No canals, just the promised insight.

This week I had one of those epiphanies where I felt clear and also ridiculous because it was obvious and I had just missed it.

I had been warned before the semester started that one of my courses would be straight memorization. I thought “great, I’ll just use all those ‘accelerated learning’ memory techniques I know.” Our first test was yesterday and I found myself an hour before the test cramming with my classmates — reciting random bits of the notes in the hopes that it would be on the test and I would happen to remember it long enough to write it down.

How is it that with all these great memory techniques I was still cramming like everyone else? Because I never applied the techniques! Yes, I had the best of intentions, yet never sat down and put in the time to apply them.

The moral, for those who missed it so far, is that having the best techniques in the world doesn’t help if you don’t use them!! (I told you it was obvious.) Pondering, plotting, and planning are great — just remember to do the plodding too!

Do I even need to ask where you’re going to apply things you “already know” and have been ignoring?