Dr. Cal Newport
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
It was a social problem for me.
That I would have to pretend during finals period that I was going to the library to study because I would be done studying.
This active recall, it's brutal, but it's incredibly efficient.
You sit down there.
I would have my cards.
I would mark it.
Okay, I struggled with this.
I'd put it in this pile.
I got it done.
I'd put it in this pile.
And so then you would just go back to the I struggled with it pile and work on that and then make a new I struggled with it pile.
And these would exponentially decay.
Yeah.
And so in like a few hours, you could really master, you know, with a few other tricks that worked, you could really master the material pretty quickly.
And then what am I supposed to do?
I didn't do all-nighters.
Like, it wouldn't make any sense.
Like, active recall is how you prepare, and it's going to take four hours, and it's going to be tough.
So do it in the morning when you have energy, and then you're done.
Yeah.