Whether it’s a foreign language, a new skill, or a regular degree, learning constitutes such an important part of our lives. But at the same time, it can sometimes take up a considerable amount of time to learn something.
But with time such a valuable asset, wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could speed up your learning process?
Think of all the extras that you could do with the time available. You learn something fast and you have all the time in your hands to do what you love. Maybe apply what you’ve learned in your work or learn something completely else. With learning, it’s never too much and it’s always wise to expand your knowledge to different horizons.
So, is there a way that you could use to speed up your learning? Thankfully, the answer is Yes.
Today, with the development of neuroscience we know exactly how we learn or at least have a better understanding of it. There are proven processes to help learn faster and here we are going to discuss just that.
So, if you too want to know how to learn faster, here’s how.
Use Pen and Paper to Take Notes
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While it might feel comfortable or even tempting to take notes on a computer during a lecture or a conference, thinking that it will be more thorough that way and thus help in learning faster, it’s not the case. It has been observed that those who take notes using the old-school way, i.e. pen and paper, process and retain the information on a deeper level.
So, ditch your laptop and use your hands to take notes. It might be slower or cumbersome but the act of writing and using your own words to reframe the notes have an effect that helps retain the information longer. Meaning you’ll recall it better and thus help in learning faster.
This is a general rule for learning better and even when you opt for any
Online Tuition, this rule holds. Always use a pen and paper to take notes and to retain information better.
Say Out Loud What You Want to Remember
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Remembering is a crucial part of learning. And while thinking and pondering might help in understanding better, it’s not that helpful when you want to remember something. On the other hand, speaking out loudly can do wonders in helping a subject make clear impressions on your mind.
It’s just the act of speaking, the active involvement in learning that you are making, that helps create this impression. So, when you want to remember something in the long run always voice it out.
Teach Someone Else
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Teaching something to someone requires that you understand the subject clearly. The very idea that you have to teach can help you put your efforts in organizing and managing your learning which ultimately results in effective learning.
The act of teaching can also help enhance knowledge. As you teach, you go through the concepts to make someone understand, and that results in a clear understanding of the subject for yourself as well. So, when you want to learn something comprehensively, make an effort to teach that as well.
Learn in Short Bursts
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Evidence shows that learning at a stretch for more tha
50 minutes might not be that effective when compared to learning in short sessions of 20-30 minutes and repeating them after a quick gap. Longer sessions mean that there is too much information for your brain to process at a time. On the other hand, brief and frequent learning sessions mean that your brain is processing just the optimum amount of information at a time. So, experts suggest that to learn more effectively and thus more quickly, it is better to follow this rule of studying in short intervals.
Modify Your Practice
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Learning and practicing a subject the same way for days can be tedious and boring and doesn’t help in learning anything faster. This is particularly true when you are learning a new motor skill. Whereas, practicing a slightly modified version of the skill can help you gain more knowledge and learn faster.
So, the next time you plan to learn a new skill, try to practice different versions of it to help learn more effectively and thus faster.
Distribute Your Practice
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The best way to retain a content is not through hours and days of continual practice but distributed practice. What that means is after you study something for the first time leave a gap of a day or two and pick it up again and try to retrieve what you learned.
This way, you’ll make more attempts at retrieval of that particular theory and the more successful that is, the harder it will be to forget.
Distributed practice works may be due to another reason as well. When you learn something, along with the information some context too gets encoded into your brain (the reason why when remembering something like an old song, related stuff also appears on our mind). Distributed learning helps in creating contexts that can help to retrieve information.
So, you must space out your learning sessions and instead of days of continual learning, use distributed practice to your advantage and learn more efficiently and more quickly.
Take Study Naps
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Sleeping in between study sessions improving learning? Sounds counterintuitive but is not. Sleep is essential for getting your brain the rest that it needs. So, taking short naps in between study sessions actually helps in retaining information for a longer period. It also reduces the time in relea
ing as evidence shows.
Earlier it was thought that sleeping after studying is great. While that still holds, now it is seen that sleeping in between study sessions too is a good idea and helps in retaining information and thus help in learning faster and more effectively.
Learning something new indeed takes efforts, practice, and a lot of time. While the first two holds, the time taken in learning can be reduced to a great extent. The tips and tricks shared here are proven to be true and helped several in lessening their learning time. So, follow and practice them by heart and the time that you are taking to learn is sure to get reduced as well.