Practice PACER Method

Let’s explore a possible way to learn right

So I came across Justin Sung's video on a learning system for remembering everything you read or study. The main idea is that learning is a two-stage process of consumption & digestion.

The consumption stage is when you take in the new information through reading, listening, or watching & digestion happens when you process that information & store it in your long-term memory through practice or application.

The Justin argues that most people focus too much on the consumption stage and not enough on the digestion stage. This is why they struggle to remember or apply what they learn & I feel like I am one of those people so I want to implement this process on a 3-month cycle. basically I will space out the things I choose learn & then practice the pacer method for those topics.

Five Stages During Learning:

1. Identify the type of information you are consuming.

• Using the acronym PACER categorize the information as one of these:

  • Procedural, Analogous, Conceptual, Evidence, or Reference.

  • This process helps us decide the best procedure for consuming & digest the new information based on the category.

2. Consume the information Correctly.

• This involves reading, listening or watching the new content, just be intentional about choosing the process that works best for you.

• Consumption is an important stage, so you must put some effort to understand the type learning practices that we can use without committing to one.

• During the consumption process decide, 'or get it from mentor or someone who has been mastered the topic', which parts will need practicing as basics & if possible in which order.

3. Digest the information.

These are the category of information & how to possible consume it, This involves different processes of digestion for each type of information.

• Procedural:

  • Is the type of information describing "HOW to perform a task" & is best practiced as soon as you understand the fundamentals. If you cannot practice it immediately simply reduce the rate of consumption or change the subject all together for the time being so you don't cloud your judgement about how much you know. It's crucial to digest whatever you just consumed or it gets lost.

• Analogous:

  • Is knowledge that relates to the topic, that you already know. This can be direct or indirect.

  • When connecting familiar ideas with new info it becomes an analogy for you. It's important that when consuming something new, we see how it relates to some of the knowledge we already have, then move on to critiquing the analogy.

  • 1. how do they relate?

  • 2. how do they differ?

  • 3. In which situation does the analogy not make sense?

  • 4. Is there a better analogy?

• Conceptual:

  • This information has facts, explanations, theories n principles or different methods on performing it.

  • We map this sort of information, create diagrams for this sort of knowledge to create understanding.

  • The main goal for learning is creating a network of understanding & even connect new concepts to the old and familiar ones & mapping helps us understand these connections.

• Evidence: These are specific measurements or ideas or things that are constant within the new information. It's something to remember & use as is when you need it. Just Store & rehearse these yet your rehearsing should happen on spaced periods so it sticks to long term memory.

• Reference: You also have references to the information or some useful topics or ideas on the new information. This document is me creating a reference for this knowledge I just came across also. I Store this and write it down so i have a reference so I can check it out before I rehearse it.

4. Balance Your Consumption & Digestion.

• It is important to not consume too much information at once without giving yourself time to digest it.

• Personally this was an issue I faced for few years till i realized I recognize a lot of knowledge references, topics, ideas & books embarrassingly though I did not have the body of work showing my understanding / application of that knowledge so I decide I need a way to act on what I already know before adding.

• We are at a stage where the goal for gathering information is to understand & act on it, which means we need to spend more time digesting not consuming.

5. Be patient. Learning is a complex process and it takes time to master.

• The key is to use the right processes for each type of information & to balance consumption and digestion. Lets try this out & see how far it can take us.

Conclusion:

This process is cool system I feel works within the 4 Stages Of Understanding, as the system to help me take on the "slope of enlightenment". Which is the process of repeated exposure & practice of the knowledge we have gained.

This process is important because I think its my responsibility to fight that imposter syndrome, to know that I have skills to offer not concepts. Yet in my past that is all that consuming without practicing has been giving me.

Lets get it!

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