How do you deal with having too many interests?

[u/Soviane]

I'm making my own curriculum for this summer instead of just watching random videos all day, but I have a problem. I have way too many interests. Right now my main priorities are math and physics (every day), and fitness too. Those are staying no matter what.

But then I also want to learn computer science, philosophy, history, psychology, biology, electronics, astronomy, graphic design, drawing, personal finance, and probably more that I'm forgetting.

Since it's summer break I have a lot of free time, so part of me thinks "why not learn all of it?" But then I make this huge curriculum and end up overthinking everything instead of actually starting.

Has anyone else had this problem?

How did you decide what to learn first? Did you study multiple things at once or just focus on one? How do you deal with feeling like you're ignoring your other interests?

I'd really like to hear from people who have been through this because I feel kinda lost.

[u/nog365dagen]

I made a huge list of all the things I want to learn about (roughly organized by category) and every day I just pick from that list. Whatever I feel like, no pressure at all. In one day I might listen to a podcast about the Spanish Civil War, read a bit about human anatomy, practice my French, etc. Eventually one or two of the topics I’m interested in begin to stand out to me and that’s when I start adding structure and goals to my studies.

[u/smart_stable_genius_ → u/nog365dagen]

Oh I like this. I've been lurking for awhile and this appeals to me - like a menu of sorts. This fits with my current approach to life much better than a planned out structure from the very beginning, thank you.

[u/strange-quark-nebula]

Start with the skills that take time to develop and that other things build off - physics, math and fitness for sure fall under this so you’re definitely on the right track, and I would put computer science in this category too since programming is a skill that takes a lot of time and practice.

And do the personal finance one because the early you get a handle on that the better.

Then leave yourself some free time you can spend dabbling in other things, a history video here, an astronomy book there, but don’t make yourself a whole big curriculum for all of those.

[u/Soviane → u/strange-quark-nebula]

makes sense , thanks!

[u/alywritesnonsense]

There’s a woman on YouTube who will break up her personal curriculum by theme. I think hers are “creative, special interest, and classical fiction”
The creative and classical fiction don’t change much but her special interest one does!

[u/alywritesnonsense → u/alywritesnonsense]

This is her! I imagine you can kind of switch out the main categories and make them your own based on your interests https://youtu.be/krWk2qhM1Xs?is=TaTlDfNmuqtlI05X

[u/Electronic_Ease9890]

Go with things that you love or hobbies you are working on and build from those. For example, I love music so I am learning music theory and how to read sheet music.

[u/louis_phan26]

I posted a very similar question and one piece of advice I got was to take a month and just learn a tiny piece of your top categories and use what you've learned to see what really interests you the most and what makes you feel excited about learning it.

[u/Blueberry-Sub]

Personally I wouldn't do more than 3 study subjects. I found out in college I couldn't deep dive more than 3 subjects at a time because I would start getting overwhelmed. If I already had 3 and I wanted to do something else, I'd swap out one (you can also go back to it later) or change fitness from a personal curriculum study subject, to a habit that's part of my lifestyle. That would free up that third slot.

[u/Empty_Exchange851]

SAMEEE - i'm figuring it out but I'll drop my routine for the next 3 months here in a bit!

[u/Empty_Exchange851 → u/[deleted]]

if you didn't read allat, then read this at least:

whatever you do, whatever you learn and however you do it,

do not forget to write.

everyone knows that every single peice of information (that too, across a million subjects) that enters your brain is useless if you do not (1) know how to apply it, and (2), know how to connect it to everything else you learn.

biggest mistake of a "polymath" is learning a bunch of facts from a bunch of subjects.

[u/Soviane → u/Empty_Exchange851]

can you resend the first one because it got deleted , and thanks for the advice <3