Learning How To Learn

• “Focused” and “Diffused” Modes

  

  When learning, there are times in which you are focused and times in which you allow your mind to wander. Both modes ...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Chunking

  

  This is the idea of breaking what you want to learn into concepts.  The goal is to learn each concept in a way t...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Beware of Illusions of Competence

  

  There are many ways in which we can make ourselves feel like we have “learned” a concept. Instead of highlighting or ...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Recall

  

  Take a couple minutes to summarize or recall material you are trying to learn. It goes a long way to taking something...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Bite-Sized Testing

  In order to avoid or break through illusions of competence, you should test yourself as you’re encountering new mater...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Over-Learning

  

  Do not spend too much time in one sitting going over the same material over and over again. The law of diminishing re...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Interleaving

  Once you have a basic understanding of what you are trying to learn, practice jumping back and forth between problems...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Process over Product

  When facing procrastination, think of the process over the product. Instead of thinking that you have to get X done...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Metaphors and Analogies

  

  They are often talked about as helpful study techniques.  Try to make a deliberate effort to teach what you lea...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• Study Groups / Teamwork

  ... have proven to be most beneficial to maintain continued progress and hold each other accountable. Finding the rig...

  What I learned from Coursera's "Learning How to Learn"

• What learning is

  

   There are two kinds of thinking, focused and diffused . Focused thinking involves working on a singular task...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Procrastination and how to combat it

  Procrastination usually happens when you reach a difficult point and find it uncomfortable to keep going. The Pomodo...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Sleep your way to better learning

  

  Sleep is perhaps the best way to engage unconscious diffused thinking. Being in focused mode is to brain cells what...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Spaced repetition, a little every day

  Spaced repetition involves practising something in small timeframes and as you get better at it, increasing the amou...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Chunking

  A chunk is formed by first grasping an understanding of a major concept and then figuring out where to use it ....

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Deliberate practice

  Spend time and effort trying to create chunks. Instead of learning every intricate detail, seek out what the major co...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Don’t be held back by old thoughts

  The danger of becoming an expert in something is losing the ability to think like an amateur. You get so good at the ...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Recall

  Bring the information you’ve just learned back to your mind without looking back at it. Rereading the same thing ove...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• The Habit Zombie

  To make a good habit,  create a cue make a routine around it give yourself a reward if you follow through and&...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Product comes after process

  Focus on the process. Thinking about the outcome of your learning is the quickest way to get discouraged about it....

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Free up your working memory

  

  Create a to do list the night before, including the time of day you’ll call it quits. Putting things down means the...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Unlocking your potential

  

  Learning doesn’t happen in a straight line. Learning looks more like a broken staircase than a straight line. ...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Everyone has to start somewhere

  The first year you learn something new you might not be very good. The second year you might be worse because you rea...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Learning is the ultimate meta-skill

  ... as it can be applied to any other skill. So if you want to improve your ability to do anything, learning how to ...

  The Ultimate Skill: Learning How to Learn

• Learning

  Traditionally, we’re taught to learn using the “blocking” strategy. This instructs us to go over a single idea again ...

  How to Learn and Master Any Skill Twice as Fast, According to Science

• Interleaving

  ... space out learning over a longer period of time, and it randomizes the information we encounter when learning a n...

  How to Learn and Master Any Skill Twice as Fast, According to Science

• Using interleaving to pick up a new skill

  Practice multiple parallel skills at once Try planning when and what you want to cover in a lesson in advance. Go b...

  How to Learn and Master Any Skill Twice as Fast, According to Science

• Single & Double Loop Learning

  The first time we aim for a goal, follow a rule or make a decision, we are engaging in single loop learning.  If...

  Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain

• How Success Becomes an Impediment

  Many skilled people excel at single loop learning where they become accustomed only to success.  They aren’t us...

  Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain

• The Key to Double Loop Learning

  

  Push the single loop to the point of failure, to strengthen how you act in the double loop. Stop getting defensive. ...

  Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain

• Key questions to consider

  What is the current theory in use? How does it differ from proposed strategies and goals? What unspoken rules are bei...

  Double Loop Learning: Download New Skills and Information into Your Brain

• Just start, break the initial barrier

  Every task has a certain Activation Energy (AE), where you initiate certain steps in order to start a task. Reducin...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Practice chunking

  A memory chunk is a solid connection in your mind that relates various bits and pieces of information.  Focus ...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Learn, Practice, Recall — Repeat

  Just forming chunks is not sufficient. You have to maintain them. The more you look after the chunks, the longer they...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Take it easy

  

  Whenever you face a problem, take a break. Sleep. Clean your room. Do anything except work on the problem.  Th...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Understand your procrastination

  

  A procrastinator is a person who has a HABIT of getting distracted by things. Break this habit by eliminating distr...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Set an ending time for tasks

  Parkinson’s second law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Setting a micro deadline ...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Use visual and spatial memories

  

  The #1 thing you need to do to correctly memorize concepts is understand them.  To successfully understand somet...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Use metaphors and stories

  Metaphors will help you understand and recall more easily.  You take something obvious from your memory, and s...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Learn what you want

  People learn when they are self-motivated, not when someone comes in front of them for four hours a week, and tells s...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Intersection of skills

  Transfer learning is the ability to take what you learn in one domain and apply it to a new skill. Learn to apply o...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Sleep

  Lack of sleep affects memory and recall.  Sleep helps your brain get into the diffuse mode and thus gets creat...

  Science-backed methods to keep in mind when you're learning new things

• Learning and practice

  Acquiring information is not learning. Although textooks can help, they only work when combined with practice.

  How to Learn Anything: The Sonmez 10-Step System - The Polymath Project - Medium

• The Research Phase

  Get the big picture . Scan articles etc. to get an idea of what the field is about. Determine scope.  Limit the ...

  How to Learn Anything: The Sonmez 10-Step System - The Polymath Project - Medium

• The Learning Phase

  Learn enough to get started. Playing around with the information will give context and tacit knowledge to go back a...

  How to Learn Anything: The Sonmez 10-Step System - The Polymath Project - Medium

• Two big lessons in learning

  The first lesson is that learning is a loop. It’s not a pretty loop, and it looks something like this: play → study...

  How to Learn Anything: The Sonmez 10-Step System - The Polymath Project - Medium