Supercharge your learning speed

Welcome back to Prosperaptitude. If you’ve ever wanted to be a better version of yourself, you’re in the right place!

You’ve been assigned a new project at work, and there’s a task that you really don’t know how to accomplish. What’s the fastest way to learn something new? Read this entire article to get the newest method of learning quickly!

Write it down (don’t type)

In the digital age, this may seem inconvenient, but the truth is rarely convenient. Studies have shown that students who take notes on paper learned more than those who typed their notes into computers. Researchers believe the act of putting a pen to paper reinforces the cognitive link to knowledge. Typing just happens too quickly for things to stick.

Use your other senses

This is one I use personally. When I need to learn something quickly, I will speak it out loud while writing it down. I might even act it out. If there was a smell and/or sound associated with the task, I’d focus on that as well. As crazy as it might sound, it makes the new information stickier. Studies show that greater portions of the brain are stimulated when utilizing multiple senses. This type of studying increases retention. Next time you see someone pantomiming and talking to him/herself while studying, you’ll know they’re not drunk!

Don’t be afraid to fail

A motor learning study discovered that the brain has a space set aside for mistakes. The old saying that we learn from our mistakes actually holds true. We draw from experience and mistakes can help us retain alternative ways to solve problems. The idea that making a mistake is a bad thing can cause anxiety. Reframe the word “fail” and look at learning as exploration. As children, we did not know failing/mistakes were a bad thing until we were taught this. If you made a mistake on your homework, you were probably reprimanded. A better way to approach learning mistakes is to help yourself understand why the answer isn’t correct instead of labeling it as “bad.”

Search for the interesting things

Admittedly, not everything we have to learn is interesting, but more often than not, there are interesting aspects of it. Focus and build on that aspect. Do you find Excel boring, but you actually enjoy pivot tables? Learning pivot tables would involve learning some of the basics of Excel. Keep that interesting end goal in mind to work past the mundane.

Gamify

If you ever enjoyed video games, you might not be surprised by this point. It turns out that video games not only help with strategizing, categorizing, and reaction time, but they also seemed to help with psychosocial development in children (as long as it was under an hour a day). What if what you’re trying to learn isn’t built as a video game? Create your own game out of the material you’re learning- crossword puzzles, word searches, and word completions such as the Wheel of Fortune can make learning more interesting!

Learn the easy stuff first

Just as the body needs to be warmed up prior to working out, the brain benefits from warming up as well. If you’ve got too many things on your mind before you learn something new, you could benefit from a brain dump. Write or type down everything that’s cluttering your mind. After you clear it out, start by reviewing what you already know. If you don’t know anything about the new skill you’re learning, start with what you think you can comprehend first. Afterward, the more complex concepts should come a little easier!

Power of association

Use what you know to help you understand what you don’t know. Just getting started with learning computers and having no idea where to start? In order to start a new task, you need a desktop. This exists in both the physical world and within computers. Files can go into folders in computers just as they do in the physical world. You can use analogies that you are more familiar with to make these associations (sports, investing, etc…)

Practice

This is tied to using your other senses. Whether it’s a physical or an intellectual skill, practice helps ingrain this knowledge. The more you practice, the less mental resources you have to spend (eventually). Having someone explain it to you without actually practicing does not help retention or true understanding. Football pros don’t just sit around imagining themselves making passes even though visualization helps tremendously. The physical act of throwing the ball greatly reinforces this skill. The same goes for learning how to code or other intellectual skills.

Use AI to your advantage

If you haven’t had the opportunity to try artificial intelligence, I highly recommend you start. Current artificial intelligence is a conglomeration of knowledge that is much more robust than search engines. Think of it as getting immediate feedback from an intelligent friend. You’ll have to use specific prompts. For example, instead of typing “Give me a recipe for dinner,” type “I have chicken, onions, mushrooms, peppers, and some rice. What kind of dinner can I make with this?” Personally, I have used AI as a muse for ideas and scripts but take the information with a grain of salt and confirm it.

If you’re learning to code, AI can also help with this. Non-programmers have already used AI to create extensions and other SAAS products. Be warned, however, that personal information can be collected. Do not share birthdays, social security numbers, and the like because these systems take everything it learns and may share with other people using it. So just as you are learning from AI, it is also learning from you!