It seems that if we want to get ahead of the curve, we’ve got to improve ourselves in so many different areas. Whether it is in career development or you need to be able to keep yourself afloat mentally, there’s a lot to be said for being a better learner.
Having better learning abilities is not just going to benefit you in terms of your life, but it’s going to make you feel better about yourself. Being able to pick up a broad set of experiences in different fields is crucial in this modern-day, but how can you become a better and faster learner?
Exploring different online resources can help you find the learning style that works best for you and expand your understanding beyond traditional methods.
Understand Your Learning Style
This is one of the biggest barriers you might not be aware of. Because when you understand your learning style, for example, auditory, visual, or kinesthetic, you are able to pick up skills relating to how you absorb the information. You can find numerous learning style questionnaires online but it’s not a cut and dry approach. You may very well have a combination of learning styles that suits you based on the information you need to absorb. For example, people who need to learn more technical subjects such as cyber security courses may need to have a combination of factors to ensure they do absorb a lot of the facts and figures associated with cyber security.
Learning How to Focus
We are a world obsessed with multitasking. The fact is that if we want to learn something better, we’ve got to have our undivided attention placed upon it. You may sit and try to read a page of a book but realise you didn’t take it in, but this is something that we are all guilty of which is why learning how to focus is not just about forcing yourself to pay attention, but it’s about making sure that you have the right environment in which to learn. Because the concept of learning is directly related to neuroplasticity, therefore, we need to trigger this to reap the benefits. There is a protocol that can help at this link, but the basics encompass the following:
- Make yourself alert.
- Increasing your level of focus on the task at hand.
- Use repetition for learning skills.
- Insert very small intervals of rest and intersperse intermittent rewards.
You should also remember that you have a limit on being able to learn effectively. You may think that you can cram a lot of information overnight, for example, if you have an exam the next day. But people are not able to do more than 270 minutes of learning every day. 90 minutes is the upper limit before you take a break. Additionally, you need to have good quality sleep. You could benefit from learning information just before you go to sleep because sleep is where the brain does its work to rewire these neural circuits.
Make Use of Different Educational Tools
This is similar to your learning style, but they could be different materials that can stimulate your ability to learn something. Sometimes, when we need to learn an incredibly foreign concept, such as the law, staring at a piece of paper doesn’t make the information come to our brain any quicker. This is why you could benefit from different tools that may explain these items of information. It’s about using so many different online resources, but also understanding that, when you are absorbing this information, you are able to take effective notes. This is why, in law, legal specialists don’t just use one type of highlighter pen but use a number of them to help them categorise certain information. You can also do the same thing. When you realise there is something very important you need to remember, highlight it in yellow and repeat it out loud to yourself three times. Repeating information out loud helps to engage your brain more with that information.
Create a Very Specific Learning Plan
Planning is pivotal because you may need to learn information very intermittently which is why habit-forming is so important. If we are in the habit of learning, it becomes easier to learn. Having the opportunity every single day to study is the best approach. It all depends on your lifestyle but if you can set aside one hour every day for your learning and stick to it rigidly, this means that if you only learn from Monday to Friday, in the space of a month you will have clocked in 20 hours of learning, which is quite possibly more than the average college students! Because if you really want to achieve something, you’ve got to force yourself at the outset. Habit-forming is not easy because everybody takes to it differently. Instead of picking it up and putting it down, if you can dedicate yourself to one hour of learning every day within the rights environment, this is when, after a couple of months, your nervous system gets the hint!
Preparing Your Mind by Preparing Your Body
Exercise is something that is good for our brain, and while most of us know this we’ve got to know our limits. Too much intense exercise can have a detrimental effect on your ability to learn because, very simply, you are too exhausted. When it comes to learning information, if you have a daily habit of studying, you can benefit from light cardio exercise rather than intense training. There are benefits to intense exercise because these will make the biggest physiological changes over time which will impact your brain. However, when you are focused on a study session, think about making your exercise slightly more difficult than what you are used to, as this does not just reap benefits on your ability to learn, but it will push you out of your comfort zone which can help to keep your mind sharp. Because keeping our brains sharp is key to learning, we have to remember that the way we live our lives is also pivotal to our abilities to improve our brains. This is why being endlessly curious makes for great learners. If there is something you really do not want to learn, is there something about it that actually does interest you? Because if so, you can focus on this.
Prioritise Playing
When we look at children, they are forever improvising and discovering new ways of doing things, and this is something that we should take inspiration from. Because learning is not just about staring at a piece of paper but about finding completely different approaches to absorbing this information, from sight to sound to play, so as we continue our journey as learners, this helps us become more in tune with how we can learn best.
It’s not easy at the very beginning because you are forcing yourself to pedal faster. But clearly, if you want to be a better learner you have the ambition to get better. And this is why it’s not just about learning the skills necessary, but about ensuring that your life provides a foundation for you to learn better. Focusing on improving your wellbeing and learning how to remain calm is just as important as learning necessary skills. Because if you are someone that is predisposed to stress, this might be the reason you are not able to learn better right now. Learning, much like your health and life in general, is about making sure every component fits, which all stems from learning one key thing: how to be a better version of yourself.
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