Worksheet

Week 1 - Project

Step 1:
- Define a clear goal.

Step 2:

- Select learning materials and approach to reach goal.

Step 3:
- Estimate time required to achieve goal.

Step 4:
- Set deadlines and milestones.

Step 5:
- Break down work into a week-by-week process.

Step 6:

- Review and update project file (ongoing).
Week 1 Worksheet

STEP ONE: Define a Clear Goal

What are you trying to learn? At this point, it’s okay to be vague, simply write down all your learning
aspirations:

Of all the things you’re trying to learn, which is most important to you right now? Which are you going
to focus on in a learning project? (Note: if you’re taking multiple classes, you can lump them together
into a single project)

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Week 1 Worksheet

Now try to make the goal more specific, concrete and constrained. Note how the MIT Challenge had
very specific criteria (pass exams/complete programming projects for 33 classes) and wasn’t just to
“learn programming” or “learn computer science”. I want you to be similarly specific.

In general, there are three ways to do this:

1. Constrain the outcome (e.g. I want to pass the CFA exam, get As in my classes, speak French
conversationally)

2. Constrain the curriculum (e.g. I want to read all the books in the Personal MBA series)

3. Constrain the timeframe (e.g. I want to invest 5 hours per week for 3 months)

Try this now—make a constrained goal for your project:

Are you committed to this? Does completing the goal fill you with enthusiasm to get started? If no, go
back to the start and try to rephrase your project until it does. You might want to spend time thinking
about why you’re learning this subject first.

Yes No

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STEP TWO: Select Learning Materials

Now you’re going to pick how you’re going to learn it. If you’re in a formal class or program, simply
write down the learning activities suggested in the syllabus (readings, assignments, lectures, etc.).
If you’re learning on your own, do some research to find out a good starting set of materials for your
goal. Write them here:

In case you have too many materials to have time for, pick the top three here you intend to use as
your primary materials. Note: This mostly applies to self-learners. If you’re learning Spanish and you
have 6 apps and three books to choose from, it helps to start with a top three resources.

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Week 1 Worksheet

STEP THREE: Estimate Time Required to Achieve Goal

How long will it take you to achieve the goal? In case you’re in a fixed curriculum, just write down the
date of your last exam or assignment. If you’re learning on your own, there’s two ways to estimate
this: bottom-up (figure out how much time each task will take, then add to get the total) or top-down
(choose a timeframe and then make the material fit in that time):

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Week 1 Worksheet

STEP FOUR: Set Deadlines and Milestones

Pick an end-date for your project:

If your project is longer than a month, you should also define some milestones. When would you like
to have met certain points of progress in your overall attempt?

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STEP FIVE: Week-by-Week Progress

Now that you’ve gotten deadlines and milestones, I want you to break down your project into weekly
sections. What will you need to do each week, in order to finish the whole project.

Generally there will be two approaches here. For complex projects, such as classes, which may have
different assignment due dates, quizzes and assigned readings, you’ll need to specify what you’re
going to do each week of the class, and it might not be the same each week.

For simpler projects that simply require a lot of time invested, every week in your plan might be the
same. In this case, it’s fine to just write out your plan for one week and keep it constant.

Weekly Breakdown:
Week Plan for the week
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Week Plan for the week

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STEP SIX: Review and Update

Keep this document with you. It will serve as the backbone for your project plan. Now your goal should
be to spend 15 minutes each week, to make notes on changes in the project. Is the project on-track?
If not, how can you make changes to your plan above to get it back on track?

Week Progress Notes

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Week Progress Notes

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Notes:

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Worksheet
Week 2 - Productivity

Section 1:
- Weekly goals

Section 2:
- Daily goals
Week 2 Worksheet

SECTION ONE: Weekly Goals

Use the area below to write down all the work you intend to do next week. You may want to use this
just for your learning project, or also include other work and errands. If an event needs to happen
multiple times in the week (e.g. exercise) you may wish to ignore it or put it in the list only once as a
reminder.

