Here Are The Top Most Effective Tips For Fast Learning

Updated on September 23, 2022 18:17 PM by Michael Davis

While it is nice to think you can hack your way to success, skills matter whenever you try to accomplish a huge goal, like starting and growing a business. Who you know is certainly important.

But what you know and can do matters a lot more. This means the faster you learn, the most successful you can be. So let's jump right in. Here are ten ways to speed up the learning process, backed by science.

We will start with strategies for studying and reviewing concepts and move on to some lifestyle changes you can make so you remember things better!

Here's the good news! You can be amongst those with a few simple tips for effective learning, and even you can learn anything fast and effectively.

Take Written Notes By Yourself

Most people can type faster than we can write. However, research shows handwriting your notes means you'll learn more.

Taking notes by hand enhances comprehension and retention, possibly because instead of just serving as a quasi-stenographer, you're forced to put things in your own words to keep up. Which means you will remember what you heard a lot longer.

For example, if you are testing yourself on a textbook chapter, summarize everything that happened in your own words. Analyze any keywords at the end of the chapter and try to define them.

Test Yourself

Several studies show that self-testing is an extremely effective way to speed up learning.

Partly that is due to the additional context created. If you test yourself and answer incorrectly, you are more likely to remember the right answer after you look it up and will remember that you did not.

Getting something tough is a great way to remember it the next time, especially if you tend to be hard on yourself. So do not rehearse your presentation. Test yourself on what comes after your introduction.

Test yourself by listing at least five main points you want to make. Try reciting key statistics, sales estimates, and cash flow projections. Not only you would gain confidence in how much you know, but you'll also learn the things you don't know more quickly.

Say It Out Loud

Hearing yourself repeat the data helps you remember it easier. Read aloud if you study from a book, website, or notes. Go slowly through the text, so you do not skip over anything useful or important.

Try pointing at the words as you read them to increase your commitment to memory. The more you say the details out loud, the easier it gets to pull it off the top of your head.

For example, if you are trying to learn a new language, practice saying vocab words and sentences as you learn them.

Chunk Your Study Sessions

Researchers say you should wait till the last minute to learn what you want to learn. A presentation, a sales demo, or an investor pitch.

Imagine you need to nail your investor pitch. Once you have drafted your pitch, run through it once. Then take a minute to make revisions and corrections.

Then step away for a few hours, and even a day, before you repeat the process. The "study-phase retrieval theory" says that each time you attempt to retrieve something from memory, and the retrieval is more successful, the memory becomes harder to forget.

Another theory regards "contextual variability." Some of the contexts are encoded when information gets encoded into memory.

This is why listening to an old song can cause you to remember where you were, what you felt, etc., when you heard that song initially. That context creates useful cues for retrieving more information.

Regardless of how it works, distributed practice works. So, give yourself more time to space out your learning sessions. You will learn more efficiently and more effectively.

The Way Of Practice

Repeating anything repeatedly in the hopes you will master that task will not only keep you from improving as quickly as you could, but in some cases, it may decrease your skill.

John Hopkins research says if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master, "you learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the same thing multiple times in a row."

The likely cause is reconsolidation, a process where existing memories are recalled and modified with knowledge.

Little Faster

Speak a little faster than you normally do. Run through your slides slightly faster. Increasing your speed means you will make more mistakes, but that is ok -- in the process, you'll modify old knowledge with new knowledge -- and lay the groundwork for improvement.

Go A Little Slower

The same thing will happen. You can experiment with recent techniques -- including the use of silence for effect -- that aren't apparent when you present at your normal speed.

Break Your Presentation

Almost all task includes a series of discrete steps. That's true for presentations. Choose one section of your presentation. Master it. Then put the whole presentation back together.

Change The Conditions

Use a different projector or a different remote. Switch up the new conditions slightly; not only will that help you identify an existing memory, but it will also make you better prepared for the unexpected.

Modifying The Condition

You can high the process to almost anything. While it is effective for learning motor skills, they can also apply the process to learning almost anything.

Learn Several Subjects

Blocking is focusing on one subject, skill, or task during a learning session, learning or practicing several subjects or skills in succession.

The process is known as interleaving: Studying related concepts and skills in parallel. And it returns that interleaving is a much more effective way to train your brain and motor skills.

When you block practice one skill, you can drill down until muscle memory takes over and the skill becomes more automatic. When you interleave many skills, any one skill cannot become mindless, which is a good thing.

Instead, you are constantly forced to adapt and adjust. You are constantly forced to see, feel, and discriminate between different movements or concepts.

Make An Analogy To You Already Know

You will remember complex topics if you relate them to something else. Tough subjects can be hard to wrap your head around if you cannot picture them.

Try to compare what you are learning to something else that you already know so you can visualize and recall it easier. Because you already associate with another thing you know well, you'll recall it much easier.

Stop Multitasking

When it is time for you to study, get in the zone and only work on one subject at a time. Avoid watching TV, studying other material, or checking your phone while learning since you'll have a tougher time remembering the subject you want to focus on.

Teach Someone

It may be periodically true that those who cannot teach; however, research shows it's true that those who teach speed up their learning and retain more.

Even thinking you need to teach someone can make you learn more effectively. Teachers seek out key points and organize information into a coherent structure when preparing.

Our results suggest that students also use effective learning strategies when they expect to teach. The act of teaching helps improve knowledge. Ask anyone to train someone else whether they also benefited from the experience.

Review Session

You will have better long-term memory if you practice frequently. Rather than trying to cram all of the details in a short amount of time, take your time learning. Always review details from your last practice session for a little while in the following session so you do not forget about it.

Get More Sleep

Your brain processes your memories while you are asleep. Try to get a good night's sleep between your study sessions since it will help you retain the information better, according to the researchers.

In a study, participants memorized illustrated cards to test their memory strength. After memorizing a set of cards, they took a 40-minute break, and one group napped while the other group stayed awake.

After the break, both groups were tested on their memory of the cards. The sleep group performed significantly better, retaining 85 percent of the patterns on average compared to 60 percent for those who had remained awake.

Researchers have found that sleep deprivation can affect your ability to commit the latest information to memory and consolidate any short-term memories you have made.

Exercise Regularly

Exercise gives lat of a boost to your memory. Studies have shown that you have high memory after doing aerobic exercises. It helps increase your body's protein production, supporting brain cells' growth and function.

Try to get about 20 minutes of exercise daily to keep your body healthy, and your brain stimulated. A commonly used example of high-interference memory is remembering faces, a skill that is especially useful for people hoping to make connections.

Exercise also increases a chemical called BDNF -- brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein that supports brain cells' function, growth, and survival.