Last night, I was lucky enough to go to the screening of the People’s Choice Award Winner, “The King’s Speech,” at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film played to a full house at the Ryerson Theatre. One of the things I was struck by in this often quite moving story of a relationship between [...]
Many students find it helpful—even essential—to build regular 5 minute breaks into long study sessions. For every 25 minutes or so studying, 5 minutes away from studying can make an enormous difference in our ability to concentrate and absorb new material. But some students complain that (while breaks are great in theory) they get into [...]
You’ll still have to study but if you want to optimize your brain function include exercise as a regular part of your study plan. Research shows that exercise hour away from your desk will more than pay off when you return rested, alert and calm. Exercise decreases your stress levels, improves your sleep, and improves [...]
The other day I was browsing through my copy of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki. The subtitle of the book is “Informal talks on Zen meditation and practice” but it could easily be “ways of learning” or “ways of seeing.” That day, I stopped at the talk on “Mind Weeds,” in the section [...]
If you’re a Mac user, why not try iflash? This nifty program lets you make flashcards for studying. Or, why not make flashcards the old fashioned way? All you need are index cards (you choose the size) and something to write with. There’s an argument to be made for making flashcards by hand: for some [...]
Next week’s workshop focuses on reading and note-taking. As always, I welcome your thoughts on things you’d like to hear. Monday: 11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Tuesday: 5:15 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Both sessions are in Robarts 4049. Chris Garbutt
