
Ask HN: If you were paid to learn, 8 hours a day, what would be your routine? - TbobbyZ
What you are learning would have to be software development related and the end goal would be to become an expert. At the end of the week you would have to have something to show how you spent your time. This question isn&#x27;t about what tech you would learn, but more so how you would maximize your time spent to become and expert as soon as possible.
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new_hackers

        6:00 am - wakeup
        6:10 am - jog
        6:30 am - nutritious breakfast including fruit, carbs, protein and water
        7:00 am - shower
        7:30 am - coffee (limited) and classical music
        8:00 am - review learning list and choose focus
        8:30 am - focus and learn
        10:00 am - stretching, situps, pushups followed by water
        10:15 am - focus and learn
        11:45 am - evaluate learning, update learning list
        noon - nutritious lunch (limited) with water
        12:30 pm - bike ride
        1:00 pm - review learning list and choose focus
        1:30 pm - focus and learn
        3:00 pm - weightlifting followed by water
        3:30 pm - focus and learn
        5:00 pm - evaluate learning, update learning list
        5:30 pm - dinner (limited)
        6:00 pm - your time
        9:00 pm - bedtime
    

When I was unemployed, this is the routine I followed. I was able to pick up
quite a few technologies that helped me in my current job. Notice that quite a
bit of the routine is focused on YOU. If you feel good, and confident about
yourself, you can learn a lot.

~~~
ns28
Wow, that's really cool. How consistent were you with this? Was it harder on
some days, either because of lack of motivation or other things came in your
way? How did you fit your job search into this? I'm unemployed at the moment
so trying to figure out a routine.

~~~
new_hackers
Yeah it was harder at first, but once I got my rhythm it worked. Also I was
unmarried, so that made it muuuuch easier. I would do job searches in the
mornings, programming in the afternoon. Also note that after 6 on Friday I was
"off" until Monday, so I used that time for dating/socializing etc.

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GoToRO
Like most situations, you will get the wrong answer until you find the right
way to ask the question. If the goal is to maximize time spent, then what you
have to do is learn how your body works. And your body works in a certain way,
you just have to comply. If you fight it, you will get worse results. I'm
saying all this because from the question one might believe that you can
-choose- your routine. What I've found is that you have to discover it, you
have to discover how your body works.

Wake up with the Sun.

Eat.

Internet 1 hour, or other activity that will warm up your brain. (~8:30 am in
the summer)

Learn, 2-3 hours for real, maximum 4 hours for the whole activity.

Gym 1 hour.

Shower.

Eat.

Go outside.

Eat, before 18:00 ideally, before 19:00 in practice. Food will keep you awake
during the night and you won't be able to wake up with the Sun!

Sleep (~23:00, ~8 hours). You have to choose your bed time depending on when
the Sun rises.

