Strategies for Learning New Skills

We learn best when we perform the tasks we’re trying to learn. 

No matter how good your grades were at college, most of your learning takes place once you enter the workplace and start applying what you've learned.

While studying the greats is essential, it is more of a passive exercise. In order to gain from it, you need to apply that learning to your own work as well.

One of the more surprising ways you can learn a new skill is to teach it to someone else.

When we learn with the intention to teach, we break the material down into simple, understandable chunks for ourselves. It also forces us to examine the topic more critically and thoroughly, helping us to understand it better.

Practice in itself is great, but if you’re practicing things you know well, you’re doing it wrong. 

In order to excel at any skill, you need to push yourself out of your comfort zone and practice things you aren't good at.

It's important to let your brain relax for a while after a particularly intense session of study or practice, to give it time to connect the dots.

One good way to practice this is using the Pomodoro Technique: you work on a project for 25 minutes, and then give yourself a 5-minute break. 

Testing even beats out methods such as re-reading and reviewing notes when it comes to making sure your learning sticks.

Because it takes the recall process a step further. Recall shows how much of the material you remember. Testing shows you how well you can use what you've learned. After all, that is the ultimate goal of learning.

Mentorship is perhaps the quickest way to take your skills to the next level. 

A mentor helps you navigate your field by offering invaluable perspective and experience.

Nothing stimulates learning quite like curiosity.

Take the lead of your learning journey. Seek answers from many sources. Don’t merely memorize theories and techniques—question them at every step. Think about why they matter, why they're relevant.