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Supercharge your learning
1.1k Plays1 year ago
If you’re learning something new and you’re putting in a lot of work, one of the best ways to supercharge your learning is to take notes. I know a lot of people might scoff at that idea because they see note taking as a waste of time, but in this episode I talk about how there are ways of doing it that can not only be effective, but which can supercharge your learning.
What I’ve been up to this week:
- The problem with mobile-first CSS
- Subgrid & Container Queries change how we can create layouts
- How flexbox and grid are like owning different types of shoes
Other awesome stuff around the web:
Find me elsewhere on the web:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Podcast and Topics
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello my friend and friends, and welcome to my podcast General Musings. My name is Kevin, and this podcast is the audio version of my weekly Sunday newsletter where I talk about whatever is front of mind for me in any given week, but usually somehow related to front-end development in one way or another.
00:00:16
Speaker
and I also share links to interesting things or resources that I've come across in the past week and share what I've been up to as well.
Key Tips for Effective Self-Paced Learning
00:00:24
Speaker
This week I'm going to be continuing the discussion that I've been having with you for the last two weeks about online learning and how we can make the most out of self-paced learning with a tip that
00:00:33
Speaker
what I think might be the biggest game changer that you can make when it comes to self-paced learning. And actually this could probably be a big game changer for any type of learning to be honest whether you're in the classroom or you're following online tutorials or whatever it is.
00:00:47
Speaker
First though, a quick recap over what I've talked about over the last two weeks where I focused on how we can overcome the struggles of self-paced learning. And while everything I've been framing has been for like following along with online courses, this applies to any sort of self-paced learning. So even if you're just following tutorials and piecing things together yourself, the first thing that I talked about and had an episode devoted to was being an active learner and not just passively watching tutorials.
00:01:12
Speaker
And then the second part was about sort of more about overcoming the losses of momentum right and so being realistic with how long courses can actually take where online learning can actually take the importance of taking breaks and also scheduling out your learning time and how that can be really helpful just to keep your momentum going.
00:01:31
Speaker
And also just being realistic with how much time you're actually scheduling along the way. The first point there about being an active learner is definitely the most important out of all the different things that I've talked about. And that even includes just, you know, coding line for line, whatever is on the screen, where you're not actually taking an active part in your learning. You're just staring at whatever someone else is telling you to write.
00:01:53
Speaker
Those other tips are all just about maintaining momentum, which is also extremely important, but if you're not actively learning, it doesn't really matter if you have that momentum or not.
Transformative Note-Taking Practices
00:02:01
Speaker
And this last tip, and I wanted to devote an entire episode to this tip, just like the first one, because I really do believe it is a massive game changer.
00:02:10
Speaker
I do get some resistance from this a little bit like I do get from scheduling where not everybody is into that type of thing, but this one, every single person I know who's implemented this or does some form of what I'm going to talk about, it's completely transformed the way they learn. And what is this thing? It's taking notes. Now, a lot of people listening to this right now might be shaking their heads going taking notes is a complete waste of time. And I get it. I hate taking notes while I'm learning.
00:02:39
Speaker
But the reason that note taking usually is a waste of time or it can be a waste of time or seen that way is because most people don't take notes in a way that actually has a real benefit to it. When I'm talking about taking notes, I'm not talking about taking notes while you're going through a lesson.
00:02:56
Speaker
follow along with the lesson, do the lesson, do the code while the lesson's going on, pause the video, try and do a bit of your own code, but just be in the space of actively doing what you should be doing through the lesson. Or if you're sitting in a classroom lecture, sure you might jot down a few things along the way, just so you're writing down the important parts, but never focus on just full-on note-taking, because usually that distracts you from actually listening to what's going on, or practicing, or following along, or whatever it is.
00:03:23
Speaker
And if you're already someone who is a note taker, there is no harm in taking notes along the way. But don't be so focused on writing down every word, right? Because you could just watch the video again. But the type of note taking I want to focus on is notes that you take after the learning session is finished. So once you're done with the tutorial or you finish a certain section of an online course or whatever it is,
00:03:45
Speaker
you want to write down a recap of what you've learned during that session and not by going back through the course, but by actively trying to remember the different things that you've covered. This is a really good way to help with retention, the same way trying to just write some code while not watching someone else do it or having that code open for you on the side and you're actively trying to do it. If you're actively trying to remember the different things, it really does help with retention.
