Another Day, Another … Word
You wouldn’t think that learning one new word a day would be all that hard. Adding one little word to the list of thousands (I think) you have stored in your head should be trivial. See it, think about it, mouth it silently to yourself at your desk, eat a piece of candy, boom. Knowledge acquired. But somehow it’s not that easy. First of all, nothing I’ve found indicates that candy helps you to retain new knowledge in any capacity.
But, I will say this: learning a new word a day is worth the effort. From a purely anecdotal perspective, there’s something simple and accomplished feeling about seeing the word ‘sententious’ in a book you’re reading and knowing it means ‘giving a pompous speech.’ This word came up in regards to communists having a round-table and I thought ‘Hell yeah! I’m smart and laughing at communists — the American Dream!’
Life hacking is stupid. Learning a new word every day is not a life hack. It’s a trivial habit to adhere to. It actually requires you physically do something and it’s not something you need to lay in bed and proselytize to yourself about. Here’s how.
These 9 Simple Steps Will Change Your Life!
- Buy notecards
- Find a new word
- Write the word and definition on the card
- Leave the card sitting on your desk
- Say it out loud a couple of times
- Find a way to use it once in a sentence
- Find a way to use it once in an email or tweet or Facebook
- Put the card in a stack with your other ones
- Now you probably know it.
So get out there and learn ya somethin’! You know, if you want to. I don’t really care. If you don’t, I’ll be word-smarter than you forever.
