Learning something new can be so tiring! You read an article, watch a video, take notes, and you think you understood everything.
But then a few days later, you try to tell someone what you have learned, and it all seems to have left your head. Your memory isn't to blame, nor is your intellect. The issue is that you are learning the wrong way.
Sitting longer and longer in front of a book or online course won't help you any further. You need an optimal learning process in which you understand information, actively recall it, connect it to your existing knowledge, and then re-learn it at the right time.
Learning like that becomes especially useful when you are trying to learn multiple things at once, for example, a language, a special skill, building a software or the ins and outs of an AI tool, at the same time.
And the best part is that you don't need any special method; just some minor adjustments to your current learning habits will do. These small changes will allow you to spend less time learning something while having better retention of it.
When you are about to begin a course, watch a video, read a book, or take part in a tutorial, think about what exactly you want to know at the end.
This may seem a bit obvious, but it will save you a lot of time invested in unimportant information. Instead of “I want to learn about AI”, you can say “I want to learn how to make better images with AI” or “I want to learn how to research using AI”.
Then, you have a clear vision of what you want to absorb. Now, collect the necessary information needed to achieve the result. You can even make a set of information cards with a flashcard generator.
The most important thing is not to include hundreds of different terms, questions, and definitions. It is crucial to choose information based on your needs.
Decide what it means for you to “learn.” If you are studying some software, maybe it would be great to be able to make at least one functional thing on your own without any help from the Internet. A clear goal will give you direction and prevent you from aimlessly consuming information.
You do not have to struggle through difficult explanations just because a particular work was intended for specialists in the area.
In a situation when you need simple explanations, examples, or analogies, feel free to ask an AI assistant to break it all down for you in simple words, provide an example, or make an analogy.
Moreover, if you want to learn the subject in a different format, you can ask to present the material in the way you need. For instance, you can request a concise version, a true/false quiz, a fictional example, etc.
Since there are plenty of options, and you could say that the AI learning sphere has evolved significantly, asking AI to literally write a book about the subject or maybe design a logo is no longer a joke. However, using such technologies should be primarily educational.
It is essential to remember that AI is a tool for learning, and not a replacement for your thinking. That is why it is crucial not to rely too much on AI assistance and to try to learn the educational material in various ways.
Rereading is productive since the information is familiar to the mind each time you look at it. However, it does not mean you will retain the information better. So, a faster way to reinforce what you have learned is to look away from your notes and try to recall the information.
After a ten-minute lesson, you should stop and try to restate what you have learned without referring to any notes. You can write down three things you remember and then cross-reference your notes with what you wrote to determine what you missed.
In case you are learning new software, you can look away from the tutorial manual and attempt to redo the steps you were supposed to follow.
Studies have shown that retrieval is a powerful tool to use in learning something new. The practice requires one to recall the information they have learned instead of repeating it.
You can enhance retrieval practice by trying to remember something more than once, and it becomes much easier to recall the information you need.
Trying to learn things in one sitting can create a fake scenario that you are making progress. After four hours of studying, you may find that most of the information you learned is quickly forgotten. To avoid this, it is important to break the topic of study into smaller segments.
If you want to learn how to edit videos, do not try to assimilate all of the tools needed to edit in one weekend. Set aside time to learn the timeline, then transitions, then practise using audio tools.
It is important to revisit previous skills at a later time while still practising a new skill.
Studying over spaced out sessions is more effective than cramming all of the information into one long session. Your sessions do not have to be very long either. Twenty to forty minutes of focused work can be helpful if your goal is to understand and remember the information.
You are not trying to fully grasp the material in one sitting. You are simply creating multiple opportunities to understand and remember the information.
New information is most easily remembered if you can somehow "attach" it to something. Ask yourself, "What does the new information remind me of ?" or “How can I relate it to something I already know?”
Say, for example, you are trying to learn what machine learning is, and you already somewhat understand how a student can learn by practicing. In this case, you can use your existing knowledge about how students learn to help you grasp the new information.
A helpful analogy or comparison is not about finding identical things; it's about putting context around the new information.
Also, try to make up your own examples. Say you learn a new business concept, think of a company you know, and try to apply the new concept to them. By explaining the concept to yourself, you force yourself not only to remember the theory but to really internalize it, so it's easier to recall later.
Once you have mastered the basics of a skill, do not use your whole study session practising the same exercise. Try to mix up related topics or skills together.
This will help you to learn in a slightly different way that is slightly more challenging, but will still benefit your progress in a topic, as you have to think about which of the two skills apply.
An example of this could be if you were learning photography. Instead of spending two hours practising the same thing, lighting, you could do lighting, then composition, then camera setup, and go back to lighting.
Or, if you were learning a language, you could switch between vocabulary, reading, listening, and building sentences.
This technique is called interleaving, and it is thought that mixing up the related topics can actually aid learning; specifically, you will be able to judge whether one method or piece of knowledge is better than another.
It is not just about practising the same thing over and over; it is about learning how and when to use a specific piece of knowledge or a skill.
One of the fastest ways to detect your level of comprehension is to try and explain the newly acquired information in your own words. Pretend that you are talking to someone who has no knowledge of the subject, and avoid using any phrase that your teacher might have used during the lecture.
If you find yourself at a loss for words, do not be worried. As far as learning processes go, this is one of the most reliable ways of determining what you do and what you do not understand. Let us take ‘search engine learning' as an example.
You should be able to explain to your friend how search engines rate their results. If you cannot do it, then go back to the section of the course that talks about search engines.
You can either try doing the same thing again or ask the computer to comment on your explanation. By asking the computer to ask you questions, you can turn the learning process into a dialogue. The idea is not to impress anyone with your knowledge, but rather explain things to yourself.
Not all information can or should be contained as a paragraph in your notes. In some cases, a diagram, timeline, screenshot, comparison, or even a simple sketch can help you understand the material better.
For example, if you have to learn the principle of a marketing campaign, a picture describing the target audience and follow-up would be much more informative than a paragraph.
Finally, using words and visual aids can provide two different views of the same thing. Studies have shown that elaborative examples and dual coding assist in comprehension and retention of newly acquired knowledge.
You do not need to create a masterpiece when making notes, as even a somewhat badly drawn image that makes sense to you would benefit more than a well-drawn picture that one will not use later.
Learning faster does not mean cramming more information in your head in a shorter period of time. It means eliminating unproductive learning activities and substituting them with ones where the information is retained in the brain much more easily.
Secondly, you can use an AI assistant to break down complicated data and give simple explanations when you fail to understand it on your own. Then, challenge yourself through self-testing rather than reviewing the same material over and over again.
You can also find ways to create visuals or analogies to describe abstract terms. Additionally, you can space out review sessions and connect similar subjects so that you can retain more information.
The result of these subtle but critical changes to your learning process will undoubtedly be much more fulfilling, as you would not have to waste hours upon hours trying to memorize the material, but instead, conquer a short list of daily learning tasks.
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