00:04:10
Speaker
And these notes, they do not need to be a super detailed account of every single little thing that you've covered. I don't actually think that helps. I think you just end up writing down way too much information instead of focusing on the most important parts.
00:04:23
Speaker
In general for me when I do this I generally write pretty short notes that are to the point but the most important thing and the reason this is effective and the reason this is actually a game changer is not just to write down what you've been learning but to explain the different things to yourself in your notes in your own words. Writing something like today I learned about collapsing margins is completely pointless. Just don't do it if that's what your notes are going to be.
00:04:48
Speaker
but if you write down collapsing margins happen when the margins of two elements touch one another instead of pushing against one another they're actually going into one another and this is when it's two siblings with a margin top and margin bottom or it can even be a child if it's the first child in a parent
00:05:04
Speaker
If we have no padding, if you add margin to the child, then that margin can influence the parent and move the entire parent down. And I'm not going to keep going through into a whole lesson on collapsing margins. But the idea is that you're writing down what you remembered and sort of the weird stuff and explaining in your own words how it's working.
00:05:23
Speaker
And maybe some of you are going, I don't like writing, so don't write them down. Take audio notes on your phone, whatever. Start a blog and learn in public if you
Note-Taking and Learning Efficiency
00:05:31
Speaker
want to. That's amazing and will help other people. But I get not everyone wants to do that, so just find something that is easy for you to be able to do. Whatever it is, whatever you decide you want to do, find a way to explain what you're learning after you've covered it.
00:05:46
Speaker
And I know some of the people listening to this right now are going to try it. And I know others are saying, oh, that sounds good, Kevin, but you're just never going to actually do it. Please try this at least for a short period of time. I never did this when I was actively learning and I was a student and I was trying to learn new things.
00:06:04
Speaker
I started actually doing this when I started teaching because when I would be creating lesson plans and writing down the different things that I'd be covering in a certain day, I'd want to have notes just to sort of explain a little bit of the details of what I was covering so when I was in front of the class I could explain things properly.
00:06:22
Speaker
And when I was doing that, I was taking those extra notes. I started to realize a lot of things that I used in the past all of a sudden started making a lot more sense. And this still happens today, even when I'm doing the scripts for YouTube videos or creating demos for YouTube videos, because I'll actually when I do that, I usually start with my idea and then I build the entire demo with the entire demo down. Then I go back into my notes and I'll start writing some bullet points of like the important things I want to make sure I cover or don't forget.
00:06:52
Speaker
And as I'm writing those notes to myself, all of a sudden I'll have an, oh, that's why that worked type of moment. And this is even after teaching CSS for 10 years now, I still have those moments. And speaking of teaching, when I'm vocalizing things, like I'll have my notes, I'll have already created the demo.
00:07:09
Speaker
I'm going back through and write the code and then I stop to explain what I wrote. That's the moment where a light bulb goes off mid sentence for me. Literally like as I'm talking, I'm making a realization and making a connection between something that I never realized before.
00:07:25
Speaker
And I know this isn't just me because everyone I talk to who teaches runs into the exact same thing and other people that I know that write detailed notes, the same thing happens to them. This is just a thing that happens where our brain makes new connections when we're talking about things or explaining things rather than just doing that thing. And it's incredible connections you can make and it just makes your learning so much more effective.
Insights from Andy Bell's Design Series
00:07:50
Speaker
So find a way to explain things that you're learning to yourself. Just notes that go into detail. And when I say explaining things, I just mean like explain what you learned and how it's also working. And this could be with a pen and paper. It can be in a Google Doc or Notion or Obsidian or whatever you want. As I said, just use your phone and do voice notes, anything like that. Whatever is easiest for you, give it a try.
