11/May/2017
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Are you a student? Do you want to stay competitive is to develop habits that can help you quickly learn new skills. Here are 10 habits to incorporate into your learning to help you learn new material twice as fast.
Speed reading;
Reading is the daily habit of many successful students and business persons. For example, Warren Buffett developed the habit of reading several hours every day, so, you should expand your capability just by reading quickly and efficiently.
Control your learning environment;
Have you noticed that there are times in the day when you are in the flow and learning seems easy but then there are other times when nothing is dipping and it feels like you are fighting a difficult battle? We all have biological pulses for our sleep, body temperature and even peak mental state. Figure out when you are most alert and aware and use that time to do your learning.
Take notes;
Taking notes helps our brains to analyze and synthesize the information that we are learning. The very act of writing makes our brains think that we are undergoing a mini-rehearsal of the information.
Combine all learning modalities;
All of us have preferred learning modalities: visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinesthetic (VARK). If you are a visual person, you will find learning a lot easier if you see the new material presented visually, such as through pictures, diagrams or PowerPoint. If you learn best by listening, then you will love podcasts, interviews, and audiobooks. Those with a reading or writing modality learn best when they can read the information and write down notes. If you are kinesthetically-inclined, you learn better when you can use your hands and physically touch or try something out for yourself.
Create mental associations;
You can shorten your learning time by creating mental associations to link what you already know to new information. Techniques such as using a familiar acronym or rhyme to help you remember different types of marketing sequences, using favorite colors to help you remember algorithms or visualizing something interesting about a client to help you remember their name are all ways for you to create mental associations.
Exercise your brain;
A brain is just like any muscle in your body -- the more you exercise it, the more effective it becomes. Try learning something new, set yourself a new challenge or use fun resources like BrainHQ and Lumosity to increase your attention, memory, cognitive abilities and brain speed. The more you train and exercise your brain, the faster your learning will be.
Modified practice after six hours;
Malcolm Gladwell first popularized the concept of deliberate practice in his book "Outliers: The Story of Success." Deliberate practice is practicing with intentional focus on skill improvement and focusing on growing out of one’s comfort zone. In his book, Gladwell uses the concept of deliberate practice to explain why some athletes and musicians improve so much faster than others.
Get hands-on experience;
Nothing beats learning like actual hands-on experience. Textbook knowledge transforms into something much more useful when we can combine it with practical knowledge.
Teach someone else what you are learning;
When you teach someone else what you are learning, you retain approximately 90 percent of what you have just learned, especially if you do this immediately after learning.it yourself.
By sharing your knowledge with someone else, not only are you helping someone else but you will also discover quickly how well you know your subject and discover any gaps.
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