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Learning how to learn is a meta-skill. It is a critical skill for everyone who needs to pick up and master new concepts frequently.
Understanding what is learning and how our memory works will help you understand why certain techniques work and how to use and adapt the techniques to your advantage.
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Learning how to learn is critical for everyone. Most of us have to deal with a changing world and to learn how to manage tons of new information.
However, most of our learning methods are outdated and far from optimal. It may even be giving us an illusion of learning, like re-reading and highlighting that don't provide proper feedback to show what you haven't learned.
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Focused and diffuse modes provide two models for how we develop, elaborate, deepen and broaden connections. Both methods are important.
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Spaced repetition describes the idea of reviewing new concepts at intervals that get spaced further and further apart.
For example, learning a concept in the morning, reviewing it 8 hours later, then recheck the next day. Reviews then get spaced out 3-4 days, then a week, a month, then again a few months later.
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"Order and simplification are the first steps toward mastery of a subject."
Thomas Mann
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Learning is hard and takes effort on a personal level. It requires attention and physical energy.
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Top-down learning is understanding the big picture. It allows you to put the main ideas into a big-picture map to understand how the information fits together.
Bottom-up learning, called "chunking" describes pieces of information that are linked together through meaning or use. Much of learning is developing a sufficient repository of these chunks.
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Leveraging diffused and focused learning is key to truly understanding something. You learn chunks through the focused model, and you develop the broader conceptual map using the diffuse way of thinking.
First, learn the basic outline or core structure, then fill in the details. For instance, when reading a book, look at the table of contents (core structure) and scan through the material. Next, use focused reading to fill in the details.
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Regressing or getting blocked when learning is not that uncommon, as your brain remaps a concept.
Skipping ahead may help. Take a break, sleep, and exercise, to give your brain time to put the pieces in order again.
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We need to study things that interest us; otherwise, it will be hard to make much progress.
Learning is a highly personal process. You need to know yourself and how you learn best. Use the resources and techniques that you like and enjoy, even if they are not scientifically-speaking the most effective.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
Every task has a certain Activation Energy (AE), where you initiate certain steps in order to start a task.
Reducing the Activation Energy of new habits you want to form will make it i...
A memory chunk is a solid connection in your mind that relates various bits and pieces of information.
Focus on the concept you want to form a chunk of. Write down the basic ideas of what the concept is all about. Build up from these fundamentals to finally create a chunk.
While reviewing material, recall it instead of just reading it passively. Try and recall in a different setting than where you studied it.
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Key Ideas
When learning, there are times in which you are focused and times in which you allow your mind to wander. Both modes are valuable to allow your brain to learn something.
Take regular break...
The goal is to learn each concept in a way that they each become like a well-known puzzle piece.
In order to master a concept, you not only need to know it but also to know how it fits into the bigger picture.
Instead of highlighting or underlining, rather take brief notes that summarize keys concepts.
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It means cultivates insightful knowing rather than just a brain overloaded with information.
Mindfulness creates space to let new information in and to allow us to see how it rel...
It is a process of quiet reflection that requires mindful attentiveness, letting go of distracting thoughts and opinions to be fully in the moment with the text.
It slows down the reader and the reading—that alone changes the experience. It moves the reader into a calm awareness, allowing for a more profound experience and understanding.
Writing benefits from the capacities that mindfulness cultivates: being in the moment, even when remembering the past or imagining the future; not judging others and oneself while still exercising discriminating wisdom; holding multiple perspectives; being open to the new; and practicing kindness, compassion, and patience.