To Become a Better Learner – Try This!

To Become a Better Learner – Try This!

After a long day of grinding it out and getting stuff done, you have finally got the chance to sit down and relax. You pick up that book that someone recommended that you read, and you have wanted to get into for a couple of weeks, You start to read, you quickly see why it was endorsed, it is a good book! It is full of insight, inspiration, and new ideas! You read a key point, something that resonates with you. It makes sense. You learn something new!

You think to yourself this can help me be more effective and more efficient, it could help me with the daily grind and how much work I can get done! You just about say out loud, ‘I need to start doing this!’

Fast forward to the next morning, you are back at work, grinding it out and getting stuff done. After a week of this, you finally grab a spare second in the rush of your busy week to catch your breath, and you remember that there was something you were going to do different, now what was it?

Sound familiar?

Why is it that we struggle with the transference of new knowledge into new performance?

When we know that it is important, why don’t we remember?

Probably the best person to defer to is Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German Psychologist from the 19th Century, who was among the first scientists to research to understand how our memory works and how we retain information. Through his research, he discovered that after learning new content, our memory quickly declines.

To explain this phenomenon, Ebbinghaus coined the phrase ‘The Forgetting Curve’ to help explain this rate of decay. He discovered that even as quickly as 24 hours after learning something new, we could only remember less than 30%! Startling this deterioration doesn't stop there after a month we will only retain as little as 10%.

Our brains are designed to help us navigate through our world - day in day out. Helping us focus on what is currently happening, comprehending and helping us decide how to respond and react. It attends to the present; living in the now - moving forward. While it is absorbing all of this new information, it is pruning all of the data, memories it believes isn’t important anymore.

So, how do we convince our brain that this new information is important? We need to tell it! How do we do this?

We Write It Down!

The number one way we can tell our brain that something is important and worth remembering is by putting pen to paper! While writing something down, we involve many of our senses and use multiple parts of our brain, including the hippocampus to synthesise the information. This neural process helps establish what you are writing down as important and what is worth keeping. This process is called ‘encoding’.

“Paper is to write things down that we need to remember. Our brains are used to think.”
Albert Einstein

Secondly, when we write it down, we retain this new information as what psychologist call ‘external storage’. Especially if we write it down somewhere important, like a notebook we specifically keep for our new insights and learning opportunities. By keeping a learning notebook, it provides an invaluable resource for us to review and reflect on what we have learnt and how we may apply it to what we do and how we do it!

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
Louis L’Amour

Try this, start carrying a small notebook and a pen with you! When you read or hear something worth remembering, write it down. Then start adding actions and behaviours that you can implement to convert this new learning into improved performance.

To get clarity, we first need to clarify; we can do this by asking ourselves three important questions. What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to continue doing? What do I need to start doing?

Ebbinghaus’ second major discovery was that we could fight ‘The Forgetting Curve’ by reflecting and reviewing our new learning at spaced intervals. You do this by checking in on what you learnt and finding ways to apply it. Do this daily, before the grind takes over, and your brain is distracted by new information. Share with someone else what you learnt, every time you verbalise it, your brain is reminded that this is information that it needs to retain and be ready to recall.

Taking new learning and turning it into improved performance is how we grow and develop, and it starts by acknowledging that this is important and worth remembering.

So, put pen to paper and start improving your performance.

Regards,

Peter Edwards

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Peter Edwards的更多文章

  • The Five Essentials of Effective Leadership

    The Five Essentials of Effective Leadership

    A study by the Center for Creative Leadership showed that roughly 38% to 50% of new leaders fail within their first 18…

    2 条评论
  • In Sales, It's What You Don't Know That Can Hurt You The Most!

    In Sales, It's What You Don't Know That Can Hurt You The Most!

    "Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers" Voltaire Effective selling is all about asking the right…

  • Are You Influencing?

    Are You Influencing?

    "The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority." Kenneth Blanchard Have you ever worked for that…

    4 条评论
  • It's All Right! I've Been Doing This For Years

    It's All Right! I've Been Doing This For Years

    'The more I learn, the more I realise how much I don't know.' Albert Einstein There is a day I remember quite…

    2 条评论
  • Striving For Excellence

    Striving For Excellence

    "We are kept from our goal not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal." Robert Brault Nobody strives for…

    14 条评论
  • What Great Salespeople Do!

    What Great Salespeople Do!

    The customer is right there. They are right in front of you at the counter, or on the other end of the phone! You have…

  • Don't Quit Now!

    Don't Quit Now!

    “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!” We have all heard this idiom at one time or another. It infers that it is…

  • 'Then Let's See You Do It!'

    'Then Let's See You Do It!'

    When I was 11 years old there was a movie released in Australia that would go on to become one of the most iconic…

  • The Comeback: Fueling the Fight!

    The Comeback: Fueling the Fight!

    "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time" Thomas…

    16 条评论
  • Are You Ready For A Comeback? Start Here!

    Are You Ready For A Comeback? Start Here!

    You know how the story goes. It starts with our hero facing a major obstacle or setback.

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了