The Learning Techniques-Part 2
In my previous article, I went over some of the learning techniques that you can use to enhance your learning experience. I would recommend reading that article before reading this one since it is a continuation of the last one. These next techniques will really change the way you think about learning and how you can develop better learning practices.
Habits
When you think of habits, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Is it brushing your teeth or taking a shower every morning? Is it exercising at a certain time in the day? Is it your daily meditation routine? There are many habits, good and bad, that exist, and we don’t even have to think about what we are doing when we are performing that habit. Our body knows that there is some cue that makes us perform a certain action, such as brushing your teeth when you wake up first thing in the morning.
Habits are energy savers for our brain. According to Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, a habit needs a cue, a routine, a reward, and belief that this habit will have meaning in your life. You may have heard that having strong willpower will get you to overcome things, but when you think about it, willpower uses energy while habits conserve energy. Habits should be obvious, easy, attractive and satisfying. There is this habit measuring tool that Jerry Seinfeld uses called Don’t Break the Chain. This involves creating a chain of crossed out calendar days that show how consistent you have been able to keep up with your actions. If you miss one day of trying to build that habit, you have broken the chain! This is why it is important to get into a routine that will not require you to think about doing something, such as learning a new topic or getting better at a sport.
System vs. Goals
You may have heard of many goal-tracking apps that allow you to write down your goals and then track how close you are to achieving your goals. While all that is good, systems are better than goals. If you don’t know what a system is, a system is where you establish a routine of doing something even if it’s for 20 minutes every day. Success in life comes from skills you learn, as well as the luck that can come. Success = luck x skills. Steve Jobs never thought he would lead one of the richest companies in the world, and it was only when Steve Wozniack knew that Jobs was the right person to handle the business side of things with Apple Computer that he decided that this was his purpose. His business acumen + luck of Wozniack bringing him in led to his success. When you establish a system for a skill that you are wanting to learn, the time may come to where you will need to use your skills to build the next billion dollar company. Spending at least 20 minutes a day every day on a skill will make you better than spending 3 hours a day and then waiting at least a week to touch back on that topic. Goals are rigid habits, while a system is where you are doing something regularly.
The Power of the Senses
To recall a topic, it should be memorable. Many studies have shown that handwriting rather than typing helps you learn better because your brain tries to make sense of what you write. Images and diagrams also help us remember things. You should try to invoke as many senses as possible. As humans, we are really good at remembering stories, so here’s an example. I still remember this example on remembering the colors of the spectrum before Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. Since I was in a British curriculum school at the time, the pneumonic went as Robert of York Gave Battle in Vain. A man named Robert who was from York would appear in my head and I would think that he was part of a battle that had failed. In case you’re wondering what the pneumonic stands for, it’s Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. When I’m writing my notes, I add some examples that I know I would understand, such as jokes, memories or other concepts that are similar to what I am learning about. It makes that learning experience much more memorable. If you want to invoke all 5 senses, use diagrams or draw diagrams to have use that sense of sight, light a candle to use that sense of smell, write your notes with your hand to activate that sense of touch, play some background music (I prefer instrumental) to activate that sense of hearing, and have a light snack with your or keep a box of mints to activate that sense of taste. When you use all of your senses while learning a topic, you end up recalling the information you learn much faster and you remember what you learned on that day very well. This is why the power of the senses is so strong when we are learning.
Method of Loci
The Method of Loci is this idea that humans remember things in a spatial way. This means that we know where things are placed spatially, such as where our furniture in our homes are located, or where the computer is located, and we can do the same where we can create an imaginary palace in our head when we are learning a topic. For example, let’s say that you wanted to memorize a deck of cards, knowing the suit and rank of each card in a particular order. You can create a memory palace in your mind and give each card meaning in order to remember the order of it. Let’s say that the first card was a Queen of Hearts. You can have this palace made in your head, and this can be your own home. You wake up and you get a text from the Queen of Hearts. The next card after the Queen of Hearts is an Ace of Spades, and so the Queen of Hearts sends you a text to schedule a meeting with the best person who can dig soil very well in order to add plants. Knowing that Ace means that someone is at a high rank, and knowing that a spade is a tool that is used to dig soil, you can remember that you need to contact the best person for the job, so that’s the Ace of Spades! As you keep going to the next card, you can keep the story going and have it make sense in your memory palace.
Pareto Principle
If you have read any of my previous articles, I have mentioned the Pareto Principle where 20% of work activity leads to 80% of the results. Think about the critical skills that can be achieved. When you are learning a language, you don’t memorize the entire dictionary. Instead, you learn the most common words and phrases. You should remove what is unnecessary in your learning and only think about the things that matter.
Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law states that you finish a task based on how much time you are given to complete that task. By using small systems and goals, it helps us complete those tasks within the time frame. When you are given one month to write a research paper, you should schedule your time every day where you are writing and making progress until the deadline approaches.
Deep Work
Deep work is one of my all time favorite topics in all of learning. It is this idea where you have a period of intense focus during long and uninterrupted periods of time. It allows you to think deeply about what you are learning and then build connections with things that you already know. Deep work is a skill that is very valuable, and it’s the very reason why some of the greatest writers, engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs and artists have been able to create their very best work that is noticed by the world. These people did not allow distractions to get in the way of their work. Some of them would go as far as to find a secluded area in their homes or outside and then let their families know that they want no interruptions while they are doing their best work. Skills that involve deep work will always be valuable. There is also shallow work, where it is less engaging work such as restocking shelves, cashiering or doing janitorial activities. Activities involving shallow work will be taken over by automation, but activities involving deep work, where you are having to problem solve and think about what you are doing, will remain and be valuable. You should have a dedicated workspace that involves using all your senses and set an end time for yourself. The deep thinkers also think about whether they have slept well, if they have exercised and if they are happy with their lives. These are questions that we should ask ourselves every day.
Stakes and Rewards
Focus on small rewards, either extrinsic or intrinsic. For example, if you learn how to solve a tough programming question, your reward may be intrinsic where you have a sense of accomplishment and you feel really good about yourself, or it may be extrinsic where you think about treating yourself with ice cream. These small rewards can keep us motivated. As for me, I end up going the more intrinsic way because I love feeling good about solving problems. It gives me this sense of challenge and excitement. Stakes are the things we lose by not learning or not improving. If you are working so hard to get into a graduate program, such as medical school, law school, or even a school with a good master’s program for your field of study, you know that if you don’t study or work hard, then your dreams of going to grad school are at stake. Think about what’s at stake when you decide that you don’t want to study or get better at a particular skill. Athletes know that if they don’t practice enough, their dreams of getting a championship are at stake.
Concepts vs. Facts
Concepts are more important than facts. Facts are easy to google. Recollection is much more important for long-term memory. Concepts are high-level topics where you connect different chunks of knowledge. You want to focus on the foundation and principle of a topic first. This idea of why helps us build conceptual knowledge. You should test yourself and practice what you are learning. If you are learning about a topic from a book, take notes after reading that way the concepts get clear and you actively remember what you were reading in the book.
This concludes the learning techniques section, and I hope that you found this read to be beneficial. If you really enjoyed this article, give it as many claps as you can (limit is 50 😉 ). I would like to thank Andrei Neagoie for being an amazing mentor.
