Table of Contents
The world is producing information at an incredible pace, and it’s a pretty big competitive advantage if we can keep up. I believe that effective learning is the one superpower that every human being can have.
The big truth is that it’s not enough to type it into Google, on the one hand you’ll have no idea how they arrived at the conclusion, and on the other hand anyone can do it, so it’s not of much value.
Most people have an absolute zero tolerance for boredom: as soon as something doesn’t hold their interest they immediately reach for their phone, open Instagram. People are less and less in control of their lives, because progress requires hard work. Digital dementia is the phenomenon where someone’s memory and ability to concentrate deteriorates because of over-reliance on smart devices.
The best way to train the brain is to study hard. It helps you control your attention, gives you more control over your life and increases your value to society.
You’ve been doing it wrong
Our brain is not a saturable thing. The more we know, the easier it is to learn more, because the more places we can connect the information, the more analogies we can find in other subjects.
An hour of 100% concentrated learning is worth much more than 5-6 hours of 70% learning. An hour of concentrated learning is more likely to get you into a state of flow, where your attention is fully immersed in the material. This deep concentration increases information retention and comprehension, leading to more efficient and effective learning outcomes. Conversely, less focused learning can lead to reduced attention and reduced efficiency, which can hinder the encoding of new information into memory. The quality and intensity of concentration therefore plays a crucial role in the learning process.
Let us look at learning methods according to their effectiveness. It can be observed that the more active and the greater the energy investment, the more effective the method.
- Practical testing (high)
Practical testing is a highly effective learning strategy, the effectiveness of which has been proven by research. Its versatility allows it to be used anywhere and at any time, using a variety of methods such as flashcards, quizzes, sample tasks, self-testing or even teaching the material to others. It helps to organize knowledge and speeds up the recall of information, contributing to a deeper understanding of the material.
- Intermittent practice (high)
Intermittent practice is the process of spreading learning over a period of time, which is much more effective for retention than last-minute rote learning. The brain can absorb and consolidate information more efficiently. Don’t try to learn something in a day.
- Why question (medium)
Asking “why” to understand concepts can be effective, especially when reading. Its effectiveness is greater for factual statements and limited when considering complex relationships. Keep the questions in a separate notebook if you cannot answer them straight away.
- Summary (low/medium)
Summarisation, although a widely used technique, shows lower efficiency, especially for multiple-choice questions. Its effectiveness depends on the nature and type of the material. The quality of summarisation matters, so those who have done more summaries may increase their scores.
- Highlight/mark/underline (low)
Their effectiveness is limited to certain types of information and tasks. However, when combined with other more effective strategies such as summarisation or practice testing, they can contribute to better retention.
- Rereading (low)
Less effective than other active learning methods. Its effectiveness can be increased by allowing time between re-readings, say a couple of hours. Essentially, it’s snoozing if it’s done badly.
We should aim to choose the methods that work best for us, preferably the most effective ones, and then put them to work. This is where holistic learning comes in.
Holistic learning is an approach to learning that focuses on understanding the bigger picture through a detailed analysis of its components. It is important to determine how individual components relate to each other.
However, to learn more effectively and enjoyably, you need to be engaged. Will this be an important skill in your future? High levels of engagement are closely linked to motivation. If you are committed to a goal, you are more likely to be motivated and to have a genuine interest and passion for the subject. If you look at it with enough curiosity and realize that it is an important stepping stone towards your future, things will become somewhat easier.
Learning projects
Brain researchers are highlighting a substance in the brain called myelin, which is responsible for allowing electrical impulses to travel more efficiently between nerve cells.
Myelin is produced when we do focused work. To learn more effectively, concentration is essential. This is where learning projects come in.
A learning project is a sustained period of concentration over a long period of time in order to master a particular skill. This period is usually one month, however, if you have a larger chunk of material to learn, it can be several months.
The benefits of project-based learning:
- Concentrating on a particular subject for a longer period of time will help you develop a learning routine and you will be able to study consistently. Habits are crucial for long-term learning success.
- Studying in depth on one subject at a time can reduce workload, avoiding multitasking or switching between different subjects. This leads to better concentration and understanding.
- Staying on a single topic for a longer period of time allows for deeper encoding of information in your memory.
In order to learn more effectively, it is essential to turn off the internet and your phone for a period of time to allow your brain to connect information. Superficial, multitasking, scattered work is no way to make new connections in the brain, it’s a waste of time.
Improve concentration
The easiest way to improve your concentration is to develop a ritual during which you will learn. This can be at any time of the day when you are not very tired. It’s most effective if you go to a completely different place to study and don’t end up in bed, say a library. This way you can tell yourself that if you go to this place you will study there. You need to be aware that if you stay at home you have to take into account the risk of decision fatigue, where you have limited firm decisions to make in a day, so you may choose to sleep rather than study.
