The Good habits of learning and learning how to learn

We will talk about the things to avoid and the techniques that you can use and the things that will help you be a better learn in you day to day life and also mention some apps that will really help in managing time and helping in the process of learning and facts about the brain and how these things weren’t made only for learning but for almost anything you want to do in life like starting a habit in something or having to do something.

Story:

Let me tell you a story about a person named Charlie and another named Oscar who are both in the same class studying the same subjects, Charlie sadly does things wrong because he doesn’t learn and sometime even too lazy, meanwhile Oscar likes improvement and changing to the better and taking every opportunity he can as a chance to be better and thrive for success Charlie thinks that in order to be successful you have to be smart or come from a rich family or have a good education, while Oscar knows that anyone can be success full and anyone has the motivation and strength to handle pain can make his dreams come true. (good Oscar, bad Charlie). When you see ‘Story:’ that means that the situation will be done in a bad way and in a good way, I guess you already know who does the bad and who does the good, but will they always do it the same way? who knows it is possible for anyone to change if they want to and the have the well power and the right instructions to change.

But why learn how to learn?

The brain is a powerful tool but unfortunately it doesn’t come with a manual this is what Dr. Terrence Sejnowski said and this one of the main reasons why learning how to learn is so helpful while you might just go for it and through time you may find some things that help you learn better but that will require a lot of time and also might have bad effects not only that but also learning how to learn will help in working smart instead of working hard and might even have much better out comes from it.

Story:

Charlie wants to study some subject and this subject requires Charlie to memories a lot of things like words and names and numbers Charlie can go for it and start repeating whatever he wants to memories but that is not the best way to do it, while it may work but he can easily forget a lot of the things he memorized.

Oscar on the other hand studies this subject by doing spatial repetitions which help him memorize things way easier.

The brain is like a machine you learn everything about it through the manual carefully and follow the instruction then you won’t have problems with it and will work its best but if you didn’t you might get away with it but some it won’t work as you thought it would or won’t give the output you want.

Story:

Let’s say Charlie found out that he has an exam tomorrow while having spaghetti for dinner but he didn’t study the material from the beginning of the semester (luck won’t help him Trust Me) then he presses the superman switch ????, and starts taking everything serious while panicking so hard that his palms gets sweaty, his knees are weak, arms are heavy, there’s vomit on his sweater already, he's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready…...

Anyways he sits down for the whole day no rest and studies as much as he can and then when he finishes he doesn’t even get a good night sleep because sleep is for the weak (right ????) and then he goes to the exam extremely stressed out hoping he would even pass he focuses as hard as he can and then he finishes not knowing whether the exam was hard or not he just didn’t study enough (this happens more than I thought ), he might also even start asking his friends if the exam was hard hopping they would say yes so that he can feel good about himself and say “it wasn’t my fault after all the exam wasn’t for the average student anyways” and when the grades come out he finds out that he was lucky enough to pass the exam that he didn’t study for and then he takes himself serious for a second and say “I will try my best in the next exam this is not joke” but he won’t he just found out that he can get away with it so he will keep on doing it because he is lazy and thinks that studying is always that boring thing that only students in school do and no one else does it except students.

Meanwhile Oscar just studied from the beginning he studied the things that he toke in class right after it the teacher teaches them and uses techniques through his studies to help ease things and bring fun to the party, he rewards himself every time he finishes studying something or reaching a minigoal, he even plays the piano and takes piano lesson and still got better grades than Charlie did.

some things about the brain and how to use it at its maximum.

Cells of the nervous system are called neurons. Information from one neuron flows to another neuron across a synapse. Human brain has a million billion synapses.

There are two modes of thinking:

a)     Focused mode: Concentrating on things that are usually familiar.

b)     Diffused mode: A relaxed mode of thinking "your thoughts are free to wander".

Your brain creates synapses whenever you learn something new. Sleeping helps "update" your brain cells. Literally.

Acetylcholine affect focused learning and attention.

Serotonin affects social life and risk-taking behavior.

Dopamine signals in relation to unexpected reward.

Whenever you reactivate a memory, the memory changes, a process called reconsolidation. It is even possible to implant false memories, indistinguishable from old ones, by suggestion and imagination.

The right hemisphere of the brain, is vitally important in getting into the right track and doing reality checks.

