Learn To Learn

#mentalhealth #performance #motivation #timemanagement

I realized that when attending an education institution, regardless of educational level, they expect us to learn everything thrown at us. It can get really complicated, especially in college or a boot camp. All the knowledge you need to learn is already more than enough, not including the other interests that you're seeking. For example, you are working on a coding project or trying to understand a new topic and for some reason you are pinned down in that same problem for over an hour. Then all of a sudden you have a headache and somehow you forget to read which prevents you from pointing out the misspelling of a word that is messing up your code. Little did you know that you burned out your brain. This happens when you’ve pushed your mind, reached the limit, and your brain starts to lack cognitive function. So I’ve done some research to help me with studying and learning new topics faster.

If you are not a reader, I highly recommend to at least give these 2 books a shot, these helped me significantly with productivity.

Limiting Beliefs

“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” — Les Brown
Jim states that beliefs are powerful. He implemented research in psychology about the effects of positive and negative mentalities. Jim concluded that most of us have an identity inside who bashes us, saying “You can’t do it, its too hard.”. Reaching a new goal is a challenge, but it’s still highly achievable. Make sure to take every step necessary to get to it, try not to skip ahead, as it could make it harder. Whenever you are nervous about something, take a look to a similar event in the past, then take note of about how it went (whether great or bad). In example a public speech or presentation. Most likely no one booed you out or threw things at you. Instead people gave you their attention and clapped at the end. This means you’re better than you think at presenting or public speaking . This helps boost your confidence and tear down that evil voice inside of you.

Lies about Learning

“Mistakes don’t mean failure.”-Jim Kwik
Whenever you make a mistake, it means that you are trying to accomplish something. This should be the way think. In example, when coding, you might get one or multiple bugs, most would think that you don’t know how to code. Instead think about it as, “I am trying to understand how this works and why .” This makes your inner beliefs understand that you are trying! Again, this helps tear down the evil voice inside of you. Learning new things only takes time, practice and is always possible. No matter the age and condition of a person. If you are having trouble learning, find a new way to understand the material, a new approach or ask for help. Asking for help is always great, it can help you understand and see a problem in a different way. Explaining what you learned to someone is even better!

Few Learning Tips

If you have 1 goal with 50 tasks, distribute them into 5 goals with 10 tasks. Makes it less stressful when you focus on 1 goal with 10 tasks and gives you a morale boost because you finished 5 goals instead of just 1.
Attention span is very hard to have now a days. Especially with electronics being so convenient and distracting. So get rid of apps that make you distracted or block some pages.
Jim talks about a study regarding learning and retaining information. He states that retaining information is most effective at the beginning and ending of a session. Usually after more than 40 minutes people begin to wonder off and retain less information. So break study sessions into 20–25 minute intervals, with a 5 minute break.
Write notes down when learning something new. This helps make a different kind of imprint of the information in your mind. This also helps you take a quick look back at things if you need a reference. (Just make sure you organize your notes!)
Do a quick review the next day, even if its 5–10 minutes long. This helps retain information in your memory far longer.
Talk about the topic to someone, even yourself. This helps you identify if you actually remember what you learned or if you need to do a review.
If you are feeling like you are about to burnout, take a good long 30–45 minute break. This helps cool down your engine and be able to function again.
Get enough sleep. Make sure you give your brain some rest, it literally works 24/7.
During your break, practice a hobby or do something you enjoy. This helps make you be happy. Being in that state of mind helps retain more information.
Read more books! If you don't like to read, start by reading 5 pages a day.

You Can Learn Anything

It might be just over simplifying it, but coding can be pretty straight forward. If you think about it, you are working with a set of instructions. All you need to do is understand what these instructions do and how to combine them. That could be said about any other topic as well. Take the time to learn things properly by taking each step and you will be limitless before you know it.