helped.

@Matt Doar _Adaptavist_ - Yes, music! I found listening to classical really helps, but I know others who liked low-fi instrumentals for activities like coding. 

@Shaun Prinster - This is an awesome way to use CGPT that I have not seen or tried, thanks so much for sharing! I am absolutely going to try this out.

[Chelsea Yang]

@Shaun Prinster Such a creative way of using ChatGPT! I always use it to get answers and insights but never thought of asking it to give me questions. I love that you asked it to write in the style of the PMP exam—super smart idea!

[Chelsea Yang]

@Kit Mitchell I agree that the online version is just not the same! I always enjoy using physical index cards and actually writing down the answers.