The left hemisphere instead tries to cling tenaciously to the way things were.

Sleep is very important. It clears the metabolic toxins from the brain after a day of "brain use". It is best to sleep directly after learning new things.

It was shown that exercising and/or being in a rich social environment helps your brain produce new neurons. Don’t lock yourself in your room. Stay active and spare time for exercise (including general physical activities) and friends daily.

In the following pages I will talk about some topics and techniques that i used for a few days or month and helped me a lot trough my learning.

Focused and diffuse modes of thinking.

What do you do when you can't figure something out or find a solution for something? Well you can be like Charlie and just give up or star getting mad and hitting the disk but there is a way that help you figure it out. ‘The diffused mode’ we already know what the focused mode is and we are familiar with it but sometimes all you need is to relax your brain and let your thoughts flow this is the diffused mode this can help your brain get to the answer or the solution you want when it is a thought you haven’t thought of before and helps you figure out this new pattern of thinking.

Procrastination.

Let’s be honest procrastination is one of our worst enemies even though it is much easier to just go on the internet and start browsing social media or go on YouTube to watch like 5 videos after saying that you were going to watch only one video but that is all just temporary happiness. Procrastination shares features with addiction. At first, it leads you to think that if you study too early, you’ll forget the material. Then, when the class is ahead of you, it leads you to think that you are inadequate or that the subject is too hard.

The long-term effect of Procrastination can be dangerous. Putting your studies off leads to studying becoming even more painful. Procrastination is a habit that affects many areas of your life, if you improve in this area, many positive changes will unfold.

You should realize that it’s perfectly normal to start a learning session with a negative feeling even if you like the subject. It’s how you handle those feelings that matters.

Procrastination is when you have to do something that you don’t want to do that seems to make you uncomfortable or gives you pain so you tend to avoid that things by doing other things that are more fun than it.

Unlike procrastination which is easy to fall into, Willpower is hard to come by. It uses a lot of neural resources and you shouldn’t waste it on fending off procrastination except when really necessary. You actually don’t need to.

The best way to avoid that ‘pain’ that you get is by focusing more on the process of the thing you are doing rather than the product like saying “I will study for some time and then take a rest”.

The Pomodoro technique is a powerful tool to help with this basically it is sitting periods do work with rests in between so you work for 25 minutes and then take a rest for 5 minutes as a reward, thinking about doing Pomodoro while doing something is focusing of the process not the product and this what helps ease the pain and helps you do the thing you want to do.

My experience: Even though i already knew the Pomodoro technique before I really didn’t feel it’s effect but after knowing how procrastination works and why it happens and how to get rid of it started making a lot of sense and now that I understand why the Pomodoro works it did motivate me to do it more often and also made me realize how powerful it is, it is like any other thing doing the thing while knowing how and why it works help it be more effective and helps you know what is going on better.

Through time you will find yourself automatically making Pomodoro sessions without needing a time and you will feel like it is easier to make the task in Pomodoro sessions. You will even feel like it is more fun that way.

When you learn something new, make sure to take time to rest, then come back to it and recall what you learnt.

Turn off distractions. You want to use all the four slots of your working memory when studying. Learning will be inefficient if some of those slots are connected to something else.

Make a weekly list and a daily list and write your daily list the day before researchers showed that writing your daily list the evening before helps you accomplish them the next day. If you don’t write them down, they will take the valuable slots of memory.

When you don’t desire doing/learning something, go through it and just start. The discomfort goes away and, in the long term, this will lead to satisfaction.

Plan your finishing time, this is as important as planning your working time.

“Eat the frog first” Work in the most important and most disliked task first, even if it’s only one Pomodoro.

Take notes about what works and what doesn’t.

Have a backup plan for when you will still procrastinate.

You want to avoid cramming which doesn’t build solid neural structures, by putting the same amount into your learning, and spacing it over a long period by starting earlier.

I would also recommend using an app called TickTick I have been using it for a year now and it is really good for making a list and the Pomodoro technique and even making a habit all that for free (this is not a sponsor I just like this app).

And since I have a problem with phone addiction, I have found an app called YourHour that is really helpful with phone addiction and gives you stats and ranks and challenges with points all for free as well (can you imagine being addicted to it).

Memory.

