How to Learn Better
The most common question I get asked as a learning experience designer (right after what exactly do I do 😜) is this - “How can I learn better?”
It’s a fairly loaded question and this article is an attempt to unpack it. Here are 4 shifts you need to make to learn better -
1/ Adapting to structure → Building structure
For starters, learning as adults is very different than how we learn as children. The real world does not come with a curriculum or a textbook or a set of existing teachers.
Just dealing with this requires a lot of unlearning and a lot of introspection.
Here is what you can do instead:
Be more conscious of your learning - be it personal or professional. Build a weekly ritual to question - what did I learn this week?
Think of areas where you want to get better - pick 1-2 at a time to work on
2/ Starting with the what/ how → Starting with the WHY
This is where we tend to make the biggest mistake. We see a shiny new learning experience - a book everyone is reading or a course people are talking about and just go for it.
We spend little - no time defining why do we want to learn this. By starting with the what or worse directly jumping to the how - we end up starting a lot of things but finishing very few.
Here is what you can do instead:
Start with the why. List down what your future state looks like.
Think about what do you need to do to get there?
3/ Fitting in a mould → Being a snowflake
Most traditional education systems put all learners in the same mould. Everyone is expected to read the same books, attend the same classes, take the same tests. But no two people are alike.
But finding what works for you is easier said than done.
Here is what you can do instead:
Think about your most enjoyable learning experience. What did you like about it? Try to incorporate more elements in other experiences
Find your learning personality. Figure out what medium/ format you learn best in right now - is it video/ text/ audio? Double down on this
4/ Focus on acquiring knowledge → Focus on applying knowledge
We tend to focus on the ‘input’ parts of learning. We brag about how many books we read and how many courses we’ve taken, but learning is not what you ingest but what you digest.
Here is what you can do instead:
Take a learning breath. Don’t just breathe in, breathe out what you’re learning too. Focus on creating things and not just consuming things
For everything you learn, try to share it with just one person. Learning magnifies by teaching someone else.
In a nutshell
Here are 4 shifts you can make to learn better -
1/ Adapting to structure → Building structure
2/ Starting with the what/ how → Starting with the WHY
3/ Fitting in a mould → Being a snowflake
4/ Focus on acquiring knowledge → Focus on applying knowledge
Which of these did you resonate with the most? Tell me in the comments section below!