An Effective Strategy to Learn Anything You Want in 3 Months
A dynamic approach to learning
Learning a new skill can be enjoyable and exciting, but also nerve-wracking and frustrating. It is especially true in the beginning stage of the learning process. Whether or not it a conscious decision, the first few weeks determine if you are going to keep working on it, or abandon it and move on. So it is important in the initial stage to set yourself for success.
The way to set yourself for success is the ways you are going to go about learning. Whether it is about learning a new language, learning how to repair your car, or just learning how to cook, there are more efficient ways than others.
A Dynamic Strategy
The first thing, I would say is to stop relying on other people for learning. Yes, you need a coach, a teacher or a mentor for direction, but most of the learning experience must be done by you and for you. There is no waiting around.
Unanswered questions are delayed progress
No amount of teaching lessons, books, or Youtube videos will make you improve if you don’t do the work.
I spent 10 years learning English through school, expecting to learn just by going to classes. As expected, I had no or very little improvement during those years. I decided to take the matters in my own hands and learned (and almost master it) in less than 2 years.
So here is the way I approach it.
Preparation Phase (around 1 week or less)
Before starting learning any subjects or skills, it is preferable to capture information about the subjects. You don’t need a complete and precise A to Z roadmap but gathering information will help stay focus and remove confusion during the process. Not only it will help you navigate the phase of intense learning, but it will also help you see and measure your progress.
Take a few days, maybe a week, to gather information about the subject.
- Buy 2–3 books about the subjects
- Subscribe 2–3 Youtube channels
- Follow people or join groups on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit
- Find 2–3 Forums talking about the subjects
- Look for software or apps
- Search the subject on Google and look for the fundamentals
Do whatever it takes to gather as much information as you can, make a list of learning items, and have a constant flow of information during the process. You don’t want to find yourself wondering what to do next when you are done with a subject. You want to keep the momentum going.
Learning Phase (3–6 months)
All of the phases have a role to play, but this one is particularly important because this is where you will your foundation of understanding. It is also where most people will fail.
The idea, at this stage, is to overwhelm your body and mind with the subject/skills you want to learn. You want to go fast and hard instead of going the slow and steady route. Forget the 1 hour a week class of Spanish. Here you are going to have to learn at least 1–3 hours every day. Instead of taking a year or 2 years of steady learning, you want to flood your system with information and practice to build a solid foundation as fast as you can.
In a nutshell, we want to use the Pareto Principle. Around 80% of the learning process will be done within 20% of the time, while 20% left of learning will be built with 80% of the time remaining. Of course, there is no time frame in which you will learn 100% of any skills, but the point is to give you a representation of what it will look like when learning it.
You have to make it gradual. You start by the most basic and gradually add complexity the more you learn. The best example is with language learning. You have to do what is called “Comprehensible Input” which is to listen or read to things you understand. As you get better, you add complexity. All you need to do is to make it so easy at first that it will remove all roadblocks and reduce frustration.
Break and Recovery
This is a requirement in the learning process, especially when you are studying and practicing 2–3 hours a day.
As much as you might want to learn, you need some downtime. You can only go fast and hard for so long until your mind starts breaking down. You cannot go through life without sleep, or train your body without recovery. Same with learning. If you overwhelm your body and mind for too long, it will slow your progress down.
Overtraining is as bad as overlearning.
By taking a small break, a few days up to a week, you will help your brain recover and consolidate the information. It will remove all impurity or noise, things you don’t need in your mind.
It is like fasting but for the mind.
Weirdly enough, taking a break will help achieve a greater and faster understanding. Almost like magic. When I first started learning Spanish, I had stages where I felt stuck, almost like I hit a ceiling. These made me a bit desperate and unmotivated and I would generally stop learning for a few days. The interesting part was coming back to it. Everything was easier. What I struggled to understand a week earlier had become second nature, and it made me wonder how the hell was it so difficult in the first place.
There is no perfect ratio learning/recovery, but keep in mind, but that a break that is too long will probably have the inverse effect of what I have just explained. You need more learning than recovery, but you do need some recovery.
Again, a ratio around could be the best 80/20 where 80% is used for learning and 20% is use for recovery. You could do a ratio of:
- 3 days learning — 1-day recovery (75/25)
- 5 days learning — 2 days recovery (70/30)
- 3 weeks of learning — 1-week recovery (75/25)
Mastering Phase (6 months+)
During the previous phase, you have built a solid base and got a good grasp of the subject you are learning, but this is where you decide if you want to keep learning, improving, and mastering it.
Do you have to become a master at it?
Not really.
Sometimes getting to a level of proficiency above average is just enough. Sometimes it is just better to diversify your skills and interest rather than mastering one thing.
If you decide to keep going, the name of the game for this phase is consistency.
This is not about overwhelming your mind, this is about slow and steady improvement. One hour or less every day is sufficient, but you want to keep it consistent, as might lose you any progress you are making along that phase.
As much as I got a good understanding of Spanish in less than 6 months, I stop practicing when I got to that level, so my Spanish level stalled. But coming back to it is relatively easy and requires almost no effort.
At this point, it is just a matter of constant practice.
The fundamental understanding will always be there, but if you want mastery over it, you will have to keep working on it.
