Digital Study - Tearing Yourself Away From Paper

Studying is difficult enough without having to deal with a bunch of online tools and applications, so why bother when you can just pick up a book and a highlighter and jump straight into it?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I go through my course, I get issued with a binder with all of the course materials. Reading through the notes, I highlight the things that stand out. Throughout the course, I get presentations, other articles, links, I keep my own notes, I share notes with others, I make mind maps, etc. If I continued this pattern, at the end of the course, all of this would all be completely useless. I won't be interested in keeping a 3 feet high pile of binders, various notes, and articles, and finding things will be practically impossible.

Fortunately, with the binder, we also get a CD with digital copies of the materials. With just a few changes to my study habits, I have a fully indexed, highly available source of information that I can keep and use effectively for the rest of my life. I can access this no matter where I am in the world and can search through the information to get an answer in seconds. I made this transition after some advice from a close friend who has gone through the same experience. Someone asked me for some tips on digital study, so I thought I'd jot them down here as I'm sure lots of people are faced with the same issues.

Accessibility

You will want to be able to access your notes wherever you are without being constrained to a single device. This might include phone, tablet, PC at work, Mac etc. There are plenty of options here and even different approaches. The approach I’ve taken is file based so I keep all supplied materials, presentations, assignments, spreadsheets, mind maps, etc., all in the one directory that
I can sync.

One thing I have found handy is the file sharing and collaboration capabilities of these tools.

Some options include:

1. Dropbox - this is what I use. Supported on all major platforms, and I can share folders with people in my class.
2. Google Drive - identical in most regards to Dropbox, but with some convenient online editors for documents, spreadsheets, presentations etc
3. Box – almost identical to Dropbox and Drive in core functionality, but I’ve had 
4. performance issues with this service for large files (photos), so I no longer use it much. 
5. Box seems to be targeting enterprise users with tighter security and corporate accounts, but it still does the job for general public.
6. Someone mentioned Evernote cloud storage, which might also be an option. I’ve not used Evernote, but it does seem to get rave reviews.

The key thing is to ensure compatibility with all the platforms you are likely to want to access your notes.

PDF Reader

I’ve found that the default Acrobat reader just doesn't cut it and that there are many alternatives out there that offer more functionality for digital study. The features you need:

• Highlighting – should be obvious.
• Type writer – so you can answer questions, type notes, do surveys and not have to have separate pieces of paper lying around all the time. If the key to the materials you’re given is the questions, than the answers are the things you want to be able to look back through in the future.
• Modify bookmarks – so you can add more levels to the hierarchy of your bookmarks.
• Tabbed documents – so you can open more than one at a time.
• Search and Find – This is critical for assignments. Just so we’re clear, find is typically looking inside the current document, whereas search is often through multiple documents.  Doing my course, I have often had to find references to a wide range of topics across various units, so being able to search through all PDFs in a directory is vital.
• Comments – so you can type in your thoughts about “why” you might have highlighted something.

Suggestion for Windows

• I’ve found Foxit Reader to be perfect. The free version does everything I need.

Suggestion for Android

• RepliGo Reader was recommended by a friend and I have no complaints.

Protected PDFs

The materials by the university are often “protected”. That means I often can’t modify bookmarks or even copy text (for note-taking, more on this later).

I’m sure there are dozens of ways to address this, but the most simple is to go to this site and get it to unlock it for you.

http://www.pdfunlock.com/

This will give you a new copy of the file with a different filename. I have noticed in 1 case that the page number index in the PDF was messed up by this (in the case where the first page was not page 1), but it’s never been a view I use in FoxIt reader.

Taking Notes

OneNote

As I go through reading, highlighting, answering questions, I also take notes in preparation for the final exam which is open book. I’ll want to have all of the key concepts for a unit condensed into 1 or 2 pages. For note taking, OneNote is awesome. One thing most people don’t know is the screenshot hotkey they get for free with this. Win-S will allow you to capture a screenshot directly to a one note document, or as I do, into clipboard. Integration of screenshots into your note of key images, diagrams, etc. is an absolute must. This not only helps comprehension, but also helps you identify concepts while you’re quickly flicking through the pages as you'll recognise an image way faster than reading the text.

