How to Become a Quick Learner

If you try to learn everything at once, you’ll waste too much time switching between activities and become frustrated with your lack of progress.

These days, many people proudly call themselves “multitaskers”. However, studies have shown that only 2% of people can actually multitask effectively and that switching between tasks costs us up to 40% of our productive time.

Fast learners know that in order to quickly pick up a new skill, it means giving it your undivided attention and having to say “maybe someday” to a dozen other things that you’re also interested in.

The problem with trying to practice perfectly is that you may end up spending way too much time overanalyzing and overthinking about how to get it “right”, rather than just doing it.

A case in point is the language learner who spends countless hours studying grammar because they don’t feel “ready” to speak yet.

Too often, the idea of perfect practice gets mixed up with our fear of making mistakes and being judged by other people. This leads to three things, none of which are good:

• Procrastination
• Unwillingness to take risks
• Frustration.

There are two main ways you can do this:

• Get feedback from other people: When it comes to speaking a new language, for example, you can get immediate feedback by learning with a teacher.
• Setup your own feedback systems: If you’re learning to play guitar, you can make recordings of yourself playing, and listen back. When you listen back, you’ll hear things that you never noticed before.

A word of warning: getting feedback is sometimes the hardest part of learning a new skill. Most of us cringe at the idea of opening ourselves up to criticism.