Learn something else (or just imagine what you are learning)

Quick Learning Methods

“Whoever owns the information, owns the world” (N. Rothschild) – this aphorism is extremely relevant in our time. But is it possible to cope with old affairs and, moreover, have time to acquire new knowledge? The answer is – you can.

Here are quick learning methods that will help you gain a new skill and expand your professional competence without losing quality..

1. Learn something else (or just imagine learning)

A study at the University of Washington in St. Louis says that a person learns faster and remembers information better if he thinks he needs to learn something else additionally. Waiting for the next task changes thinking so that a person develops a more effective approach to memorizing.
John Nestoyko, a specialist in psychology and the author of the study, says the following: “When teachers prepare for teaching, they strive to find key points, reference points, to organize information into a single structure. Students who have to “work on two fronts” do the same. Therefore, their results are better. “.

2. Learn “short bursts”

Louisiana Center for Academic Success Center experts suggest dedicating 30-50 minutes to new material. Allen Dunn, graduate training assistant, says classes for less than 30 or more than 50 minutes are ineffective. In the first case, the brain does not reach peak performance, and in the second, it receives too much information. Work out 30-50 minutes, and then take a break of 5-10 minutes.

“Short but frequent classes are more effective than long and rare ones,” agrees Neil Starr, course mentor at the University of Western Governors. This is a non-profit university in which students, on average, receive a bachelor’s degree in 2.5 years.

3. Take notes in a notebook

Ways to quickly learn can not do without written work. Now notes are easily typed in a laptop or smartphone, but making them in paper form, you will remember better. Researchers at Princeton and California Universities have noticed that students who mark lectures by hand absorb key information in class more efficiently. Writing to a laptop, firstly, is often reduced to a simple translation of sound into text, and secondly, is associated with distracting factors (Internet, email, instant messengers).

With the following tips, you can upgrade your note-taking skill, making them a very useful tool:

• Record in your own words – it’s easier to remember now and figure it out later.
• Leave blank lines between the main ideas so that you can come back later and complement the idea.
• Use your own abbreviations and notation to save time..
• Write phrases, key ideas, not complete sentences or paragraphs.
• Learn to extract important and ignore trivial information.

4. Repeat information in short periodic sessions

The author of the book “How We Learn: When, Where, and Why It Happens”, Benedict Carey says that repeating the learned information is effective if a person “keeps a distance”. He gives a comparison with watering the lawn: you can water the lawn once a week for 90 minutes, or you can – three times for 30 minutes. Obviously, the second option is more beneficial for grass..

Therefore, Carey recommends repeating the information at intervals of 1-2 days after the first assimilation. So you constantly “raise” knowledge to the surface, preventing them from drowning in the depths of memory. A similar method will be necessary until they are firmly fixed and “find” their place in the head.

5. Learn, sleep and study again

Recently, the journal Psychological Science published the results of an experiment conducted in France. In it, the subjects were divided into two groups and given 16 words each, translated from Swahili into French. In both groups, classes were divided into two sessions.

The first group studied in the morning and evening, and the second took one lesson in the evening, then slept and received the second lesson in the morning. During the checks, it became known that participants sleeping between classes recalled about 10 words out of 16, and those who did not sleep – about 7.5.

Psychologist Stephanie Mazza from the University of Lyon writes: “Our results show that the interweaving of sleep with study sessions significantly speeds up learning, contributes to better and longer memorization, and reduces the time for assimilation of information. Previous studies have shown that sleep is one of the best learning aids. And now it’s clear that it’s even better if they actually go side by side. ”.

6. Change approaches

Changing your training method helps build muscle faster. The more often a person uses the same exercises, the worse his muscles respond to growth. The body, as it were, gets used to monophonic and identical loads. The same thing happens with the brain..

Reconsolidation (change of approach) raises the data available in the head and modifies them thanks to new conditions. By changing the way knowledge is well stored and easily retrieved in the future. For example, if you are learning a foreign language, study not only in group lessons, but also with the teacher individually or try to communicate with native speakers from different countries via skype.

7. Try mnemonic tricks

Quick learning methods often include mnemonics. Such practices help to remember a large amount of information through sounds, images and associations. A common example of a mnemonic trick is the saying, “Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits.” It helps to remember the first letters in which order the colors in the rainbow go: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, purple.

Mnemonics simplifies, summarizes and compresses information. Such a skill will be a serious advantage for law students or doctors, as well as for people who are learning a new language.

8. Drink enough water

Water is good for the skin, the proper functioning of the body’s internal systems and its general functionality. And yet, strangely enough, it makes us smarter. In one study, students showed the best test result when they took a bottle of water with them. When a person does not drink water, the brain is overloaded, it takes more time to complete tasks.

9. Connect the new with a friend

The better a person associates new knowledge with existing knowledge, the more efficiently he remembers.

Memory plays a central role in the ability to perform complex sequential tasks, for example, apply knowledge to problems that a person has not encountered before, or draw new conclusions based on old and known facts.

If the “new information” is “glued” to the old, well-known, both will be remembered better.

Such methods of quick learning uses Elon Musk. He says that he sees knowledge as a semantic tree. That is, before learning a new Mask, he checks to see if he is really well versed in the basic principles already obtained. To small leaves and fruits (new knowledge) can be reached only through the root and large branches (basics).

Similar articles

• Habits of the rich – 20 habits that will help you become rich.

  Millionaires are not born, but become. A study by Fidelity Investments found that 80% of people with a fortune of more than $ 1 million achieved this figure…

• Train observation

  How to generate ideas Good ideas come often and help people solve minor problems in work and everyday life. Great ideas come up less often and…

• Act consciously

  How to become an influential person Influence is not achieved through intimidation. It is born from the ability of a person to inspire and motivate others…..