Top 10 Ideas to Help Your Learning

Are you find it difficult to learn things and concentrate?.

I had recently taken a course on "Learning how to learn" on Coursera.

Here is the 10 Top Ideas to Help Your Learning.

1. Make use of both the intense focused and relaxed diffuse modes. If you are getting frustrated, it’s time to switch to another topic. Or get some physical exercise!

2. Create brain‐links with practice, repetition, and recall. Practice important problems so you can easily recall each step. Solutions, concepts, and techniques should flow like songs in your mind.

3. Interleave. Don’t just keep practicing with slight changes in the same basic technique. Switch back and forth between different techniques. This will allow you to see when to use a technique. Books usually don’t help you interleave. You will have to practice skipping back and forth between the ideas in different chapters yourself.

4. Space out your learning. Practice over at least several days. This gives time for your new synapses to form.

5. Exercise! Exercise feeds your neurons. It also allows you to grow new and stronger synapses.

6. Test yourself. Have others test you. Teach others. All of these are related to recall. Testing and recall are the best ways to strengthen your learning.

7. Use funny pictures and metaphors to speed your learning. Start using memory palaces.

8. Use the Pomodoro Technique to build your ability to focus and relax. Just turn off all distractions, set the timer to 25 minutes, focus, and then reward yourself.

9. Eat your frogs first. Start your most difficult work first. That way you can either finish it or take a break to let your diffuse mode help you.

10. Find ways to learn actively, outside of your usual classes. Look online for other explanations. Read other books. Join a club. If you don’t find a club in the subject that interests you, see if you can start one.