15 Tips to Increase Your Ability to Learn

You can learn in a faster, better, and easier way through the tips that we will mention in this article that will help you get the most out of learning, and you will be able to learn anything in a more effective way, but let's start first by reviewing the benefits of learning.

Why should you continue to learn throughout life?

We start learning from the moment we are born, but some of us stop learning effectively after school. Have you stopped learning as well? Or is there something you are still learning? Actively learning something related to your field or picking up a new hobby, is crucial to your personality development. Here are some of the scientifically proven benefits of learning:

1. We stay sober:

Learning new skills increases myelin in our brains, the white matter that is responsible for quick wit and mental strength.

2. We get a better job:

Research shows that people with higher levels of education have better chances of employment.

3. We maintain our mental health:

Other research shows that learning can give us a sense of purpose and reduce psychological problems.

One of the best benefits of learning is that it is one of the fastest ways to build self-confidence. If you suffer from impostor syndrome, learning is one of the best ways to get rid of it. 

15 tips to help you learn effectively:

1. Use the "memory palace" technique:

If you try to imagine your house, you will most likely be able to remember most of the basic details related to it.This is actually done through your use of the "memory palace" technique, which is an educational method based on imagining a specific place familiar to you, and placing your thoughts in it. This technique relies on your spatial memory to help you learn and memorize different concepts.

Here are the steps to use this technique:

1.1. The first step:

Try to imagine a place you know well, such as your house.

1.2. The second step:

Full route planning. Imagine yourself walking in the front yard, crossing the front door, entering the living room, and passing through all the main rooms in your house. Some advise walking clockwise, but this is not necessary. In the end, you will have many memory palaces, and you will also be able to recreate the memory palace after trying it many times. So, don't worry if your palace isn't perfect on the first try.

1.3. The third step:

Create a list of things you want to save, such as a list of the things you want to buy from the grocery store.

1.4. The fourth step:

Take an item or two together and place a mental image of them in each location of your memory palace. Try to amplify the images you imagine and make them interact with the location. For example, you want to remember the carrots on your shopping list. Here you can imagine a giant carrot opening your front door.

After you've done that, you can associate the image you've imagined with something you've learned. For example, to open the front door, a carrot might have to use a math equation as a key to lock the door. 

2. Write notes using paper and pen:

If you are used to writing down everything you learn, you may find it best to do it the traditional way; That is, using paper and pen. For this, you may not find that digital writing helps you. The next comparison has been made between handwriting and digital writing:

• The researchers first asked the students to write by hand, and then to digitize notes from a biology textbook.
• The researchers compared handwritten notes to digitally written notes.
• The researchers found that while writing digitally, the students appeared cognitively overburdened. In other words, the students wrote notes using their computers, but this writing did not consolidate the information as well as handwriting did. The students also showed less knowledge and a lower level of terminological accuracy and ability to connect ideas.

So, when it comes to learning, pen and paper are more useful than a keyboard.

Practical tip: You can write using paper and something like sticky notes, a journal, or on a whiteboard. You can even write in the margins of the books you're reading.

3. Read the traditional way:

Speaking of handwriting, reading paper books may also be better than digital books. In fact, studies have found that 90% of students prefer paper books more than digital ones. Moreover, a lecturer in psychology found that the number of repetitions of information that students need to memorize increases when they read it from digital books, and decreases when they read it from paper books.

The physical sensation of holding a book and turning pages gives us more sensory input compared to digital reading, and this helps us to memorize information. Therefore, science confirms the importance of reading from paper books to improve the quality of learning.

4. Use the bonding technique:

If you are interested in learning a language, it might be helpful to know that according to LinqQ, achieving basic fluency in a language takes approximately 480 hours for some languages ​​and 720 hours for more difficult ones. In an interview with the site's founder "Steve Kaufmann'', Kaufmann talked about a technique known as linkage, which is a technique for learning many topics linked together.

For example, a person learning to swim might combine freestyle, breaststroke, and buoyancy. A typical tie-in pattern would be as follows.

