Learning Nerd’s Diary #54
Welcome back Learning Nerds!
I spent the last week taking a break from work to rest and reflect on the past year. It’s been an exciting week with lots of epiphanies and some exciting stuff coming up for you learning nerds!
For starters, I’m trying to create each issue on a specific theme so that we can unpack things a little bit better. Today’s newsletter is focussed on breaks, rest and learning. Can’t wait for you to dig in!
👀 Sneak peak
Here is what I have in store for you this week -
💭 Learning About Learning: Take a Learning Break
🥜 Learning Nugget: Learning Lights
💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt This Week:
Direction vs Speed
Our relationship with rest needs work
Sabbath
🔦 Spotlight: Some wishes for you!
Let's jump right in!
💭 Take a Learning Break
Any good fitness coach will tell you that results come not from pushing yourself everyday, but taking regular breaks and coming back rejuvenated.
Learning is no different.
Often while trying to learning something new, we try to do too much in a short amount of time - but that is more detrimental to learning. The best hack for you to learn better is actually taking regular breaks from it (!!).
This is because learning fundamentally requires the brain to process new information. And in an effort to do that, it tries to connect that new information with stuff you already know. Imagine your brain performing an internal Google search every single time you hear something new. Sounds exhausting? Well it is!
By taking a break from learning, you will not only come back with renewed energy to learn more, but you will also remember what you’ve learnt for a longer period of time.
Here are some ideas for what a learning break can look like:
Go for a walk 🚶
Make something - do a craft, make a painting 🛠
Take a nap 💤
Grab a cup of coffee or tea ☕️
Fix yourself a snack 🍽
Talk to a friend ☎️
Imagine if our schools and colleges kept this in mind? What would they look like? 🤯
So the next time you’re trying to learn something new? Forget kitkat, take that learning break!
🥜 Learning Lights
Just like our traffic, our learning too needs green, yellow and red lights.
🟢 Going at full speed
🟡 Pausing & looking carefully and
🔴 Stopping completely
All are part of learning!
💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt this Week
Focus on direction not speed
A great tip for life & learning!
Our relationship with rest needs work
I wrote this article in 2021, here is an except:
If anything, rest should be like breathing or better still poop. You need it everyday. Just because you experienced it one day doesn’t mean you don’t need it the next. Some days you need it more than other days. And everyone’s experience or manifestation of it is different.
One epiphany from this last week off has been that everyone’s idea of rest is different. Personally I’m more excited by creating things, meeting people and visiting new places. For someone else it might be doing nothing.
Just like food - different people have their own preferences for rest too. And just like we sometimes crave pizza and other times a burger, we need different kinds of rest at different times too. Rest is not one thing!
Sabbath
I’ve been reading this book - Designing your new work life to reflect on my work and figure out what changes I’d like to make in my work life this year. As part of the book, it talks about weekly Sabbath - “a day of religious observance and abstinence from work, kept by the Jews and Christians.
It made me think of how Sundays and how for all of us we need our weekly Sabbath. A time to rest, recharge and reflect - whatever shape or form it works for us.
🔦 Spotlight
Thank you for being here today - a little wish from me to you at the start of the year!
Love & Learning
Until we meet next week!
You can get this directly in your inbox!