10/16/2024 --fastcompany
Whether itâs a new technology, a foreign language, or an advanced skill, staying competitive often means learning new things. Being a quick learner can give you an even greater edge. And the good news is that there are ways you can âhackâ your brain to accomplish that. Here are eleven methods that you can try together or on their own:1. TEACH SOMEONE ELSE (OR JUST PRETEND TO)If you imagine that youâll need to teach someone else the material or task you are trying to grasp, you can speed up your learning and remember more, according to a study done at Washington University in St. Louis. The expectation changes your mind-set so that you engage in more effective approaches to learning than those who simply learn to pass a test, according to John Nestojko, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology and coauthor of the study.âWhen teachers prepare to teach, they tend to seek out key points and organize information into a coherent structure,â Nestojko writes. âOur results suggest that students also turn to these types of effective learning strategies when they expect to teach.â2. LEARN IN SHORT BURSTS OVER TIMEExperts at the Louisiana State Universityâs Center for Academic Success suggest dedicating 30-50 minutes to learning new material. âAnything less than 30 is just not enough, but anything more than 50 is too much information for your brain to take in at one time,â writes learning strategies graduate assistant Ellen Dunn. Skill-acquisition isnât an event, itâs a process. If you truly want to master a new skill, itâs far better to invest small amounts of time over an extended period than a large amount of time all at once. This is what researchers call the âspacing effect,â which refers to the finding that skill-development tends to improve when learning is spaced out over time.Youâre probably thinking, âBut wait, wouldnât this take longer?â Not necessarily. Because the spacing effect has been shown to boost retention, spreading out your learning process over a period of time limits the likelihood that youâll have to go back to brush up (or start over completely) a week or a month or a year later. Since the late 19th century, psychologists (and anyone whoâs ever crammed for an exam) have known that one of the biggest hindrances to learning is forgetting.While it sounds counterintuitive, you can learn faster when you practice distributed learning, or âspacing.â In an interview with The New York Times, Benedict Carey, author of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens, says learning is like watering a lawn. âYou can water a lawn once a week for 90 minutes or three times a week for 30 minutes,â he said. âSpacing out the watering during the week will keep the lawn greener over time.âTo retain material, Carey said itâs best to review the information one to two days after first studying it. âOne theory is that the brain actually pays less attention during short learning intervals,â he said in the interview. âSo repeating the information over a longer intervalâsay a few days or a week later, rather than in rapid successionâsends a stronger signal to the brain that it needs to retain the information.â3. STOP TRYING TO STRETCH YOUR ATTENTION SPANLearning how to execute any new skill competently takes one crucial factor many of us donât pay enough attention to: attention. Human attention is complex, with many factors influencing how attentive we can be at any given moment. Still, thereâs at least one way to improve your ability to pay attention, and itâs amazingly simple: Just stop trying to stretch your attention span beyond its ordinary limits.If you find yourself getting distracted while trying to learn something, press pause, then break up the learning process into even shorter segments. Itâs called âmicro-learning,â and neuroscientist John Medina has summed up the concept in what he calls the â10 Minute Rule.â His research suggests that the brainâs ability to pay attention typically plummets to near-zero after roughly 10 minutes. So focus instead on developing a skill over numerous, short sessions. This can help you give the task your full attention and obtain maximum results in the shortest time possible. Plus, it all but guarantees that youâll leverage the spacing effect and avoid forgetting everything later.None of this brain science is especially complicated, but the reality is that each of us often behaves in ways that make it harder for our brains to grasp a particular skill. Short, focused bursts of repeated practice may seem inefficient when you block out all those learning sessions in your calendar. But from your brainâs point of view, itâs the fastest route to mastery.Neil Starr, a course mentor at Western Governors University, an online nonprofit university where the average student earns a bachelorâs degree in two and a half years, recommends preparing for micro learning sessions. âMake note cards by hand for the more difficult concepts you are trying to master,â he says. âYou never know when youâll have some in-between time to take advantage of.â4. TAKE NOTES BY HANDWhile itâs faster to take notes on a laptop, using a pen and paper will help you learn and comprehend better. Researchers at Princeton University and UCLA found that when students took notes by hand, they listened more actively and were able to identify important concepts. Taking notes on a laptop, however, leads to mindless transcription, as well as an opportunity for distraction, such as email.âIn three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand,â writes coauthor and Princeton University psychology professor Pam Mueller. âWe show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takersâ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.â5. TAKE A STUDY NAPDowntime is important when it comes to retaining what you learn, and getting sleep in between study sessions can boost your recall up to six months later, according to new research published in Psychological Science.In an experiment held in France, participants were taught the Swahili translation for 16 French words in two sessions. Participants in the âwakeâ group completed the first learning session in the morning and the second session in the evening of the same day, while participants in the âsleepâ group completed the first session in the evening, slept, and then completed the second session the following morning. Participants who had slept between sessions recalled about 10 of the 16 words, on average, while those who hadnât slept recalled only about 7.5 words.âOur results suggest that interweaving sleep between practice sessions leads to a twofold advantage, reducing the time spent relearning and ensuring a much better long-term retention than practice alone,â writes psychological scientist Stephanie Mazza of the University of Lyon. âPrevious research suggested that sleeping after learning is definitely a good strategy, but now we show that sleeping between two learning sessions greatly improves such a strategy.