I recently completed the IBM Data Science Professional Certificate offered by Coursera. I’ve taken a couple Google certifications in the past, and aimed to complete this quickly. Here’s what I did to supercharge my results.
- I set aspirational goals with daily plans of continuing progress. Doing this ensured that I could see what specifically needed to get done. This helped me keep my eyes on the prize. I used checklists and burndown charts to see how much I still had left.
- I read the video scripts rather than watching most of the time. A lot of the material is intuitive, and if I could absorb the information faster in a specific medium, I tried to make sure I did that.
- I started with graded work, and used Coursera’ s open notes. When you can see specifically what’s tested for, it’s a lot easier to advance much more rapidly. Then, when returning to the material, you can use the labs and other materials to brush up on the subject matter.
- I emphasized momentum. When I started, I moved quickly, and I made sure to follow that up with additional results. I also visualized myself succeeding, and toyed with the idea of putting it on my resume when I was close to complete, to urge myself to get it done faster.
- I told my friends I would be done with this in under a month. Knowing that they could tease me if I didn’t finish helped provide the pressure to complete it rapidly.
- I made sure to devote my entire focus to this goal, often working on it for several hours at a time, to make sure I could actually absorb bigger pieces.
- When I struggled to get started, I told myself I would focus for “15” minutes, and see how far I got. This helped me break “data science equivalent” to writers’ block (stasis?).
Happy learning!
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