Memory is an important concept of learning whether you want to memorize a word or a number or even instructions to a solution you always need to memorize something.

There are two types of memory the working memory and the long-term memory. The working memory is like a ram in your computer you need to put data in so that you can process something or solve a problem but it only has four slots in it.

The long-term memory is like a storage unite or a hard drive you save things in it and it stays there for a long time but it might vanish through time if it wasn’t structured well enough.

In order to put something in your long-term memory you have to constantly repeat it and special repetition is the most effective method you can use in order to put something in your long-term memory and strengthen it.

special repetition is done by increasing the time between repetitions for example you want to memorize something so you repeat it in the first day and then you do it the next and then you do it after 3 days and so in order to strengthen the neurons.

You can also use your visual memory to remember things more easily like for an example you think of electricity as water that is flowing in a pipe and try to imagine it and how it will react to things.

Handwriting also help a lot to memorize something (that’s why i had everything written down on paper before typing it here and it really helped plus reviewing everything again when writing everything back here).

Flashcards help. Consider using Anki.

The more neural hooks you can build by evoking the senses the easier it will be for you to recall the concept.

Test yourself to make sure you are actually learning and not fooling yourself into learning. Mistakes are a good thing. They allow you to catch illusions of competence.

Create meaningful groups and abbreviations to help remember easier.

To remember numbers, associate them to memorable events like for an example the year you want to memorize is your birthday.

Create mnemonic phrases from first letters of the words you want to remember.

Memory Palace Technique:

Use a familiar place (like the blueprint of your house) and associate visual images of things you want to remember with physical places. This will be hard at first you might even take 15 minutes but through time you will find it easier and much better to use it.

Chunking.

Chunks are Pieces of information, neuroscientifically speaking, bond together through use and meaning. They can get bigger and more complex, but at the same time, they are single easy to access items that can fit into the slot of the working memory. Chunking is the act of grouping concepts into compact packages of information that are easier for the mind to access.

This concept is called Transfer; a chunk you have mastered in one area can often help you much more easily learn other chunks of information in different areas.

Mix up the problems (Interleaving) from different chapters. This is helpful to create connections between your chunks. It can make your learning a bit more difficult, but it helps you learn more deeply. Interleaving is very important. It is where you leave the world of practice and repetition, and begin thinking more independently.

Habits.

Neuro-scientifically speaking, chunking is related to habit. Habit is an energy saver. You don’t need to focus when performing different habitual tasks. Habits can be good or bad, brief or long.

Habits Parts:

The cue:

The trigger that launches you into zombie mode (habitual routine).

Recognize what launches you in zombie procrastination mode:

Location. Time. Feelings. Reaction to people or events…Consider shutting your phone/internet for brief periods of time to prevent most cues.

The routine:

Routine you do in reaction to the cue.

You only need to use your willpower to change your reaction to the cues.

Actively focus on rewiring your old habits.

You need a plan. You need some willpower.

The reward:

Habits exist because they reward us.

Give yourself bigger rewards for bigger achievements. But after you finish them.

Habits are powerful because they create neurological cravings. It helps to add a new reward if you want to overcome your previous cravings.

Only once your brain starts expecting a reward will the important rewiring takes place that will allow you to create new habits.

The belief:

To change your habits, you need to change your underlying belief.

Ex: You might feel like you’ll never be able to change the habit of studying late. This is not true. You can actually rewire your brain

Joining a student community helps, either online or in real life.

Trust your system. You have to feel happy and worry-free when you are resting.

The Don’ts: ?

Things that you want to avoid when learning.

Highlighting too much and creating maps are often ineffective without recalling.

Repeating something you already learnt or know very well is easy. It can bring the illusion of competence; that you’ve mastered the full material when you actually just know the easy stuff. Balance your studies and focus on the more difficult (deliberate practice). This sets the difference between a good student and a great student.

A big mistake is to blindly start working on an exercise without reading the textbook or attending the class. This is a recipe of sinking. It’s like randomly allowing a thought to pop off in the focus mode without paying attention to where the solution truly lies, like Charlie going into the water without knowing how to swim.

Don’t always trust your initial intuition. Einstellung problem (a German word for Mindset). An idea or a neural pattern you developed might prevent a new better idea from being found. Sometimes your initial intuition on what you need to be doing is misleading. You’ve to unlearn old ideas and approaches as you are learning new ones.