For me, I just use regular MS Word documents for notes mostly because OneNote was not available when I started.
You might also want to consider mindmapping tools at some point. I've found Freemind to have one of the broadest range of functionality, including a full array of export options, and it's all free.

Podcasts

In some courses, Podcasts are made available. They have their limitations as they don’t cover tables, images or diagrams at all, but they help with familiarisation of the material. For me, I use them in 2 ways:

Courtesy of hywards / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1. To make effective use of my travel time to and from work.
2. To keep me focused on progressing through the reading so my mind doesn't wander, especially when it’s not so engaging.

If you're listening on your phone, don’t mistake a music player for a Podcast player. You'll want a specialised Podcast player.
That’s pretty much it. With just these basic tools, you'll be an online master.

Disadvantages

If you find yourself easily distracted by the "noise" on your computer, emails, popups, music, RSS feeds, etc, then you'll need to take steps to create a clean environment, or at least put some rules on yourself to minimise downtime. I might talk about online time management in another topic.

Best of luck, and if you have any further suggestions or comments, please feel free to share in the comments below.

Recognition – Make it a habit

Image: psdgraphics.com

The company introduced a new recognition system some time back where by people can send a recognition card based on the company values. It was, and to some extent, avoided by some, distrusted by others, and completely unknown to the rest. The initial thought by many was this was yet another HR initiative that we'll all be forced to use and no one will get any benefit from it.

The company introduced a new recognition system some time back where by people can send a recognition card based on the company values. It was, and to some extent, avoided by some, distrusted by others, and completely unknown to the rest. The initial thought by many was this was yet another HR initiative that we'll all be forced to use and no one will get any benefit from it.

That is of course, until people started getting them.

I had one developer come up and tell me, “You know, I thought this whole idea of this system was lame, but when I actually got a couple sent to me, it actually made me feel good”. Bingo, that little centre of the brain fired up and triggered the dopamine associated with reward. It doesn't take much thought as a manager to find ways of rewarding people on our team, but it’s not a habit for many people and it does take a little time.  The net effect is that it has the chance to makes someone’s day. I can’t think why we wouldn't want to do this as managers.

Furthermore, people can reward each other. Initially there was a review process in place where the manager had to “approve” the recognition, but we challenged this approach as people should be able to raise recognition for anyone else without having a manager put a dampener on things by forgetting to approve or worse yet, rejecting the proposal. Seriously, who would even do that?

Cynics of this of course take it to the extreme (as they often do to prove the point) saying that people will “game” the system and raise countless recognitions for each other. But honestly, who is going to sit there at work and collaborate on raising a reward card for someone just so they can get one in return.

The fact that anyone can raise a card on anyone is totally awesome, especially in a development group. Developers are experts in finding mistakes, looking for problems, finding defects, but being good at those activities also makes them occasionally blind to the positive aspects of the work place. This gives people the opportunity to recognise the positive aspects of their work environment.

Doing a little research on the topic, I found a few things. People who receive praise feel appreciated, respected, more motivated, and more engaged in their work as a result. The increased dopamine levels also lead that person to want to experience that same feeling again which helps cement good working habits and behaviour. What stood out however was that research shows that the person giving the feedback often gets as much, if not, more value out of giving as the person does receiving. So, in essence, each “applause” card has the chance to make 2 peoples day, with all the positive effects associated. Who wouldn't want to encourage that?

Last year, I set myself a personal goal to recognise at least one person per sprint. It doesn't seem like much now, but it was an achievable goal I could build on. To help build the habit, I set up a quick survey as part of each sprint where people could give points out to the person who helped them out the most. This gave everyone an opportunity to contribute to giving as well as a chance to receive one of these coveted MVP awards. Most people really appreciated it and to be honest, it was an excellent source of data when it came to performance reviews at the end of the year. At the risk of getting into a discussion on objectives in an agile software team, I found this to be a great way of providing concrete feedback on people who are regularly being recognised by their peers for helping. I didn’t only enter recognition based on the survey, I also found myself looking for opportunities once I got the hang of it.

The great thing was that I was able to get a few nominations pushed forward for monthly recognition, and another even got elevated as a successful annual award. It felt good to see one of my guys up there getting recognised for the hard work that I know he put in, and I'll admit it, I felt good too.

So, if you’re not in the habit of recognising your peers, or people on your team, what’s holding you back?