Simple solution to a complicated study problem
In the post I wrote recently about transitioning to a more self-motivated form of studying, I presented a fairly complicated problem. When you leave the comfy confines of rigorous acaemic life, it becomes difficult to keep focused on scholarly achievement. Okay, that sounds simple. Really, it isn’t. It’s complicated by a whole host of life factors, personal habits and actual needs. I started to work my way through the problem, and ended up a bit more confused than I started out, as friend and blogger G. Michael Reynolds probably could have predicted. :)
Ultimately, the issue is that I’m pretty good at figuring out what’s wrong but not so fantastic at finding solutions. Sometimes. When I do find solutions, I’m sometimes a little dense when it comes to implementing those solutions. But, this blog is - in part - about solutions! What a conundrum. So this is a short post to indicate that I’m trying a new solution for my vexing problem.
For the next eight weeks (until school at NCNM starts back up and things change) I’m going to study for an hour every morning, right after my Qigong practice. It’s only an hour, what harm can it do? This doesn’t mean I’ll never study more than that - but it does mean I won’t feel bad for not doing so. Why only an hour? Well, I’ve got several other obligatory hours in my day and it’s also an amount of time I can fit into even the busiest days in my schedule. An hour also seems to be the minimum amount of time I can study and actually get something out of it.
For this simple study method, I’m going to be dividing my work into fourteen subsections (okay, so maybe it gets a little complicated - but actually just so it gets easy again):
- Acupuncture Points
- Section 1 : locations and cautions
- Section 2 : categories and relationships
- Section 3 : basic (tcm) and advanced (ccm) functions
- Section 4 : important combinations
- Chinese herbs
- Section 5 : single herbs - basic set, wei (flavor) and qi (temperature) both according to TCM and according to the Shennong Ben Cao Jing
- Section 6 : single herbs - advanced set, which basically includes all the herbs we need for the board exam but haven’t learned yet
- Section 7 : formulas - formula names (english and chinese), herbs included, dosages
- Section 8 : formulas - associated pulses (tcm and arnaud)
- Section 9 : formulas - basic and advanced functions
- Chinese medical symbolism and pathology
- Section 10 : symbolism - twelve organ networks and all associated symbolism
- Section 11 : TCM/Zangfu basic physiology and pathology
- Section 12 : The Liuqi (Six conformations)
- Section 13 : Five element physiology/pathology and the 19 Lines of pathology (Neijing)
- Section 14 : Cancer (research project)
Is there other stuff to learn? Sure, but this is the stuff that’s the most important to me right now. I’ve taken all of my notes (electronic and paper) and flashcards and put them in stacks. Obviously the electronic and paper-based information resides in different places. Every day after Qigong, I’ll sit down, pick up a stack and go for it. That means I’ll get through the entire cycle of section 4 times. I’ll report back how it goes. If you have a method for studying such a diverse amount of material in a systematic and effective way, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Anyone? Anyone?
Eric
If you like what you read here, you may want to keep updated by using my RSS feed. Want to know more about RSS/feeds? - read more here. Thanks for visiting!
Tags: chinese-medicine, erics-habits, scholar, Student Life, study, studying
Related posts
Comments
3 Responses to “Simple solution to a complicated study problem”
Leave a Reply
-
-
What am I up to?
-
Subscribe to Deepest Health
I wish you luck. I’m also on the lookout for a better method for studying, as I have to go over a lot of materials right now. But, something I’ve realized is that being motivated is a big part in learning.
You’re either going to catch up with your teachers or end up in coma.
Hello. With this article you take me for a reader! I have a problems with concentration when i study and here I find answers to my question “what can I do to concentrate on studying” . Best regards and continue writing. :)