Learn topic A -> learn topic B -> learn topic C -> learn topic A and so on…

Linking may be more effective than learning just one thing.This technique has been tested in actual classrooms, as they study students in one semester in which algebra and geometry are combined, in addition to students' homework that contains a mixture of questions from the two subjects. The result after a month was an improvement in students' performance by 76% compared to the traditional method. Linking is a great way to make the topics you are learning fun, and it's useful in enhancing the ability to learn. 

Here are some ideas you can implement:

• If you are learning programming, do not only learn one programming language such as CSS, but also learn HTML and JavaScript.
• If you are learning management, alternate between the skill of dealing with people, management, and corporate leadership skills.
• If you are learning to draw, alternate drawing the human body with shading and colouring.

5. Take regular breaks:

If you are nervous or feel like you have to rush into something, it will be difficult to learn. Stress is literally the opposite of learning. It is very difficult to absorb information when you are angry or thinking negatively.

One study shows that stress impairs memory recall and makes us lose intellectual and behavioural flexibility. So, before you start learning something, try to give your mind a break, and here are some tips:

5.1. Meditate:

Meditate for 5 or 10 minutes, and choose your preferred meditation technique.

5.2. Inhale essential oils:

Inhaling your favourite scent helps your brain relax and prepares you for learning.

5.3. Take a warm bath:

This is a great way to relax. A study found that warm baths reduce stress, anger, anxiety, and depression.

5.4. Take breaks:

If you spend hours on end learning something, try to recharge your brain by taking breaks, taking a short walk, or organize your time by using a system of dividing time into periods of work and periods of rest.

6. Test yourself:

Research shows that students who took a test after studying were more able to retrieve the information they have studied over the long term than students who didn't take a test. The best way to prepare for the test is the spaced repetition technique, which is an educational technique that relies on the systematic and repeated review of the information to be memorized.

It is an effective technique because we often forget 20% of what we have learned after 24 hours unless we review it. According to this percentage, if we do not review what we have learned or do not test ourselves, we will only retain 60% of what we have learned after three days. If we review it only once, we will keep this information for a longer period, but at the same rate which is 60% but for seven days.

The more we review, the greater the amount of information that is entrenched in memory. This means that we can achieve high levels of memorization although we place spaced periods between revisions. Here lies the beauty in the spaced repetition technique. After a number of revisions, we may only need one revision of the topics that we learned after weeks or even Months. Then you just have to test yourself after these reviews in the way you prefer.

7. Take a nap:

It's well known that our performance improves when we get a good night's sleep, but if you're not getting a good night's sleep, a nap can help. Research has shown that even a short sleep of 45 to 60 minutes results in an improvement of five fold in retrieving information from memory.

Author Daniel Pink explains in his book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing that naps restore our mental energy. Our brain gets tired during the day, and naps help restore our mental energy, so we can work better.

In his book, Pink also recommends taking a nap after a dose of caffeine. You drink a cup of coffee, then take a 25-minute nap, which is how long it takes for the caffeine to kick in. However, the ideal nap time varies from person to person anyway.

8. Adjust the environment in which you learn to suit you:

The environment greatly affects your ability to learn. For example, imagine yourself in one of these places:

• A quiet room in the library.
• In an amusement park.
• In a noisy coffee shop.
• The room in which you work at home.

Some people prefer quiet places, so they can work without being distracted by something. Others prefer more lively places, such as a crowded coffee shop. The chair you sit on may also play an important role because if you work remotely, you are likely to sit in your chair for long hours every day. Therefore, the comfortable chair helps you learn because it avoids annoying back pain.

9. Simplify complex ideas and concepts:

The physicist Robert Feynman invented an organization-based learning technique by writing on the title page of a blank notebook. From here, Feynman was able to break down a very complex idea into a group of very easy ideas. Feynman was explaining the idea to himself like a five-year-old. Here's the way:

• Choose a concept that is difficult to learn, such as bonsai trees.
• Try to simplify the concept as if you were explaining it to a five-year-old. You can use comparisons, which Feynman considered ideal for learning. In our example, you could say "Bonsai trees are just like big trees, but smaller in size."

This technique is very easy, but dividing the difficult concepts into a number of easy concepts can help you collect these easy concepts in the appropriate way to form the complex concept again.

