How to be more effective in learning?

There are lots of learning techniques and each of us has used some of them — deliberately or undeliberately. Nevertheless the group of learning techniques are far larger as we could ever thought. There’s nothing to wonder, to improve skills, to make the most of abilities given, to be more effective in work or learning are the topics that are frequently researched both by professionals and individuals. To be better, to be happier, to know more, to complete aims, to be able to reach higher goals are natural pursuit of mankind.

To reach what you want you need to learn, need to experience things. As triathlonists say “the aim is the road itself”. To reach your goal the most important is the road you take, the process until you reach that goal, the product.

It is similar at learning. Whatever your goals are, a degree or a successful exam is “only” the result, the product. But the most important is what you have learned and experienced while you were going to complete it; so the process.

Therefore it can be said that knowing how to learn the best for you is inevitable. Or improving your learning techniques can be as useful as finding another goal to reach.

Using learning techniques in practise is not always easy and it is almost impossible to know and apply each kind of techniques. However the more you know, the higher the chance that you can find the best technique for yourself.

In this article I try to describe 3 of the learning techniques and the ways how to use them. Don’t worry if you cannot apply them first or if they are not the best for you. If you can benefit of this article in any way, you have won. Even if you find, these 3 are not for you. You have 3 less in the big box, and hopefully you can find yours more easily in the rest.

The 3 topics I have selected for now is: chunking, procrastination and mindset.

Each of them has been very important in my learning process:

• chunking is what I need to apply more often and in a more deliberate way;
• procrastination is what I fight with sometimes and mostly with the bad one, therefore I would like to find more and more techniques how to avoid it;
• mindset is what I have meet some years ago by Carol Dweck’s book: Mindset[1], and has changed for me how better is to see the word, to think in another way as I did earlier, although I have never had a pessimistic way of thinking. On this way I still have some to learn therefore this is also I topic I focus better than on others.

Chunking

As Prof. Barbara Oakley[2] summarise in her work of 10 Rules of Good Studying[3] „chunking is understanding and practicing with a problem solution so that it can all come to mind in a flash.”

Chunks are the hooks on which you can hang on the most important issues, the keys of the topic. The more chunks you can adopt, the more effective your learning can be. By finding the chunks you can start to discover the topic you are learning and you can built it up into your mind in a way that is the best for you, just as if you created a big picture by putting single pieces of puzzles one after another into a large picture.

By using chunks you can create a pattern in your mind by listening and reading and repeating it. After it has been anchored into your mind, you can pull them up whenever you want.

To use chunking effectively you need to learn with attention, must understand what you learn and need to practice what you have learnt.

During learning take a hint of Prof. Barbara Oakley’ sentences: “Learning new knowledge is like mastering a sport. When you get stuck, you need to take a break, alternate your mode of thinking.”[4]

So that you can find chunks, so that you can learn effectively, you need to take great attention on the thing you read, learn. If the TV is on or your thoughts are somewhere else but at the text, you can complete reading the book from beginning to end, but it can easily be a passive reading instead of focusing on it, being in a focus mode.

Procrastination

The other problem that often arises at learning is procrastination. Before starting to preach down yourself, ask yourself: Do you need a short break or is it really procrastination that makes you have a break?

Sometimes procrastination can be useful.
 For some months ago I started to investigate myself whenever I found to procrastinate. I wanted to know in which situation I do this, what the reason of it, what fear I have, etc., and found that sometimes my inner consciousness makes me procrastinate. It signed to me that something needs more time to eg. consider, more revision, my thoughts are not the best, but after a while I could find the best ones.

After fulfilling the task I looked back and found that this procrastination was a sign that one or some chains are still not in the line, still missing to be able to cover the task I should do. This is what I mean good or active procrastination.

But in most of cases procrastination is not useful. Procrastination may result in stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, and severe loss of personal productivity, as well as not meeting responsibilities or commitments. This is what I call bad or passive procrastination.

After a while I could easily separate active and passive procrastination and I tackle it well. Active procrastination helps me a lot. But I could reach only little progress in tackling passive procrastination, therefore I kept hunting for ways managing this one.

Whatever learning techniques you apply, procrastination may destroy your efforts. Due to this it is vital to find some ways for fighting with passive procrastination. I think it is better to have several tools for it, as it can happen that one thing works in a situation, but doesn’t work in the other.

I decided to show you 3 of the possible tools of successfully fighting with procrastination. I have been using them regularly and I could manage my procrastination much more effectively than earlier. However, there are some in for which I still need to find other effective tools.

So the 3 tools I wish to introduce to you is using pomodoro technique, to prioritize your task and motivation. Let’s see how they work.

• using pomodoro technique[5] — having a to-do-list and working on it with the help of a timer. 25 minutes focused work and then 5 minutes break. After 4 pomodoro periods you can have a longer 20 minute-break.
• prioritize — to do the most difficult or urgent task first — To prioritize your task from the point of procrastination and then do them in this way might make you success feeling and after it you can find easier to complete the further tasks.
• motivate yourself — reward yourself after having completed a more difficult issue, project or a more complex one. You need to have positive feedbacks. Even from yourself.

Mindset

Beside motivating, rewarding yourself for the good completion it is also important how you think, how you see the word, the things, what mindset you have?

There’s no doubt, the mindset you have affects the effectiveness of your learning, working, etc.

If you think to reach the goal you wish to is too difficult for you, it is something that is almost impossible to complete. In this case you need much more effort to go on your way, to reach your goal and you even have bigger chance not to reach it.

Take a look at the word “almost” in the previous sentence. If you have a fixed mindset or a negative mindset, you will understand that there is hardly any chance to complete what you want. If you have a growing or positive mindset, the word “almost” means for you that there is chance to complete it, however small it is. If you really want to reach something, you will find the way to it.

Nothing is impossible, whatever it is: work, studies, sport, etc.

So go for your goals! Be open minded and improve your learning techniques. These will assist you in an effective way how to reach what you really want.

The more effective you are in learning, the more effective you can be in your life.

Good luck to be more effective in learning. :)

The article was prepared for Coursera: Learning how to learn Assignment #2

Budapest, 27th August, 2014