Self-learning - The most important life skill

Self-learning (or self-study, self-taught) is a way of learning about a subject that involves studying alone at home, rather than in a classroom with a teacher. Expanded, self-study is the ability to actively research, find solutions and draw experiences for life’s problems.

1. Why is self-learning the most important life skill?

Learning is subject to a lot of changes from the living environment such as epidemics, lockdowns, congested roads, floods. Our education nowadays is going online and we all are aware of the fact that this method is not that helpful for students. Self-Study is a great weapon to use time positively.

Self learning is important because it switches the focus of learning from the teachers to the students themselves. Self-study allows students to take learning at their own pace, focusing on areas they are most interested in (or want to understand a bit better). This helps reduce feelings of frustration, anxiety, or boredom that students may struggle with in a classroom setting. It is a great time for every student to explore new things on their own, and they can also learn new topics according to their interest. This is a time where they have to learn everything related to their books and outside of the books on their own because there are no schools and classes are going on where teachers are present to help them. In this time students have to think about their future and career and have to start giving time to their self studies that will help them in future for cracking exams and in their life also.

After you graduate and go to work, your time will not be much left for you to go to class. Instead, you will need to take advantage and arrange a reasonable time to supplement professional knowledge as well as other skills necessary for your work and life. Therefore, self-study is very important and the university (or college) is a very good environment for practicing self-study.

Overall, self-study will give you many benefits to develop:

• Saving and self-control on time. You will not lose time for commuting, packing, etc., as long as your study is effective.
• Get to know your best friend. The self-study process will help you better understand your best friend’s strengths, weaknesses, and habits. These things will help you a lot in the process of making the right choices in life.
• Cultivate a can-do mindset. When you have a problem, you will actively seek information and come up with a solution and learn from it. Over time, you will feel confident in your ability to solve the problem. And beyond that, you will feel freer, more active in life.

It can be said that self-study is a basic and necessary skill for each of us, it is also the foundation for the good development of other skills in life.

---

2. How to effectively self-learn?

a. Suggestions

There are a few suggestions to help you practice better self-study, specifically:

• Find a good place to study and minimize distractions. Finding a good location to study is one of the most important elements of studying well. Look for a quiet place with minimal distractions—someplace where you’ll be able to focus, and won’t be interrupted by loud sounds or people who constantly want your attention. Moreover, you should also turn off or isolate distracting devices from your working place.
• Set study goals for each session. Set study goals for each session of studying you have. These can be time-based or content-based. For example, you might aim to study for two hours, or review three chapters of your textbook—or both. Don’t be too harsh on yourself if you didn’t get through as much as you had planned; sometimes studying can take longer than expected. Keep taking well-spaced breaks, and schedule another study session.
• Practice, practice and practice. Practice tests have been long seen as useful tools to help students learn and retain information. Besides revealing gaps in knowledge and reducing exam anxiety, being tested makes us retrieve information from memory—a powerful, study-backed way of holding onto information we’ve learned. Practice is also the best way to master your skills and form lasting habits.
• Use your own words. Expressing an idea in your own words increases your understanding of a subject and helps your brain hang on to information. After you read a section of text, summarize important points by paraphrasing.
• Reward and Take care of yourself. At the end of the day, your brain is an organ in your body—take care of it by taking care of yourself. Get regular exercise, eat well, don’t overdrink, get good sleep, and take care of your mental wellbeing. Whether trying or rushing, remember that learning is a long-term path, whoever is more durable will have the advantage.

• When should I start practicing self-learning?

  I think self-study is the starting point of all skills and should be acquired as soon as possible. I plan to instill this mindset in my children very early on.

To be effective in self-study, you need both internal and external support. On the outside are things related to your surroundings such as places, friends, equipment, learning tools, etc. and inside is the motivation that aligns with your goals. These will enable you to realize the two main principles of being productive: focus and practice.

b. Reference myself

I myself began to know and build self-study skills since university. I taught myself programming, taught myself English. Of course, before “using” these skills, I used to feel scared and thought that I couldn’t learn it or it wasn’t really suitable for me. And then I ask myself the same question, explore different learning methods for each skill, spend time on trial and error, and most importantly, practice.

I quite like the saying “Life is a series of choices”. Choices can happen every day in our lives and if we have the ability to analyze and evaluate, the ability to make the right decisions will be higher. Some examples of choices can include: buy or rent a house, a 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom house, which school should I send my child to, should I go to graduate school after graduation, which company should I work at, etc. Therefore, I also practice analytical skills, evaluate to make the right choice and this skill also affects my career choice. My current job also involves a lot of data analysis and building solutions from data, and I am quite happy with this job. And I think that achievement is largely due to self-study.

I taught myself through watching other people work to understand how it works, seeing the good to learn, the negative to avoid. With current technology, we can easily find this information through books, newspapers or social networking sites.

I learned from my own experience through repeated trial and error. Since graduating from college, I have changed jobs a few times. The first time I changed jobs, I applied to 20 companies, only 4 companies called for an interview and only 1 offer. And of course, I chose that offer. The 2nd time is 8-10 companies and the 3rd and 4th times are recommended by colleagues as well as applying for a few more companies that I love. Looking back on that journey, it can be seen that the number of options has decreased as my experience has increased as well as I have understood myself better to make more suitable choices. Here are some questions I’ve had answers to after job changes:

• Is it better to go to graduate school or to work?
• Work for a private or public company? Company outsourcing or products?
• Small company or big company? Vietnamese or foreign companies?
• Self-study certificate or take an after-school class

---

In conclusion, I think self-study is a good and very important life skill. If someone asked me for advice, I would probably tell them: Build the habit of learning from people and from yourself as soon as possible.