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Overloaded with Voices

Yesterday I found myself on a video conference with 38people in London and around the world. Everything sounded garbled; I could makeout conversation patterns, but words and letters were like electronic beeps.Nothing was comprehensible.

That’s the experience that many clients describe when tryingto study with too much on the mind.

You see the words butcan’t make out the meaning.

Just after that I got on conference with one client – alsoin London. We used different technology – and there were 2 of us on the call.

Our experience waslike we were sitting in the same room, with both visual and audio clarity.

That’s how prepping for the CFA exam can go. There’s so muchnoise in most busy professionals’ days that most of the time new concepts comethrough like electronic beeps. Not understandable — and definitely notretain-able.

The burning questionthen is how to get all of those people currently in your video conference tosign off.

(Want to know how effective your current study approach is? Take a 30-second survey and get your score.)

Getting Clear

There are many strategies. Some will work for you, othersfor other people. The process is to test out a few, practice those that work,and be patient because this change takes time.

1. If you have noise from people missing your presence – be proactive. Negotiate a settlement. Get their buy-in to leave you to your studies from now to exam day. Just that amount of time. Then promise that you’ll be back fully in their lives as early as night of exam day – in fact you may ask them to plan a big party that night. You’ll be tired but you can be there.

2. . Keep a journal of what the nagging voices in your head are requesting. Start with the “you should be” items. You should be washing the car, cleaning the garage, planning a vacation, getting a new job, or planning a promotion. Whatever the voices are for you, write those down in your journal and promise to that voice that you’ll be right on these things on the day after you successfully write the exam.

3. Develop your triggers to shut out “life mode” and switch on “study mode”. Life will be there when you’re done studying but your CFA prep will not complete itself if you don’t make focused time for it. How to do that? Step-by-step about triggering the ideal study state in this blog post.

You’re getting the picture here. Just between now and exam day at 5 PM in the afternoon, prepping for the CFA exam is your #1 priority. You may be pulled away from the needed hours of study by people or projects, or these voices may be purely in your head. Both need to be dealt with directly to increase your productivity in your precious hours in front of curriculum materials.

As you practice these new habits, you’ll shut down thevoices, and just like an overloaded video conference, the remaining voices willcome through loud and clear.

Those clear voiceswill be you engaging with the curriculum material and recording it in yourmemory and in your understanding.

Ah those will be the days, right?

(Want to know how effective your current study approach is? Take a 30-second survey and get your score.)

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