This article obviously deals with a very limited scope of things that don't work, but rather unobviously, or maybe not, things that don't work for me.
In the realm of studying, the pomodoro thing just does not work for me. It just doesn't. I've tried this on and off since 2020, and my issue lies with the frequency of the breaks and their duration. It isn't too hard to figure out that I can change that, but idk working on that sort of fixed "schedule" doesn't really work. I'd rather have long bouts of work followed by long breaks rather than the opposite.
Flashcards, too. I have used these extensively, and they do work. My problem lies with making these. You can find decks online, and for the larger topics, they suffice. But y'know, nobody knows a deck as well as the person who made it. I think actually making a deck contributes to about 10% of the memorization I'm aiming for. Problem is, it takes time. Writing Latex, formatting, so on and so forth.
Dedicated study music also does not work. The whole genre of study music is, in all honesty, something I find repulsive. Not the concept of it, more so the kind of music it produces. Not my cup of tea. I've written about this before, but I prefer some instrumentals from actual albums I like. They generally have a degree of interesting-ness to them, and they're easier to loop on repeat for so long that you forget you're playing a song in the first place. They have that quality, but it doesn't get boring too fast. Hence, this is why I have about 170 plays on the song "Intermission" from the soundtrack to Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, 120 on "Pick up your burning cross" from Sons of Kemet, 82 on "Permanent Daylight", 70 on "Meeting in the Aisle" and 52 on "No Agreement Pt. 2" by Fela Kuti (reading off of my stats on Quod Libet, obviously not accounting for the number of times I've played songs in other apps (I recall about 250 on "Weather Storm" from Massive Attack)). Not all of what I've listed are instrumentals, but they're lighter on the vocals/lyrics and easy to play in the background. They're interesting enough to keep studying interesting, but not too interesting.
Group studying. I love it but it is rarely fruitful. Distractions are just too easy, so are tangents and irrelevant discussion. It's enjoyable but not particularly useful.
Notes (in the context of education). I'm still mixed on just how useful notes are. Moreover, I'm going to wait a fair bit longer to assert a proper stance on notes, but for now I'm mixed. I doubt they're that useful, but I still think they have some use. That some is what I'm still undecided on.
Moving a bit further from the realm of studying, to-do lists. For me, not at all. I'll manage putting tasks in there, 9 times out of 10. I'll do it. Managing that list is just not something I want to do. I cannot be bothered to enter that app and tick off everything I've done. Widgets? Same story. I just don't care enough. I have a to-do app on my phone, but it's exclusively reminders only at this point, and that gets the job done.
The degree of organisation in my life is something with a huge question mark over it for now, for me. I have yet to see how my degree of organisation is affecting me, and obviously, things are going to change. I might end up warming up to to-do apps, who knows?
This article was written on 19/12/2023. If you have any thoughts, feel free to send me an email with them. Have a nice day!