How can you improve your learning

Let me present you somebody. Meet Barbara Oakley. She’s the author of a couple of books that I appreciate related to learning.

One of the books is “Learning how to learn”, another one is “Mindshift” and the third one is “A mind for numbers”.

In “learning how to learn”, Barbara is presenting two ways of learning. The focused one and the diffuse one. We all know about the focused one. It’s when you’re concentrating on something that you want to learn. However, the diffuse way of learning is more relaxed. See the following analogy that Barbara is making using a pinball machine

If you’re in the focused mode, you are digging for the solution to your problem into a little area of the brain. And you might find a solution there, but is it the best one? The diffused way of learning allows you to explore other perspectives, to think outside the box. And after you thought about the solution using different perspectives, you may start getting into the focused mode on the best partial solution that you found using the diffuse mode.

Another important topic presented in practice. You can’t master a subject only by going through it once or twice. You need to practice on it. However one thing to remember, “no pain no gain” does not work here. If you’ve been in the focused mode for a while now and you can’t seem to find the solution, then take a break. If you keep on going and try harder and harder to find the solution to your problem is counterproductive. You need to practice and be consistent with your practice. Spread your sessions through the week and don’t allow yourself to miss one. This is a way to reach mastery way faster than practicing for one day and then do nothing for a week.

Stay tuned for more hints on how to improve your learning process. Do not hesitate to go straight to the source and read Barbara Oakley. Also I’d be happy to hear from you about your learning strategy. What process do you have? Share it with me in a comment below.

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