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Do you ever feel like you’re learning something without getting results? Have you ever noticed gaps in common learning approaches? In this episode we are talking about the ways to make the learning process more efficient and pleasant. Also, you will learn some useful tips that will help you to succeed.
What you’ll discover
- How to plan your learning process to make it the most productive
- Tips for a faster learning process
- How to change your filters of attention
- How to find the motivation
Quotes, keynotes
- Let’s speak about the process of learning. Beginning with our birth and to the last day of our life we are in a continuous process of education. We learn what life is, how to make money with this or that profession, how to build relationships, and how to be happy. Most part of our education is an unconscious process, but we also spend our time and efforts for some specific purpose. We set some goals, then search for sources of information, and then we spend some time reading, listening, watching and, sometimes, practicing. What do you think about yourself? Are you a quick learner? Is every topic that you try to cover easy for you to digest?
- From previous episodes, you know that self-discipline is a good approach in most cases. But here’s the thing: stuffing your brain with tons of information, by reading and listening to hours and hours of learning material doesn’t help a lot. And that’s why the process of studying should be much more sophisticated. Let’s think about the cases when you are motivated to digest new information and do it easily.
- One of possible cases is when you are driven by the topic. You’re excited about it, you love the topic, this could be your hobby, and you want more and more information about this. You don’t need to eat or sleep, you don’t need a system of grades to track your achievements. All you need is to know more about the topic, and this is the best scenario. But, unfortunately, it’s not always like that and you know that.
- Often, when adults ask children about their favorite discipline, children name the discipline with the best teacher. And doesn’t matter if this exact child likes the discipline or not, because time spent on those classes is the most…
- Thinking a lot about the problem of education, about why schools and colleges are not always effective, I’ve realized one interesting thing: in most cases, in my experience, when I started studying a new discipline, teachers didn’t explain to me what exact problems that information helps to solve. And it was really strange for me. Why should I spend hours and hours trying to understand the topic without understanding what it is needed for?
- One idea once came to my mind after I realized that when I’m reading a book for the second time, I see some new details, which I didn’t see the previous time. And it was strange for me. The same letters, the same words, the same paper. Why didn’t I notice that information for the first time? And then, I found the answer, the answer that helped me to improve my educational process in any sphere. Have you ever had the same feeling, that while reading some book for the second time, you notice new details? Why do you think it works like that? Do you become more attentive or wiser? Have you changed your skills of reading? What is the reason? I know the answer.
- Here is a message for teachers: at the very beginning, please, tell your students why they need to know that discipline, why it is useful, what types of interesting problems it helps to solve, how it can change the world for a better one. Please, help your students with that kind of motivation.
- A nice way to go is to find the problem that you will be motivated to solve. If it’s possible, find questions which are related to your hobby or current interest. This will motivate you to find answers by consuming more information. If you’re not able to find these types of questions, then find ordinary questions related to this exact topic that you plan to cover. But another good approach is when you need to help someone else by providing the information you need to learn. Think about it. Where can you find the person who also needs to keep that kind of knowledge. And communicating with that person and taking the role of a teacher for that person, your motivation will increase dramatically.
- First of all, while studying you need to understand and feel the learning path. You should know what kind of information you need to obtain, what are the checkpoints and blocks of information, and how deeply you need to go into each of those blocks; how much time you have in general, and how much time each day you need to spend on it. If you have a teacher or mentor, then ask that person about the plan. Because without having that plan, you cannot feel your progress. And without having the feeling of progress, it often seems that you stay at the same place.
- What approach of studying gives you best results? What part of the day is the most resourceful for you? What conditions do you need to have to perform the best? You need all that to have the biggest gain.
- One of the ingredients of success is to dedicate time specifically to learning. You should clear that part of the day from other tasks, from other thoughts. You can even turn off your phone because every distraction drastically decreases your performance. And please, forget multitasking, it doesn’t help in the process of learning.
- Try splitting your education process into short sessions, 25-30 minutes each, and by having 10-15 minute breaks between each of those sessions. Please, reward yourself for every block or every checkpoint you’ve achieved. The reward…
- One thing you should understand, the more passively you study, the longer you study. So, you should be involved in different activities, or different ways of learning of the same topic. It is better to combine listening, reading,…
- There is one amazing approach for generating ideas, answers, or simply structuring the information that you’ve recently received. And this approach is to use your subconsciousness. There are different studies that prove this approach works. What is this approach about? You have a problem or a question, and it stays in your mind; then, you stuff your brain, your memory with a lot of related information, and then you leave it as is and change your activity (for sleep or physical activities, like jogging or cycling). For me, the time when I’m taking a shower also works. During one of those activities, your brain continues working. And on a subconscious level, your brain tries to find a solution or answers to the question by processing the information you’ve just received.
- As for me, the best trick is to tell about that new knowledge to someone else: what’s interesting about it, how it can be used, and how that can influence our life. And of course, a better way is to teach someone else who needs that…
- It’s really good if you have different quizzes or exercises, and you can complete them and track the results: what answers or solutions were wrong/right. And this is what you should do after every block of information you receive.
The task for the next week
- Step one: select the discipline that you’re already in the process of learning or planning to learn in the nearest future.
- The second step: plan your learning process using planning techniques from this episode.
- The third step: analyze in what kind of activities you could be involved to increase speed and performers of education, who you could collaborate with, what kind of physical activities you’d want to use after the learning sessions, and so on.
- The fourth step: analyze and plan how you can boost your learning results. Prepare a notebook for taking notes, and for writing summaries, select people with whom you will share your fresh cognitions, search for quizzes and exercises to choose from and think how you can find an expert who could provide feedback on your exercises.
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