Source: 5 years of searching for this + 2 years of doing this, without being
paid :|

~~~
matthewvincent
Totally agree. I spent most of my twenties thinking I worked best at night and
couldn't handle waking up early. Fast forward and now I'm up at 6:30 and in
bed by 10:00, substantially more productive than before.

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me_not_brucelee
I would divide my moments into

1\. meta learning

2\. learning from multi perspectives

3\. retention

Meta Learning

Ask yourself, "why are you learning this?", "what pre-knowledge I need to
learn this material?", "Is there anyway to learn this faster?", "Why am I
getting stuck on this?", "Do i need to update a previous assumption?".
Metacognition, or the awareness of own thinking, is a very powerful method to
improve thinking skill on any domain.

Learning

Use The Feynman Technique. The idea is any jargon used in particular domain
can expressed with more common day to day words. This not the same as using
analogy, avoid analogies. In feynman technique you are thinking below the
word, using more simpler word to describe things. Once you have understood an
idea, then subscribe to the jargon for that idea. Another way is to build a
semantic tree of the things you learn, essentially build a huge graph where
ideas are connected. Dont make disconnected clusters of ideas.

Retention

You can learn as much as you want but there is no point if you remember
nothing. Use a mind map, reorganize according to your work. Just because a
book has its own index, doesnt mean you can't reorganize the information
according to your thoughts. Bookmark high quality links and resource, ditch
meager resouces/links. Write code, practice what you have learned! Teach
others! Teaching is the most effective retention method, because it challenges
your own understanding.

Edit: Your prove of learning can be shown using everything you use to retain
the knowledge.

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opendomain
Here is my suggestion: Learn how to learn

Find what techniques work for you - keep on trying different methods. GTD by
Pomodoro or Task Tracking Learn by reading, videos, doing, instructing others
Vary intensity: some days are 10 hours of studying, while some are dreaming
days

I would LOVE to be able to spend more time learning - I have a website about
NoSQL that I want to train on BigData, but I am always too busy working

------
convolvatron
\- take on aggressive project. a distributed operating system, a novel static
optimization technique, some kind of concurrency model, a lower bound for an
unsolved problem

\- find good resources to work with, or at least to give regular input so I
don't end up wandering off into the weeds

\- try to take it as far as I can, until its obviously going to fail

\- start with another

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pedrodelfino
Cool question and some great answers.

I would try the following:

\- 8-9 hours of sleep per day;

\- 1 hour of some physical activity everyday;

\- 7/8 meals through out the day (3-to-3 hours interval);

\- 8 pomodoro sprints per day.Each pomodoro sprint as a 45 minutes focus
session. While studying focus on the process not the result. This reduces
anxiety;

\- at the end of every day: make a brief self-assessment session, writing a
paragraph about what you have accomplished. Now the focus is on the result.

\- use Rescue Time to track what you do, be aware of the distractions and try
to limit them;

\- do not work on Sundays. Work on Saturdays as a regular day.

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tmaly
I would first tackle the mindset needed for peak learning.

Josh Waitzkin has some good coverage in his book The Art of Learning.

How to Solve it by Polya has some good strategies on how to solve math
problems that are applicable to broader problems and learning.

Thinking as a Science by Henry Hazlitt covers a broad approach to learning
anything.

I would probably read these books and try to find a few others to really get
my mind in a state where it needs to be to learn.

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bbcbasic
First order of business would be to crack open the champagne

~~~
TbobbyZ
why?

~~~
bbcbasic
The bit about being "paid to learn" and also having the freedom to decide how
to do it.

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csallen
I'd follow the advice from this guy who finished four years of MIT CS classes
in one year: [http://calnewport.com/blog/2012/10/26/mastering-linear-
algeb...](http://calnewport.com/blog/2012/10/26/mastering-linear-algebra-
in-10-days-astounding-experiments-in-ultra-learning/)

~~~
zerr
Don't do that. Retention rate is significantly lower during "fast learning",
i.e. after some time you forget most of the things you've learned.

~~~
csallen
Where's the research on that? I would be tremendously surprised if that result
held for learning a variety of interwoven topics that depend on (or are at
least related to) each other, e.g. a bunch of CS classes. I'd be similarly
surprised if that result held for learning something that you also use
regularly as part of your hobby or job (e.g. programming).

~~~
zerr
Well, what you mention is basically a continuation of learning... That's not
what I was talking about.

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xkcd-sucks
It sounds like the users are being paid to produce proof of learning weekly,
not learn.

So probably: Plagiarize a bunch of stuff, sign up with a bunch of names/get
unemployed crusty friends to make class presentations, and milk it for money
as long as possible.

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JSeymourATL
> how you would maximize your time spent...

I would try to have 1:1 (paid) consulting sessions with established experts in
the field. Huge insights and breakthroughs come from individual conversations.

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DrNuke
In learning mode as an adult you should really spend 12-14 hours a day
thinking and tinkering, 2-3 months max. It has to be both a challenge and a
boost.