# Tasks for the week

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SECTION TWO: Daily Goals

Below are Daily Goals lists for each day of the week. Of course, you’re welcome to print these out,
use them on your desktop or put your daily goals somewhere else. Keep in mind you should only write
ONE of these per day. Do NOT write all seven days in advance.

# Monday Tasks
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# Tuesday Tasks
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# Wednesday Tasks
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# Thursday Tasks
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# Friday Tasks
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# Saturday Tasks
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# Sunday Tasks
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Worksheet
Week 3 - Practice

Section 1: Choosing an Approriate Practice Activity

- Default practice activities
- Creating a practice activity
- Is at least some practice at the level of use?
- Should you use supplementary, narrow practice?
- How much time is on practice?

Section 2: Distributed Practice

- Adding a review schedule
- Spreading practice sessions out over time in your project
Week 3 Worksheet

SECTION ONE: Choosing an Appropriate Practice Activity

Active recall is one of the most effective studying techniques. Here we will make sure, for your
learning project, that you have a practice that supports your learning.

1) Are there any default or typical practice activities for what you’re learning? Examples include:
problem sets for math, small programs for coding skills, conversation practice for languages, etc. If
you’re in a class, does the class have assignments or quizzes which offer active recall opportunities?
If so, write them here:

# Typical Practice Activities

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2) If you don’t have a default or typical practice activity, can you invent one? Below I’ve listed several
options covered in the lessons of this unit. Use spaces 4-8 to invent your own practice activity. Put a
checkmark next to the one(s) you plan to use:

# Practice Activities Checkmark

1 Question Book Method
2 Flashcard Drills or SRS
3 Blind Explanations
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3a) Are the practice activities you selected at the level of use? That means they should be of similar
difficulty and complexity as the real-life situation you plan to use the material or the testing situation
for the class?

Yes No

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Week 3 Worksheet

3b) If your practice activities are NOT at the level of use, how can you compensate? One way is
to combine practice activities with opposite weaknesses (languages: textbook grammar study +
flashcard vocabulary). Another way is to do *some* practice at the level of use, but focus on a
somewhat lower level which tackles a weak point.

Suggest ways you can overcome the level-of-use problem:

4) Assuming you do have some practice at the level of use, is there an obvious weak point in your
learning process that could be supplemented with narrower types of practice?

Examples:
-You struggle with remembering words in foreign language conversations -> Vocab flashcards
-You struggle understanding algorithms in your programming -> Pencil & Paper problems
-You get stuck on the algebra in your physics class -> Algebra problems

If you feel there is an obvious weakness in your studying strategy, and a corresponding practice drill
that could repair that weakness, write them here. Otherwise, leave it blank for now (you can always
add it in later if you need it):

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Week 3 Worksheet

5) How much of your current time is spent on practice? Review your current project and divide the
time you’re investing into three categories:

- Coverage — activities needed to first be exposed to the material (lectures, reading, etc.)
- Practice — active recall, problem sets and other activities that directly test your understanding
- Other — activities that are neither active recall nor coverage (rereading notes, organizing your
books, summarizing with an open book, Feynman technique with an open book, etc.)

Put your estimate for the weekly time investment in each of these categories:

Category Estimated Weekly Time Investment

Coverage
Practice
Other

Eliminating coverage, what percentage of your remaining time is spent on practice?

If the amount is less than 75%, how could you increase the amount of practice in your studying?
Perhaps, by reducing the amount spent on non-practice activities?

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Week 3 Worksheet

SECTION TWO: Distributed Practice

1) Look over your project week-by-week plan. Do you have activities which allow you to practice
material from previously covered sections of your project? Please include comprehensive quizzes or
assignments.

2) If you don’t have regular review included, how could you include review so that you can spread out
your practice of concepts throughout the entire project?

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