When I first started writing on Quora one of my first posts got 354 views.
Just months later, one of my Quora posts 539,900 views, 11,200 upvotes and was published by Inc, Forbes and Fortune.
One of the keys to my writing success has been the ability to learn faster.
Here are my top 10 tips:
Ingest information in multiple ways
A study by Judy Willis in 2008 states that “The more regions of the brain that store data about a subject, the more interconnection there is. This redundancy means students will have more opportunities to pull up all of those related bits of data from their multiple storage areas in response to a single cue. This cross referencing of data means we have learned, rather than just memorized.” So as an example, let’s say your learning to speak Spanish. You could combine many different methods of learning to make it more effective including:
- Flashcards
- Writing exercises
- Youtube videos
- Audio exercises
- Using an app like Duolingo or Busuu
- Practicing with someone in person or over Skype
Stay fit
Almost every morning, around 6 or 7 AM, I’ll do either a cardio workout (Usually a 4 mile run to the Golden Gate Bridge and back) or a 50 minute circuit training session with P90X. When I do that, my mind feels incredibly clear and sharp.
When I do that, my mind feels incredibly clear and sharp. There’s a study published in PLoS One that backs this claim. (This was also covered in the New York Times) Basically this study involves 81 young women who were native German speakers who were randomly divided in to 3 groups. In each of the groups they wore headphones and listened for 30 minutes to a number of paired words. One word as a Polish noun and the other was its German equivalent.
Each person was asked to memorize the unfamiliar word. One group listened after sitting quietly for 30 minutes and the other group listened after riding stationary bikes at a light pace for 30 minutes. Guess what happened? The group that rode the bikes performed best.
Learn by experience
I was a terrible writer when I first. Like I said, one of my first posts only got 354 views. But I kept writing. Now I’ve written over 50 posts, started my own motivational blog and have over 2.4 million views. There are few things that beat learning by experience.
Stay focused on one task at a time
Research at Stanford has shown that focusing one single task at a time is far more productive than multi-tasking. Travis Bradberry has written that
“The frequent multi-taskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.” Stay laser focused.
Constantly test
When I would prepare for interviews, I would constantly practice role plays. This form of testing helped me to prepare for commonly asked questions and also taught me how to stay calm and collected when I get curve ball questions. Push yourself through tests.
Whether it’s multiple choice, free form, role plays or flashcards, find ways to test whether or not you really understand the material you’re studying.
Express yourself
It turns out that writing about your fears and worries might actually help your scores. According to Scientific American,
“Psychologists at the University of Chicago found that college students who first wrote about their thoughts and feelings about an upcoming math exam for 10 minutes solved more arithmetic problems than did students who sat quietly. And the writing task improved the scores of highly anxious ninth graders so much that they performed as well as students with low anxiety on a biology final exam. The authors say that the technique may be most useful for habitual worriers in high-pressure situations.”
Set up incentives
Studies have shown
“findings are consistent with the hypothesis that reward motivation promotes memory formation via dopamine release.”
So for example, after completing a study session of reading a chapter, you could reward yourself with a short walk, a green smoothie or a funny Youtube video.
Space out your learning
Have you ever crammed for a college final before? I have. I passed the test. But I don’t remember 99% of what I learned in those cramming sessions. Let’s face it: cramming isn’t effective. A study done by Nicholas Cepeda (York University, UCSD) shows that periodically reviewing information is a better approach than cramming.
Stop wearing that 3 hour sleep badge with pride
We get it, you work hard. But don’t lose sleep over it. It’s simply not worth it. And there are a ton of studies that show getting enough sleep will help you learn faster and your memory will improve.
Don’t sprint non-stop
It’s hard to sustain that and studies have shown that having regular breaks will actually boost productivity and improve focus. For example, nowadays, I’ll spring really intensely for about 30 minutes and then take a 5 minute break.
I’ll usually meditate during that time or drink a green smoothie to relax. When I’m done with that 5 minute break, I usually feel re-energized and ready to crush it again.
Learning is one of the best things we can ever experience. When we are growing mentally and physically, it makes us feel alive. It gives us a sense of accomplishment. It gives us a sense of momentum. It gives us passion.
Hopefully this post helped you learn something today.
Post a Comment