Don’t fool yourself. Don’t blindly believe in your intellectual abilities. Having a team can bring those projections down.

The Dos: ?

Recall mentally without looking at the material. This is proven more effective than to simply rereading. Reread only after you try to recall and write down what was in the material.

Consider recalling when you are in different places to become independent of the cues from any giving location. This will help you when taking a test in the class.

Master the major idea and then start getting deeper. However, make sure not to get stuck in some details before having a general idea. Practice to help yourself gain mastery and sense of the big picture context. Try taking a "picture walk" before you dig through the material, this means, look briefly at the pictures, chapter titles, formulas used… before diving into details.

Test yourself to make sure you are actually learning and not fooling yourself into learning. Mistakes are a good thing. They allow you to catch illusions of competence.

It gets easier. When you think that a chapter or a book has too much information and that there’s no way to go through them all; just focus on whatever section you’re studying. You’ll find that once you put that first concept in your mental library, the following one will be easier.

Turn off distractions. You want to use all the four slots of your working memory when studying. Learning will be inefficient if some of those slots are connected to something else.

You have to solve the problem yourself. Just because you see it, or even understand it, doesn't mean that you will be able to solve it (Illusion of competence). It is always easier to look at the material, even if you think it’s easy, then doing it yourself.

First time learning something:

The first time you do something the deluge of information coming at you would make the job seem almost impossibly difficult. But, once you've chunked it, it will be simple.

At first, it's really hard, later it's easy. It becomes like a habit. Ex: Driving for the first time.

Metaphors and analogies are very helpful, not only to memorize, but to also understand different concepts. And it is often helpful to pretend that you are the concept you’re trying to understand.

Always step back and recheck to takes advantages of abilities of both-hemispheres interactions.

You learn complex concepts by trying to make sense out of the information you perceive. Not by having someone else telling it to you.

Brainstorm and find focused people to analyze your work with.

Taking Test Tips: ??

Being Stressed before a test is normal. The body puts ups out chemicals when it’s under stress. How you interpret the body reaction to those chemicals makes all the difference.

Shift your thinking from "I am afraid of this test" to “I am excited to do my best”.

If you are stressed during a test, turn your attention to breathing. Relax, put your hand on your stomach and slowly draw some deep breaths. This will calm you down.

Relax your brain on the last day before a test. Have a quick final look at the materials. Feeling guilty the last day is a natural reaction even if you prepared well. So, relax.

Good worry motivates you. Bad worry wastes your energy.

Double check your answers. Look away, shift your attention, and then recheck.

The Test Taking checklist: ?

Homework

• Did you make a serious effort to understand the text? (Just hunting for relevant worked-out examples doesn’t count.)
• Did you work with classmates on homework problems, or at least check your solutions with others?
• Did you attempt to outline every homework problem solution before working with classmates?
• Did you participate actively in homework group discussions (contributing ideas, asking questions)?
• Did you consult with the instructor or teaching assistants when you were having trouble with something?
• Did you understand ALL of your homework problem solutions when they were handed in?
• Did you ask in class for explanations of homework problem solutions that weren’t clear to you?

Test preparation

• If you had a study guide, did you carefully go through it before the test and convince yourself that you could do everything on it?
• Did you attempt to outline lots of problem solutions quickly, without spending time on the algebra and calculations?
• Did you go over the study guide and problems with classmates and quiz one another?
• If there was a review session before the test, did you attend it and ask questions about anything you weren’t sure about?
• Did you get a reasonable night’s sleep before the test? (If your answer is no, your answers to 1-11 may not matter.)

Test Taking Technique “The Hard Start - Jump to easy Technique”:

a)     Take a quick look at the test when it’s handed to you to get a sense of what it involves.

b)     Start with the hardest problem. Pull yourself out if you get stuck for over 2 minutes. Starting with a hard problem loads your focused mode first and then switches attention away from it. This allows the diffused mode to start its work.

c)     Turn next to an easy problem. Solves what you can, then move back to a hard one. This allows the different part of your brain to work simultaneously on different thoughts.

You should also start doing this technique on your own before doing it in a test to see whether or not it will work well with you.

Finally, that is the end of my article. I hope you liked it and don’t forget to give me feedback. Happy learning to you ??.