â6. CHANGE IT UPWhen learning a new motor skill, changing the way you practice it can help you master it faster, according to a study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In an experiment, participants were asked to learn a computer-based task. Those who used a modified learning technique during their second session performed better than those who repeated the same method.The findings suggest that reconsolidationâa process in which existing memories are recalled and modified with new knowledgeâplays a key role in strengthening motor skills. Basically, if you try using your new skill in a different way, youâll learn it faster than just repeating the same tasks over and over. But keep the chances small: Research shows making the task too different doesnât help with mastery. For example, someone learning to switch between guitar chords could try playing them in a different order or pattern. 7. TRY PROJECT-BASED AND IMMERSIVE LEARNINGYou may think youâre a quick learner, but Scott H. Young sets the bar. He learned MITâs four-year computer science curriculum in less than 12 months, and four languages in a year, both of which he writes about on his blog. Young says that directness is often overlooked when it comes to learning.âA lot of us are working under the wrong metaphor,â he says. âMost people think the brain is like a muscle. The muscle metaphor says when you go to the gym and do barbell exercises, youâll be stronger when you go to lift in real life. The problem is that the brain learns in specifics. Youâre stuck in the context when you learn something.âTransferring knowledge and applying it in real life wonât work if it doesnât match the context under which it was learned. What matters are the cognitive features of what youâre trying to master, and the way you practice must be substantially similar. Young suggests project-based and immersive learning.Consider Bennie Lewis, one of the ultralearners Young profiles in his book, Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career. Young was in a student exchange program in France and was struggling to learn the language. Then he heard that Lewis became fluent in three months.After meeting Lewis, Young realized that although he had submersed himself in French culture, he had inadvertently created an English bubble, picking classes that were taught in English and making English-speaking friends. Lewis, on the other hand, hadnât relied on traditional language learning techniques. Heâd dove in, using a phrasebook to get started, speaking to strangers, and using visual mnemonics to memorize vocabulary. The scope of ways we have to learn hard skills is broader than we think, says Young. âWe think school is the only way to learn, but language classes are not optimal because you get nowhere near enough practice,â he says.8. TEST YOURSELFYoung says that another overlooked aspect of learning is retrieval. âStudents often study by reading and rewriting their notes,â he says. âThe problem is that the brain is a cognitive miser. If I donât have to recall something, I donât store it in my memory.âSo instead of reviewing, the better way to learn is to practice recalling something, testing yourself before you think youâre ready. Young suggests taking sample tests or using flashcards to recall what youâve learned, then identify the areas where your retrieval is faulty.9. TRAIN YOUR BASAL GANGLIAMost of us focus on comprehension when weâre attempting to improve a skill. That may seem sensible enough, but science shows that while understanding is vital to heightening proficiency (itâs hard to improve when you donât know how), it isnât enough to obtain mastery. Turning any newly acquired knowledge into an actual skill requires engaging a part of your brain that heavily impacts learning and movement, known as the âbasal ganglia.âThere are two things youâll need to know about your basal ganglia: First, it learns slowly. Unlike other regions of the brainâsuch as the neocortex, which deals with the executive functions of the brain and learns quicklyâthe basal ganglia takes much longer to absorb new experiences and information. Second, it learns by repeatedly performing the behavior. For instance, when teaching a kid to ride a bike you can explain how to steer and pedal the bicycle in a few minutes. But while she may understand conceptually how to operate the bike, her initial attempts will probably be pretty unsuccessful. Why? Because riding a bicycle, like all skills, requires training the basal ganglia, which takes repetition and practice.As you attempt to master a skill, intentionally engage in repeated practice sessions that allow you to fail, adapt and try again. Itâs this process that will enable you to improve and eventually become competent in the skill. Because when it comes to training your basal ganglia, repetition is the key to mastery.10. BREAK IT DOWN TO SUB SKILLSIn a previous article for Fast Company, Founder and CEO of Ripe Sean Kim suggested breaking down any skill you want to know into all of its components. For example, if you want to learn how to be a stronger writer, you might break the skill down into âsub skillsâ like organization and structure of information; tone and word choice, sentence structure, and grammar. Itâs okay if you donât know all the components before you start. You can always add to the list.Once you have your initial list, think about which sub skill is most important for you to master in order to reach your goal. Going back to the writing example, maybe you want your emails to be more easily understood. You might identify âorganization and structureâ or âgrammarâ as the most important based on your current skill level. Focus on learning this most important sub skill first, then move onto another. Focus on one sub-skill at a time to avoid the slowing down that comes from multitasking.11. TRY THE FEYNMAN TECHNIQUENobel Prizeâwinning physicist Richard Feynman was famous for his academic accomplishments in a wide range of scientific fields. But he attributed his achievements to his method of learning rather than his innate intelligence. Fadeke Adegbuyi of Doist summarizes the Feynman Technique in four steps:Choose a concept to learn. Choose the topic you want to learn about and write it at the top of a notebook page. This forces you to think about what you donât know and choose an area to study thatâs small enough to fit on a page. Teach it to yourself or someone else. Write everything you know about the topic out as if you were explaining it to yourself or someone else. Donât consult your notes or any resources. This forces you to face how much you actually do or donât know. Alternatively, you can actually try to teach it to someone else.Return to the source material if you get stuck. Go back to whatever youâre learning from â a book, lecture notes, podcast â and fill in the gaps in your explanation. Youâll probably have to go back and forth between steps 2 and 3 a few times. This is good and helps with your learning. Simplify your explanations and create analogies. Refine your notes and explanations until they feel clear and obvious. Distilling what you know into its simplest form â without relying on jargon â is key to truly learning and understanding something, rather than just memorizing it. See if you can incorporate analogies that feel intuitive to you as well. DAVID HOFFELD and CHARLIE SORREL also contributed writing, reporting and/or advice to this article.