00:08:12
Speaker
It might sound silly or pointless or something that won't work for you, but I promise you it works. And sticking with this idea of online learning and that side of things as we move into the other awesome stuff from around the web section of this podcast, one of the things that definitely can help with online learning, because you can put all the work you want in, but higher quality content obviously means that it's easier to learn from.
00:08:34
Speaker
and finding things that explain that why that we're just talking about where there's an explanation of the thought process and why something works rather than just saying write these five lines of code and it will work. It's really good to find lessons or tutorials that do go into that detail. And I'm mentioning all that because Andy Bell's set studio has a really good blog and recently he started a new series on the blog called Reality Check where he's taking designs from dribble or layers
00:09:03
Speaker
you know, where designers often go a little bit overboard in an attempt to show off, but he looks at how he would approach building those layouts. And the first installment is out now, and he's looking at a trendy landing page for a furniture store.
00:09:18
Speaker
But the reason I'm talking about it is because it's a deep dive explanation, not just into here's how I would build it, but here's the reasoning behind all of these decisions as well. There's a lot of really good insights and information on that post. I definitely would recommend checking it out. And there's also a really cool trick in there actually where I used a container query.
00:09:37
Speaker
because he's creating his two columns using flex, where anyway, there's a flex trick where you can get it to break and stack from without a media query, but add it like sort of a specific size, but you're not looking at the screen size, you're looking at the element size. Hard to explain with words without any code, but then inside of there, he's using a container query to make sure that the image behaves in a specific way once the content stacks.
Progress on 'Beyond CSS' Course
00:10:00
Speaker
I thought it was a really nice trick that I want to explore a little bit more on my own, but even outside of that, the entire article is really good and full of really good insights.
00:10:07
Speaker
And so yeah clearly I very much enjoyed reading that one I thought it was really good and I'm very much looking forward to future installments of that reality check series on the set studio blog as Far as what I've been up to this week before we get into the the actual things I've been doing I do want to mention I guess this is something I did this week But I do want to mention that I have actually finally started making progress again on my course beyond CSS if you've been listening to this for a while, you know, I've been fighting a cold for
00:10:35
Speaker
for quite a while and that sort of put a hamper on some recording sessions I was planning but this past week I finally started putting a lot of time back into the course because I have that one module left to finish the course off so if you don't know about the course actually it's it's called Beyond CSS and it's my most advanced course and the top tier is on sale because as I said I'm still doing work on it and it's only the the final module for the top tier that isn't finished yet so until it's finished it is on sale
00:11:02
Speaker
and then obviously once it's finished the sale price will go away.
Exploring Recent Video Topics
00:11:06
Speaker
So if you're looking for an advanced course that might be something you'd be interested in, but if you're just interested in courses on CSS that are less advanced, whether it's beginner or intermediate, I have a whole range of courses. Some of them are free, some of them are paid, but there's a whole bunch of them so you can check out my course page if you'd like to learn more about any of those.
00:11:25
Speaker
Other things that I've been up to this week, other than working on my course, I put out a video looking at the problem with mobile first CSS or the mobile first approach where I just talk about the idea of intrinsic design but also how it's not the end of the world and sometimes it's less work if we throw a max width media query in there sometimes.
00:11:40
Speaker
Another video I did was looking at subgrid and container queries working together or sort of changing what our subgrid is based on a container query. I also look at one of the limitations in that one of subgrid and container queries because sadly, with the way container queries work, it can break a subgrid if you're trying to use one, which is a bit of a shame, but it makes sense just on how container queries work. So I explore sort of the cool stuff you can do with it and the stuff you can't actually do if you're trying to combine the two of them.
00:12:08
Speaker
I also had a short video where I talked about why we actually have flex and grid. Why don't we just have one layout tool? What do we need two of them for? Just a quick short on the concept behind, it's okay to have two layout tools.
Conclusion and Resources
00:12:22
Speaker
And that's it for this week. If you'd prefer the written version of it, the link to my newsletter is in the description down below, as well as a link to my courses page and everything else that I've mentioned along the way as well. And with that, thank you so much for listening. And of course, until next time, don't forget to make your corner of the internet just a little bit more awesome.