HOW TO LEARN ANYTHING FAST: PART 1
WE REMEMBER… 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, 50% of what we see and hear, 70% of what we discuss with others, 80% of what we personally experience, 95% of what we teach others — Edgar Dale.
Before now, the problem with learning was that when you decide to learn something new, accessing the information or resources you need, used to to be very difficult.
However, these days we have so much information thrown at us at every turn, that deciding what to learn is now problematic.
Even when we do, it can become so overwhelming deciding what to focus on and we are easily obsessed with downloading more and more content as fast as we could, trying to grab it all once in so little time.
Now the problem is no longer the lack of information but its superfluity and the effective retention and utilization of the important information we’ve acquired becomes so paramount.
While the means of getting information has changed drastically, the method of Learning pretty much remains the same.
“Your learning ability decides your earning capacity”.
The amount of quality information you can remember and apply determines how much you’re worth, not how much of what you’ve seen or heard about.
The problem with our learning today is that we’re too focused on the input with no output, and we end up having Shallow Learning.
What is the point of learning something without being able to implement what you’ve learned? That’s purely Intellectual Entertainment.
So the problem is not absorbing more content, downloading more materials, acquiring more information but in the retention and in the application of what you’ve learned.
Thus we do not want “Shallow Learning but Deep Learning, and to achieve that, for true mastery, you need to focus more on the Output rather than the Input.
When you learn something, if you don’t use it, you lose it.
So here are the 4 steps on how you can learn and master anything fast:
INPUT
1. LEARN: When you’re learning, you must ensure that the quality of the input is really really high. You must be paying 100% attention without multitasking or any distractions.
Wherever you attend to any distractions while learning, you kill your momentum and the quality of your input.
The quality of your input determines the quality of your retention and recall.
A lot of us these days, we don’t really learn, what we do is multitask while learning. Scroll through different tabs on our browser, check email or Whatsapp messages on our phones, etc.
This is why you need to block out time for your learning so that you can pay 100% attention to what you’re learning without distractions and you’ll be on your way to mastery.
OUTPUT
2. REFLECT: Instead of rushing off to learn about new thing immediately, pause for a minute and ask yourself, “What is the takeaway for me from this thing I just learned and how can I use this information in my work, life, career or family?
As you ask these questions, that’s how the information solidifies otherwise all that has been learned is all wasted.
3. IMPLEMENT: If you get into the habit of learning without implementation, what you’ll get is an illusion of competence. You’ll feel you’ve learned it and you’ll feel you’re competent but it’s not competence at all because you’ve not implemented or practiced it.
If you’re learning something, write down a few notes on some of the things you’re going to take action on, schedule it, and act on them at the end of your learning.
Don’t wait until you have everything you need, the perfect time, or to know it a bit more before you “act”, just ACT.
A Lousy Action Is Better Than No Action
4. SHARE: The best way to learn something is to share it. When you’re sharing what you’ve learned like I’m doing now, you’re helping your brain to pay more attention and remember more on learning and mastering what you’ve learned.
You’ve seen how most of our focus is on the OUTPUT of learning and not to INPUT? That’s how you help your brain to remember and master what you’ve learned.
Therefore, “If You’re Spending X Amount Of Time On Input, Spend 2x Amount Of Time On Output.”
Thanks for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed and learned something from it.
Watch out for the Part 2 next week.
If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on my social media handle @realUchennaEgbo
