Research proves that there are ways to learn new skills and concepts quickly and easily. Whether it’s a new technology, a foreign language, or an advanced skill, staying competitive often means learning new things. According to a March 2016 study by the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of U.S. employees have taken a course or additional training to advance their careers. They reported that results included an expanded professional network, a new job, or a different career path.
Being a fast learner can give you an even greater advantage. Science proves that there are six ways to learn and retain something faster.
- Teach someone else (or act like that)
According to a research done at Washington University in St. Louis, if you imagine you have to teach someone else a subject or task which you are trying to understand, you can speed up your learning and remember it more. According to John Nestojko, who is a postdoctoral researcher in psychology and co-author of the research, expectation changes your mindset and thus you take more effective approaches to learning than those who simply want to learn to pass a test.
Sleeping between two learning sessions greatly improves the attitude.
Nestojko writes. “When teachers get prepared to teach, they tend to look for key points and organize information in a coherent structure. Our results show that students also turn to such effective learning strategies when they expect to teach themselves.”
- Learn in short time intervals
Experts at the Louisiana State University, Center for Academic Success recommend you to dedicate 30-50 minutes to learning new material. “Anything less than 30 minutes isn’t enough, but anything over 50 minutes is just too much information for your brain to pick up on at once,” writes Ellen Dunn, a graduate assistant in learning strategies. When you’re done, take a 5-10 minute break before starting another session.
Short, frequent learning sessions are much better than longer, infrequent ones, agrees Neil Starr, who is course counselor at Western Governors University—an online nonprofit university where an average student earns a bachelor’s degree in two and a half academic years.
Changing the way you practice a new motor skill can help you master it faster.
Neil Starr recommends preparing for Micro-learning sessions. “Make note cards by hand for more difficult concepts that you’re trying to master,” he says. “You never know when you might take advantage of the break.”
- Take notes by writing.
Even though taking notes on a laptop is faster, using a pen and paper helps you learn and understand better. Researchers at Princeton University and UCLA have found that students listen more actively and identify the important concepts when they take notes by hand. However, taking notes on a laptop leads to meaningless writing and an opportunity for distraction, like email.
“In three studies, we have found that students who had taken notes on laptops performed worse than students who took long-term notes on conceptual questions,” writes Princeton University psychology professor Pam Mueller. “It shows that while more note-taking can be helpful, the tendency for laptop note takers to transcribe lessons verbatim instead of processing and reframing information in their own words is detrimental to learning.”
4. Use the Power of Mental Space.
While it may seem illogical, you can learn faster when you practice distributed learning or ‘blanking’. Benedict Carey, author of How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens, says in an interview with The New York Times “Learning is like watering your lawn.” “You can water your lawn for 90 minutes once a week or 30 minutes three times a week,” he said. “Taking a break in watering for the week will keep the grass greener over time.”
Carey said” In order to save the material, it was best to review the information one to two days after first studying it.” “One theory is that the brain actually pays less attention during short learning intervals,” he said in the interview. “So repeating the information over a longer interval – for example, after a few days or a week, rather than being quick in a row – sends a stronger signal to the brain to hold on to the information.”
- Take a work nap.
According to new research published in Psychological Science, interruption is important when it comes to retaining what you’ve learned, and sleeping between study sessions can improve your recall for up to six months.
In an experiment conducted in France, participants were taught Swahili translations of 16 French words over two sessions. While the participants in the “wake up” group completed the first learning session in the morning and the second one in the same day, the participants in the “sleep” group completed the second session after completing the first session in the evening and sleeping. The next morning, session Participants who slept between sessions remembered on average about 10 of the 16 words, while those who did not sleep remembered only 7.5 words.
Stephanie Mazza, who is psychologist at the University of Lyon writes: “Our results show that incorporating sleep between practice sessions offers a double advantage, reduces time spent on relearning, and provides much better long-term retention than practicing alone. “Previous research has suggested that sleeping after learning is certainly a good strategy, but we now show that sleeping between two learning sessions greatly enhances such a strategy.”
- Change your technique
According to new research carried out at the Johns Hopkins, School of Medicine, when learning a new motor skill, changing the way you practice it can help you master it faster. In one experiment, participants were asked to learn a computer-based task. Those who used a modified learning technique in their second session performed better than those who repeated the same method.
Pablo A. Celnik, senior author of the study and professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation says that the findings suggest that recombination, a process in which existing memories are recalled and replaced with new information, plays a key role in strengthening the motor skills.
“What we have found is that if you practice a slightly modified version of a task which you want to master, you learn more and faster than continuing to practice the same thing several times in a row.” Celnik writes.