Category: Learning

How to learn something new

Summary:

  1. To do this for real you need to take action!
  2. Stick it in your iphone calendar.
  3. Recall the stuff from memory first!

Although we don’t have switches in our backs that control our behaviour there is a useful analogy to learning. Have you ever been on a training course or read a book and left feeling inspired to make a real change in your life? Maybe you do this for a while and things are great. Then daily

life gets in the way, your switch gets re-set and you slip into your old habits. When you do any sort of learning remember to include time to review and sustain the gains that you make so that you don’t slip backwards. The ideal intervals for reviews after the leaning period, as described by Tony Buzan are:

  • 10 minutes (reinforcing the learning straight away makes for a strong foundation)
  • 24 hours
  • 1 week
  • 1 month
  • 3 months (by this time the information should be locked in long term memory)
  • perhaps 6 months as little refresher.

The great thing is that the more you learn and maintain, the easier it is to learn new things. The new knowledge can link and associate to the old.

How to retain more of what you read

HOW TO RETAIN MORE OF WHAT YOU READ is courtesy of Phil Chambers

Summary:

  1. Have an outcome in mind and ask questions of yourself about why you have chosen to spend time reading and this will filter your experience.
  2. Be a critic. DRC. Emote. Again ask questions but this time of the material and the author.
  3. Create a mind map. Explain it to somebody or even teach it.

The more the brain process information, the better it sticks in your memory and the better it is understood. Back in the days before photocopiers and word processors, most large companies had typing pools. Ranks of typists would reproduce documents by copying. They were highly
skilled at rapidly and accurately retyping a document but without any understanding. The process was simply eye to hand with little going on in between. This is why coping out notes from textbooks is a highly ineffective study strategy. Many students waste hours taking notes of notes of notes with demoralising poor results.

If you process information a little deeper by approaching a text with questions in mind, you will be more engaged. You are more attuned to the reason for your reading. Certain parts of the text will have additional significance imbued to them by virtue of being relevant to your questions. The more significant something is, the more your brain pays attention to it and the easier it is to comprehend and remember.

Going deeper still: Try arguing with the author. Be a critic. Do you agree with the point of view being expounded? Why does he or she write this? Is there an ulterior motive or hidden agenda? What evidence is there? Does this conflict with other books you have read on the subject?
Challenge everything and get angry. Bringing emotion into you reading massively increases the impact of the text. If you think back to strongly remembered events in your life, they are often those times associated with powerful emotions. Your first love, times when you have been furious,
disappointed, ecstatic, awe stuck or inspired.

Creating a Mind Map involves a greater amount of processing than traditional copied notes. You are choosing key words to summarise big chunks of text, linking concepts together and are more engaged due to the use of colours and images. Memory works by association and imagination. Mind Maps utilise both of these skills to give increased recall of wide context and detail.

Have you ever faced a difficult problem or decision and asked a friend for advice, but by the time you finished explaining it, you knew the answer yourself? The act of articulating a problem crystallises it so that you can see it more clearly. The same is true of reading. Explain a book to a friend. You will find that by putting it into your own words, it will make more sense. You are taking
the ideas and making them your own – Synthesising them with your existing knowledge and truly understanding.

Finally, the deepest level is teaching a subject. You not only have to very clearly explain the material, you also have to be able to phrase it in a variety of ways, answer questions and engage your audience. This requires a deep understanding and a great deal of mental processing. I am always tired after delivering a full day’s training course. I probably won’t have expended much physical energy but will be mentally drained. Dr Marian Diamond, Professor of Neuroanatomy at the University of California at Berkley said, “Each one teach one”, when referring to the ideal educational system. By getting children to teach their peers after initially grasping a topic, it greatly
embeds and consolidates their knowledge.

Follow this link to retain what you have just learnt.!

Olympian Study Techniques

Another great idea from Phil Chambers

In honour of the 5 Olympic Rings, this month I decided to share my own 5 rings (or letter O’s) to help you study or assimilate information faster.

Objectives

As Stephen Covey said, “Begin with the end in Mind”.

Before tackling the book it is important to set your objectives and define goals. Break your goals into smaller aims. How long do you want to work for per session and how much do you want to cover? Ask yourself why are you reading the book? What specific questions do you want to answer?
Asking questions before you begin enables your subconscious to go to work as soon as you open the book. You will be on the lookout for particular facts and will be more likely to spot relevant information. Often the answers will seem to leap out at you. Spend five minutes jotting down what you already know about the subject. This gets you in the right state of mind to engage with the book, boosts concentration and means that you will lay a firm foundation to build upon. Connecting new and existing knowledge is far more effective than trying to acquire information in isolation.

Overview

Go through the whole book very quickly. Pay particular attention to summaries, conclusions, illustrations, diagrams, graphs and headings. Look at the contents page and index. You may want to insert strips of paper to act as bookmarks so you can quickly return to points of interest. The aim of this step is to familiarise yourself with that layout and rough content of the book. Imagine you are attempting to complete a jigsaw puzzle. This part is analogous to studying the picture on the
front of the box and spreading out the pieces.

Obtain information and answers

‘Skim and dip’ through the book. Don’t be tempted to dwell to long on any one section. Make notes as you read (Building up a Mind Map is a good tool for this).  Be selective in your reading. Remember your questions. Most information tends to be concentrated at the beginning and end of chapters so pay particular attention to these. In the early days of the internet when the web was referred to as the ‘World Wide Wait’, images were often shown as progressive JPEG files. You started with a very blocky image that gradually became clearer as more data was downloaded. The process of reading works in exactly the same way. You start with a vague picture and refine it bit by bit as you assimilate information.

Omit difficult bits

If there are parts of the text that you struggle with, just jump over them and continue onwards. The more context you have the easier these parts will become. Getting bogged down in detail does not serve any useful purpose. Returning to our jigsaw analogy the more pieces you put in place, the
easier it is to see where the remaining parts fit.

Outcome

The final stage is to tie things together. Return to noteworthy parts of the text, fill in any gaps and answer your questions. If you want to retain what you have learned from the book, especially if you are studying for an exam, you need to review. Take a 10 minute break after finishing your notes then re-read them. This initial reinforcement is vital to maintain recall. Schedule time in your diary to review your notes or Mind Maps: Review for a second time the following day, one week later, after one month and finally after three months. These five reviews will be enough to transfer the information to long term memory. Remember to celebrate. This may sound frivolous but it is very important. It associates study with reward and motivates you next time you have a similar situation. The whole time you are enjoying yourself your sub-conscious is assimilating, integrating and interpreting what you have been learned so that it is embedded at a deeper level.

Next time you have to study a book, think of the Olympics and follow the five rings.