You know that feeling like your brain just can't take any more information? It's almost like someone hit you with a shovel and you go around feeling dizzy.
Well, that happened to me last Tuesday after spending almost my whole day going through 3 modules of the Web Developer Bootcamp.
Cognitive overload creates a situation where you have a diminishing return on what you are able to absorb in your memory bank. The more you keep learning while in a state of cognitive overload, the more chance you have at completely forgetting what you've learned.
Tuesday night before bed, I knew I went too far too fast and I went on the internet to know what I should be doing to integrate and not lose what I've just learned.
Anybody who did strength training or conditioning knows that ideally, you want to have at least 24h of rest between training in order for your body to adapt to the stress you've just imposed on it.
That adaptation will happen so that next time you get to push iron, you'll be able to lift more.
It's not that different for our brain.
I'm quite new to coding and what I'm realizing is that it's not just about memorizing a bunch of code or syntax. It's about using our brains in a way that most of us are not used to.
I'm in marketing and the way I think is almost entirely about human psychology and human motivations. It's very different from thinking in term of algorithms.
Giving your brain the time to adapt to this new way of thinking is important.
If you are like me and get worried that you'll forget something important. Spending an hour or two during your day of break to revise what you've learned could really help.
Basically, rather than adding new stuff, you work at integrating what you've learned so far.
That's what I did yesterday. After going to the hospital to know which sex is our little baby (more on that on a future post), I took some of the problems that I had to figure out before and revisited them such as:
Create a printReverse() function that print the elements of an array in reverse
Create a todo list app in the console to add, delele & list todo items (and exit)
...among other.
That helped me make sure that I didn't forget anything about functions, loops, if/then statements, arrays, and objects.
FastCompany has a great article about 6 Brain Hacks to Learn Anything Faster, I would highly recommend it if you are interested in the topic.
Experts at the Louisiana State University’s Center for Academic Success suggest dedicating 30-50 minutes to learning new material. “Anything less than 30 is just not enough, but anything more than 50 is too much information for your brain to take in at one time,”
Using a Pomodoro Technique to time your eLearning rather than binge-watching can be a good idea.
Benedict Carey, author of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens, says learning is like watering a lawn. “You can water a lawn once a week for 90 minutes or three times a week for 30 minutes,” he said. “Spacing out the watering during the week will keep the lawn greener over time.
eLearning is an absolute thrill for me and I can't recommend it enough as a personal development tool. The world is moving fast under our feet and if we don't catch up with the times, we may be left in the dust. Having a plan to constantly upgrading ourselves is a good way to stay happy and productive in this fast changing world.
If you have any other strategies on how to avoid information overload / cognitive overload, please let me know in the comment below.
First Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash
Second Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
