How To Learn Faster And More Efficiently?

When was the last time you wanted to learn faster and more efficiently? It’s a funny question to ask. Because we seldom ask direct questions about learning. Let me ask a different question. When was the last time you spent a lot of time trying to understand a piece of text or a bunch of equations only to end up getting frustrated? You might notice that you answer this question more readily / easily than the previous question. Yet, both of these questions are related, and are trying to nudge at the same challenge: Learning.

Learning is often implicit in our activities, so it seldom takes center stage. In this article, I take learning to the center stage, and try to analyse human tendencies and functionalities that we can make use of to learn faster and more efficiently. I figured that I should not be the only person to benefit from such an analysis, so I chose to present it in the form of this essay.

This essay is supported by Generatebg

Focused Learning and Diffused Learning

There is a non-trivial amount of research in the field of learning that points to two fundamental modes of learning: focused mode and diffused mode. In focused mode, you focus on a particular problem at hand (such as learning how an equation is derived or how a chemical reaction works) without any distractions. Diffused mode, on the other hand, is when you learn passively. It’s when you subconsciously work on your problem when you’re doing the dishes or when you go scenery-gazing at the park or when you’re asleep having dreams. This is when you have your Eureka moments after an overnight sleep or creative shower thoughts.

To Learn Faster, Let Go of The Illusion of Control

An important thing to note about focused learning and diffused learning modes is that they can seldom be actively controlled. You cannot just jump into focused mode and into diffused mode whenever you want. And one does not work without the other. For instance, you can’t expect to learn something by osmosis without first focusing on it. What one can do instead is to work one one’s lifestyle and create an environment or space (physical and / or mental) that enables one to optimize for fast and efficient learning. Let’s look at how you can do this.

Focus Must Become Habit

If you are learning something, you need to drill in the habit of sitting down without any distraction. It needs to be just you and your assignment; nothing else. There is always the need to jump onto social media or to listen to music, etc., but absolute focus is a must during the learning phase.

In order to help you acclimatize to this habit easier and faster, you can do a small exercise. Before you start your distraction-free learning session, mark a dot or a sign of your preference on a piece of paper. Then, just stare at it for 30-60 seconds. During this process, don’t let your eyes wander. This subconsciously primes you to focus on the task at hand. The underlying principle is that mental focus follows visual focus. After this exercise, jump directly to the task at hand.

If you find yourself being distracted during the exercise, don’t be discouraged. Just keep practicing at getting better at it. Small improvements add up to massive progress in the long run.

Quality Rest is a Must

When you are done with your active learning session, take a quick 20-minute nap, or a leisure activity such as a stroll around the neighbourhood or around the nearby park. You have room for creativity here and can choose what best suits you. What you should probably avoid are passive consumptive forms such as social media, television, Netflix, etc.

Apart from the study breaks, make it a point to get quality sleep. Try to get 8 hours of sleep. Whatever you learnt during the day is worked-upon and organized for better storage and delivery during your sleep. Poor sleep inevitably leads to inefficient learning. Have you ever tried to cram a lot of information overnight for an exam? You might have even pulled off a good exam, but the day after, most of that information would have been lost. The reason is probably poor sleep.

What helps in getting quality sleep is to have a standard and repeatable sleeping schedule. This means that you go to bed and wake up at the same time ever day. Every single day; ideally, no weekday and weekend shifts. It would be beneficial if you practice waking up automatically without an alarm clock. Avoiding electronics and stimulants like caffeine before going to bed also helps.

If You Learn Faster, Everybody Ends Up Being a Winner!

To learn faster is to work on one’s lifestyle. It isn’t actually a strategy that is designed to get quick results. Good things take time, and with fast learning, the results compound exponentially over time. This means that if you could pull off this kind of a lifestyle, the compounded benefits could be huge, not just for you but for everyone around you!

To illustrate how much we underestimate compounding, let’s look at a mathematical example. Consider an exponential function over 365 days (a year), with an effort intensity of 1, 1.01 (0.01 above mean effort), and 0.99 (0.01 below mean effort) respectively. How much do you expect the effort increase or decrease of 0.01 would have an effect in the second and third case respectively? The answer:

(1)³⁶⁵ = 1

(1.01)³⁶⁵ = 37.783434433

(0.99)³⁶⁵ = 0.02551796445

Surprising, isn’t it? I wish you all the best on your journey to becoming a fast and efficient learner.

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Further reading that might interest you: Can We Really Solve the Ageing Challenge? and Is Technology Dependency Really A Concern?