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The ideal study day ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:40 pm
by lorill
I'll have a few days alone at home, and planned to use them as an intensive go study session.
I need to structure my time, in order to avoid wandering around and wasting it. I plan to solve tsumego and tesujis, play one or two serious games and review them, maybe watch some lessons and read some book, or replay some pro games ?
What would you do if you could afford this for a few days ?
It doesn't need to be sustainable for more than a week.
Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:58 pm
by Solomon
07:00 - Wake up, eat breakfast while watching high dan games on Tygem or pro game replay.
08:00 - Bust out GenGen Gokyo and start tearing up some tsumego.
12:00 - Eat lunch, take a break.
13:00 - Play 2-3 serious games; review afterwards and send them to someone much stronger than you to find holes in your analysis.
16:00 - Brush up a bit on theory, either by book or by KGS+ lecture. Have a board out and use it.
18:00 - Eat dinner, take a break.
19:00 - Play casual games; review afterwards.
21:00 - Bust out Gokyo Shumyo and start tearing up some tsumego.
00:00 - Sleep.
Rinse and repeat every day. That is, if you can handle it.

Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:06 am
by lorill
Nice. I plan to sleep a little more, however. Also, I don't think I could stay focused 4 hours uninterrupted on tsumegos.
Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:08 am
by Solomon
lorill wrote:Nice. I plan to sleep a little more, however. Also, I don't think I could stay focused 4 hours uninterrupted on tsumegos.
Do it in chunks, just like for studying in general. I use
Magic Work Cycle for school and I think if I had the time, it'd work great with tsumego too. My personal preference is 60 minutes of productivity, then 20 minutes (or 1 episode of anime

) of break.
Looking at what I wrote more seriously, I think more time should be spent playing rather than tsumego; so perhaps I'd adjust it so that the 8 hours go into playing, and the 5 hours on tsumego rather than the other way around.
Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:29 am
by lorill
Based on your plan, here's what I think I can endure :
09:00 - wake up, breakfast
09:30 - replay a pro game, first without comments, then replay it again, reading the comments
10:30 - tsumego
12:00 - lunch break
13:00 - play a few serious games
15:00 - break, go outside and take some fresh air
16:00 - review previous games
17:00 - tsumego
18:00 - theory, book or lecture
19:00 - dinner break
20:00 - replay the morning pro game again, trying to see what i remember
20:30 - play relaxed games
22:00 - sleep.
Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 4:59 am
by Dusk Eagle
I find I can study tsumego for a lot longer if I'm listening to music while I do it.
In terms of the actual study schedule, it looks rather exhausting. I think studying every day will get you further than this type of cramming (if you don't already study every day). But if you can stay focused on Go by yourself for that long and enjoy it, go for it.
Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 5:05 am
by lorill
I think studying every day will get you further than this type of cramming
Sure, being steady is better than this kind of plan. The thing is, I don't have much time everyday to do much more than what I do (and I like my go to be on the fun side, so I play more than I study usually), while there I'll get several full days. I can't simply take their hours to move them during the course of a month

Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:28 am
by cubesmith
the plans above look great! i just wish i could afford the time...
let's say, on average, i have 30 minutes to an hour spare for Go each day. What do you think would be the most productive way to use this time?
Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:48 am
by Dusk Eagle
I would say split the difference between doing tsumego and playing games 50/50. If you like longer games, I would do tsumego on days when you don't have enough time for a full game. Save other kinds of study (such as joseki, pro games, etc.) for when you're plain not motivated enough to do tsumego or have extra time that you want to invest into that area of study.
One thing I'll do is if I have 5-15 minutes of free time, I'll just log on to goproblems.com and spend my time there. If you don't have a long consecutive time to spend, spending many small sessions of time is probably still just as beneficial.
Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 10:06 am
by tj86430
lorill wrote:Based on your plan, here's what I think I can endure
I thought I sleep a lot when possible, but I was mistaken.
Re: The ideal study day ?
Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 12:31 pm
by lorill
tj86430 wrote:lorill wrote:Based on your plan, here's what I think I can endure
I thought I sleep a lot when possible, but I was mistaken.
Well, that's the ideal, but alas, going to sleep at 22h does not mean i'll be able to actually sleep