10. Do sports:

If you exercise regularly, you may learn more quickly because studies have found that increasing your heart rate through exercise can lead to an increased ability to learn. This is because during the learning process, new nerve cells are activated, and exercise helps make these cells live longer. So, do jogging in your free time, lift weights, or do some exercises that depend on your body weight.

You can also try standing desks, or use the treadmill for a few minutes to get your heart rate up.

11. Find out if you learn better with music, or if quiet is more appropriate for you:

Some people like to listen to music while learning, and others prefer complete silence. If you try to learn in a lot of noise and bustle, you probably won't get much results. Some studies indicate that listening to music while studying negatively affects memory and that quietness helps people remember better, while other studies show that some types of music, such as classical music can enhance memory performance.

Therefore, you may be wondering about the proper procedure while studying. Do you listen to music? Or do you study in complete silence?

The truth is that it comes down to the level of noise that suits you, and this depends on the nature of your personality. The best way to know whether you like listening to music or not while learning is through experience. If you find that you prefer listening to music while learning, try to identify the type of music which you prefer. 

12. Learn in many places:

Most people tend to learn in the same place, usually their desk, but it may be best to change where you learn from time to time. In this case, you will have several places to learn, for example, your home office, the sofa, the coffee shop in your area, the public library, the park in your neighbourhood, and so on. Having more than one place to learn is actually a useful way to learn because it relies on a phenomenon called contextual memory.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin have found that our brains associate the environment we are in with what we learn while we are in it. This means that the more places you learn in, the more your brain can associate what you learn with those places.

13. Make the place where you learn convenient to help you learn:

Make sure that the place where you learn is equipped with the ideal conditions for learning, including lighting, colour of the place, and proper organization.

• Try to learn in environments with natural light. Studies show that when the effectiveness of learning in a dimly lit environment was compared with an environment with natural light, students' achievement increased by 25% in environments with natural light. So, study near windows or in an area that gets full sun.
• Choose the right place for you to learn based on your favourite colour, for example, blue helps us feel calm and comfortable, red keeps us motivated, and yellow can make us feel positive and happy.
• Arrange the place where you learn. A study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University found that students who were studying in an untidy environment were more likely to be distracted and waste a lot of study time; as a result, their educational attainment was lower compared to students who study in organized and arranged environments.

14. Expand your knowledge in the field you are learning:

You can gather more information by learning more about topics similar to the ones you already know. For example, if you are learning to build cabinets, you may also want to learn about the types of paints used to paint cabinets, the types of trees wood cabinets are made from, and the different types that are common all over the world.

This technique will help you expand your knowledge by associating and storing what you learn in long-term memory. To gain more knowledge, you may want to try speed-reading, which means reading quickly while absorbing what you read.

15. Transfer your knowledge to others:

If you can teach someone else what you learn, that's great, but don't worry if you can't. Research has shown that even the expectation that you will be able to teach someone else what you learn increases your ability to learn because our way of thinking changes so that it motivates us to learn in a way that is more effective than when we learn only to take a test.

Here are some tips for becoming an expert in what you learn:

• Teach a friend, and it is enough to have a friend or family member to share with them what you learn.
• Record a podcast, as this is an easy way to spread what you learn and build a fan base. All you need is a microphone, and your mobile phone can do the job.
• Create a blog online. If you can write well, why do not you turn your knowledge into words that everyone can read?
• Create a YouTube channel and act like a true expert in your field.

Learning is a cure for overthinking:

A great way to reduce anxiety and overthinking is to learn a new language. This way you have fewer words to use, meaning that there are not as many words to use in thinking, at least not as many as you know in your native language.

Of course, not only learning the language helps to reduce anxiety and overthinking, but learning anything new helps to do so.

Are our ways of learning different?

Most of us believe that we are born with innate inclinations to learn, some of us like to learn using visual aids, some of us through auditory aids, and others through purely practical experiences. In fact, studies show that this perception is wrong. Through one study, students answered a questionnaire to determine their preferred learning style, and they changed their study habits to fit their preferred style, but there was no improvement in their academic achievement.

Conclusion:

Any method of learning will lead to positive results. You should only have passion, and applying these tips will help you enjoy more in your educational journey and improve your ability to learn.