4 Learning Strategies Quick Learners Master But Never Told You

Learning doesn’t just stop when we leave school or university – many of us have goals and dreams that require a level of learning or perhaps just learning new skills for personal growth. Either way, our modern, fast-paced society tends to create a mindset and a need to learn something as fast as possible in order to keep up, and as a result, we often expect more progress and faster mastery of the subject in a shorter amount of time.

4 Steps To Learn Efficiently In Much Less Time

1. Get Over Your Fear of the Unknown

Many people give up quickly on their dreams because the unknown conjures up feelings of uncertainty and threat. Ambiguity brings doubtfulness ^[1] which creates an unstable mindset. When we think about achieving our dreams, this can be a massive goal killer.

Many of us are more prepared to give up than face entering unclear and insecure territory because it can cause such emotional discomfort. However, learning to dispel this fear will go towards developing a more determined mindset. Making the effort to get out of your comfort zone and believe in what you’re doing will take you further much faster.

2. Discover Clarity Early On

The more clarity you have,^[2] the more motivation you’ll get to achieve your goals and dreams. But don’t get too ahead of yourself as the key isn’t to get clear too far up the path. As we mentioned in the last point, the unknown is always there and we can’t clarify what we don’t yet know. However, making sure you’re clear about the next step or two will keep your brain motivated to carry on and not give up.

Many times, not having clarity at each step will cause people to delay the next step or give up all together until motivation resurfaces, resulting in slower results overall. Break your learning down into structured chunks; firstly, plan when you aim to get each one done. Once you finish each step, be clear about what you need to do next and how you’ll best achieve it e.g. extra resources. This will streamline your forward movement.

3. Keep Your Purpose in Mind

We all have reasons as to ‘why’ we want to learn something, but we can sometimes lose sight of our ‘why’ along the process. It’s really important to keep coming back to what you’re learning and the why behind it ^[3], as this helps you to keep your brain motivated. When we start the learning process, there are key stages along the way that can trip us up – whether it’s demotivation or difficulties – and it’s these that slow our learning way down.

Knowing why you want to learn something can help in elevating your focus and steadying your motivation, as well as help to connect your interests and goals.

4. Learn in Context

This is probably one of the most important steps in streamlining your learning process. Context-based learning helps your brain connect the dots more easily. A perfect example of this is learning a new language. Speaking and practising with a native speaker or going to the country and forcing yourself to speak the language will help with context.

Whatever you are trying to learn, try to apply what you do learn to real-world scenarios. Not only does this allow you to see just how it works but increases motivation and allows it to click in the brain more easily.^[4] Context-based learning also involves making sure you get consistent feedback or coaching as it not only reaffirms what you know, but points out areas of improvement and increases that essential motivation.

Using these simple steps to prepare your mindset and ultimately streamline the process, will allow your journey of learning and growing to be a less bumpy and more efficient experience.