

Ask HN: Most efficient practice schedule for learning? - javahava

I surprisingly couldn't find much information about this online. Say you're trying to learn a new skill, whether it's guitar, a new language, coding, or even a sport like golf. Are there general guidelines to follow for the most efficient practice schedule? Is it "x" hours a day of deliberate practice? Is it daily with breaks every few days, or basically just get as much practice in as possible?  How do you best optimize your practice to improvement ratio?
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pella
From my collections:

Review of Mnemosyne vs. Anki vs. SuperMemo
<http://nihongoperapera.com/mnemosyne-anki-review.html>

Open Source Anki: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anki>

Open Source Mnemosyne: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemosyne_(software)>

Some science: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgetting_curve>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition>

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And my favorites for language learning: <http://www.smart.fm/>

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tokenadult
This should get you started, the primary research source for many of the
current ideas on deliberate practice:

[http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracti...](http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.pdf)

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ekpyrotic
Thanks tokenadult, great article.

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parse_tree
In my experience, LONG practice sessions are much more effective than short
ones. E.g., I've found I get far more out of one 8 hour practice session than
four 2 hour sessions.

I'd also say you need to do it intensely - you've got to be into and "feeling"
what you're doing. If you're just sitting there waiting for your 3 hours of
"practice time" to elapse so you can go chill you may as well just not do it.

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andymism
The value of very long practice sessions probably depends at lot on the skill
you're trying to acquire. If it's a mechanical/physical skill, then the muscle
groups involved would be a big limiting factor, especially for novices.
Playing guitar would be challenging for a novice to practice for more than
half an hour while people of average physical ability could practice a golf
swing for an hour or more on day one.

The problem with favoring long sessions is that you can fall into the trap of
only doing long sessions because of the perceived efficiency. Which means
you'll need to 'make time' for it. Which means you'll put it off. The result
is that most of the gains you make will be lost by the next time you find time
for another extended session.

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parse_tree
Yeah, good point, my advice is not particularly general. I guess I should also
add, I've found most things not particularly enjoyable until I get a minimum
level of skill. So if your a complete beginner jumping in for 10 hrs at a time
might be a little much.

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ggchappell
You could try SuperMemo:

<http://www.supermemo.com/>

I found out about it from this article, which was posted on HN a while back:

[http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_woznia...](http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/ff_wozniak)

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jeffcoat
I bought the Palm version of Supermemo a while back; nice program, but I found
the process of creating new cards and onto the device too painful to make much
use of.

(I would be surprised if this problem wasn't solved in the up-to-date, PC
versions.)

I still like the idea, though; I've been using Mnemosyne
(<http://www.mnemosyne-proj.org/>) recently to practice my Spanish vocabulary
to good effect.

