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Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

ninds.nih.gov

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Re: Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

#91

Post by nimonian »

p1esk wrote: post #89
Iv wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I noticed a few years ago when I decided to bring myself up to date again on machine learning after a ten years break (and what ten years that was for the domain!) I read a ton and watched several online classes. I realized that the pace was very different from the classes I had been during my student years: classes were boring, so I had time to think about stuff. The rhythm that I found worked really well for s…

I thought the point of the breaks was not to “think about it”.

I assume he means that going for a walk provides alternating periods of unconscious processing and deliberate thinking in a similar cadence to that described in the study. I'm not always actively practicing when I'm out walking, there are times wh... Ooh, a squirrel!

Re: Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

#92

Post by a13n »

farahday wrote: post #21
trillic wrote: post #13

I drink tons of water, I try and drink my 32 oz bottle once an hour when I'm working. I feel more productive for two reasons because I do this: 1. I'm not dehydrated, 2. it forces me to get up to use the restroom a lot more than usual. This forces me to have lots of mini breaks almost every hour or so to walk and fill up my bottle and use the restroom.

> I try and drink my 32 oz bottle once an hour when I'm working. Seriously, how do you get any work done? Thats like a sip every 30 seconds.

Take bigger sips

Re: Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

#93

Post by pitt1980 »

echelon wrote: post #63

This seems to fit with the spaced repetition learning curve. By default, Anki (spaced repetition software) will repeatedly show you new facts on a minute-long interval. Once you've got it, that interval becomes ten minutes, and then a day. This stuff works . I've used it to study Japanese and Chinese with great success. I'd love to see more studies as to why . If we understand the biochemistry, perhaps we can enhance…

Yeah, I was wondering that too,

How does muscle memory work?

Does space out activity work the same way that spacing out studying work?

Especially since muscle fatigue is a real limit on athletic training.

I wonder what could be done trying to optimize sports practice schedules around this idea.

Re: Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

#96

Post by Iv »

p1esk wrote: post #89
Iv wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I noticed a few years ago when I decided to bring myself up to date again on machine learning after a ten years break (and what ten years that was for the domain!) I read a ton and watched several online classes. I realized that the pace was very different from the classes I had been during my student years: classes were boring, so I had time to think about stuff. The rhythm that I found worked really well for s…

I thought the point of the breaks was not to “think about it”.

My debugging breaks are not to think about it. The unconscious is surprisingly good at ordering things.

The learning ones are to think about it though.

Re: Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

#97

Post by pkghost »

A couple of anecdotes:

I went to a group rhythm workshop in San Francisco called TaKeTiNa wherein a group of 50 of us learned, over the course of a few hours, to perform a stomp/clap polyrhythm (that is, a sequence that is really the combination of two sequences with different time signatures) that I wouldn't have guessed we could learn in a single session. The facilitator guided us through by starting with an approachable subunit of the pattern, added to it piece by piece over a few minutes until we fell apart, and then gave us a few minutes of laying-down closed-eye rest time. When we came back, the previous segment seemed relatively easy, and we moved into further complexity. By the end, I was both exhausted and impressed at how much we had learned.

I played lacrosse in high school (West coast, believe it or not). Several times we were in a rut a few days before a big game, and our coach would cancel the intervening practices. We'd show up to the game and be astonished at how well we played. (I realize this is a very different time scale of effect, and is perhaps better explained by higher level psychological factors rather than a lower level neurological/memory-formation mechanism, but, then again, maybe it applies at multiple scales.)

Re: Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

#98

Post by jmauritz »

OnlyLys wrote: post #64
arvinsim wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gut-brain connection do seem to be true on my end. I am always careful to avoid carbohydrates when I am starting work that is concentration heavy.

I have a similar carbohydrate problem too. If I have more than a small amount of carbs in one sitting, my mind will get hazy and I'll get really sleepy an hour or so later. I did a blood test recently and everything was OK, so I'm really not sure what the problem is. And funny thing is that I don't seem to have this problem with quick sugars. I could have ice cream and chocolate and not crash at all.

Mixing tryptophan heavy foods (chicken / salmon / cheese / nuts) with carbs is gonna make you crash / sleepy.

Same thing with salted + carb heavy food, as the body starts putting on water (dry mouth, drinking loads, puffy + tired)

Re: Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

#99

Post by lemming »

hanniabu wrote: post #29
tjbiddle wrote: post #24

This is something I've found true in my own personal experimentation over the past few years. Any time I've been training something, if I take a break from it, I come back and I have more skill than I had previously. Recently this occurred with my handstand practice. It's something that I've been working on the past year or two on and off, but more heavily recently. I've made some great strides, but the past week or…

Speaking of handstands, I've been wanting to get started with that too as an item on my skills-to-acquire list. Any tips for a fellow beginner? I could never seem to get past the point needed to balance. I kick my body back and it stop right before the balance point and my body slowly goes off center and comes crashing down. Have you found it easier to do with trying to keep your body straight and stiff or feet tucke…

As someone who's spent more than the last year trying to learn handstands as an adult, they're seriously hard. I don't know how long you've been practising, but I totally underestimated how long it would take me to balance one. I was starting from being pretty out of shape and I'd never done anything like this before, and I'm also tall (6'4"/194cm) which makes it harder, but I see people talking about timeframes of 6 months to a year minimum of training them seriously (say 20-30 mins 4x a week or more) to have a chance at kicking up into a free balancing handstand for, say, 15-20 seconds. It has taken me way longer than that, but I'm now up to ~30 sec holds but still with pretty terrible consistency (i.e. I get a couple of good holds and a few more shorter ones a day out of ~20 attempts).

For where it sounds like you're at, I totally recommend Yuri Marmerstein's Vimeo series here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/handstandbalance/249766384. Not free but cheap and very good. The basic requirements are being comfortable bailing, and being able to hold a half-decent chest to wall handstand.

re: body tension, it depends what you're planning to achieve. For just handbalancing you actually don't need a lot of tension, just enough that you're not flopping around all over the place. Most of the information online that talks about buns & core of steel comes from gymnastics, where the tension is used to generate force when tumbling. Most people from a handbalancing background no longer recommend tons of ab work (i.e. dish/hollow body) since it's not really required. You will need tons of trapezius and forearm strength though, working those was really a game changer for me.

Re: Want to learn a new skill? Take some short breaks

#100

Post by zeropnc »

pkghost wrote: post #97

A couple of anecdotes: I went to a group rhythm workshop in San Francisco called TaKeTiNa wherein a group of 50 of us learned, over the course of a few hours, to perform a stomp/clap polyrhythm (that is, a sequence that is really the combination of two sequences with different time signatures) that I wouldn't have guessed we could learn in a single session. The facilitator guided us through by starting with an approa…

San Francisco really is a different planet
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