During the ritual, use the Pomodoro technique. The basic idea is very simple: you choose a job and focus on just that one thing for 25 minutes. Then take a 5 minute break and start again. I prefer 45 minutes of work and 15 minutes of break, but that’s for everyone to experience.
That alone will increase your concentration level, but the following can also be useful:
- Meditate (controlled breathing), it increases mental fitness and improves concentration
- Get more sleep, 7-8 hours a day + naps
- Do physical exercise
- Listen to lo-fi music
- Identify a priority each day and focus on it
- Tidy up your desk
- Drink a lot more water
Learning projects in practice
To put this method into practice, you need to follow these 5+1 steps. The key is to gather the important pieces of information and draw practical conclusions from them, if possible, by building a big picture. At each step I have highlighted which learning method you are using.
- Choosing a topic
At the beginning of the learning process, define the topic and then choose a time interval. The time interval depends on the complexity of the topic, it can be anything from a few days to several months (intermittent practice). Also, set a reward and a penalty in order to increase commitment.
- Break it down into sub-processes
Each skill can be broken down into smaller parts. Observe the parts that belong to a group, and then you can target these parts for practice. The goal of the whole is to learn the smallest possible building blocks correctly, then you can be sure that the whole will come together into a big picture.
You’ll have to learn the building blocks from others, so if someone has mastered what you want, they’ll probably know what to look for. It’s worth learning from them. I recommend checking blogs and asking ChatGPT.
Observe what the driving force behind the idea might be. For example, a physics formula is child’s play to memorize if you know the context behind it.
From these building blocks, make a mindmap, so that you can see what is related to what and what are the main pieces of information you need to focus on (summary)
Mindmap benefits:
- Improves retention by 10-15%
- Effective in planning and understanding complex ideas
- Improves recall and helps in the presentation of knowledge
- Information gathering
At this stage, you have an overview of the topic, you know roughly what can be critical information.
At this point you should start looking for books that might be useful. There are lots of collections on the internet, usually describing what the book is about and why it is recommended (Google: best books on …)
I check out at least 5 books on the subject. From these you can get the information you need. Here, pay close attention to the information you have marked as sub-processes in the previous step.
How can you process books faster
In addition to books, audiobooks or podcasts can be useful, especially if you have a lot of free time or commute.
- Summary outline
At this stage, you have superficial knowledge but a lot of gray areas. From all this noise in your head, you need to make a mark. If you’ve taken notes while reading, you have a lot of useful information, you just need to organize it.
The best way to fill in the gray areas is to make an all-encompassing description of what you have learnt/read and put it into your mindmap (summary) You will notice that there are many small details missing from your knowledge, but then you will see what information is missing to understand the whole picture. You only understand something when you have to give a lecture on it, or make a summary description. Also, you can look for sample exercises and quizzes, these can help you identify and fill in the gray areas (testing)
Then it makes sense to buy online programmes and practical training. These can help you filter out what others have found important information and transfer it to yourself, as well as giving you practical exercises that are useful to you. There are many free training courses and programmes available on the internet, some of them are good, but I think that if you really want to make a big improvement, you should choose the paid ones, in most cases you will find more useful information.
personal coaching and mentoring can be very fruitful if your budget allows. This can be the biggest step forward. This step did not make it higher on the list because you will gain much more from these services if you already have some prior knowledge and you are not a complete beginner and want to expect to be taught everything in two days.
Start doing the different exercises, if there are any (self-check)
- Finalizing and testing
In this phase you should aim to form your own opinion. This is important because then you will have a point of view. You should use this to relate it to what you already know, giving this knowledge a point of reference. At this point, you may still not understand many of the whys, but you can clarify these by asking yourself the why question, which will allow you to draw further conclusions (why question).
At this point, it is worth finalizing what you have summarized in the previous step. Look for working or why not working examples for the important points, to confirm that you are sure you know everything well. (self-check) You can see what might be very important, it is worth analyzing it at this point.
You can recall this point of view at any time and share it with others, then you will know how you came to the conclusion, you can build up a concrete knowledge (teaching)
Finally, provide the information you have gathered to others and ask for feedback to ensure that you have made your ideas clear. If it is a skill that can be put into practice, you should start if you haven’t already done so (testing)
- Follow-up
At this point you have your own opinions and positions on the subject and it is documented so you won’t forget anything. Although at this point you may want to make a few more flashcards of the main points to review once a month for safe recall.
FAQ
- What is project-based learning? Project-based learning is designed to facilitate targeted and focused learning or skill development.
- Why is concentration important for learning? Concentration is vital for learning because it allows the brain to focus on information and process it efficiently.
Conclusion
I think this approach is quite systematic and understandable. Thanks to this framework/method I can learn a lot of new things, although it is true that it is terribly energy intensive, but everything has its price.