How to Learn anything faster - 7 myths debunked

Read time: 15 minutes (This is a deep dive)

I suck at learning!

When I was a student, I was stuck in a never-ending cycle of studying, taking notes, and memorizing, and something felt wrong.

After 4 months of research and experimentation, I found the problem.

Disclaimer: My learning is NOWHERE near to perfect. This is just a few lessons I learned along the way. Experiment at your own risk. 😉 

By the end of this newsletter, you will:

• Learn more efficiently

• Unlearn bad learning habits

• Develop a winner mindset for growth

Without further await:

👉️ Here are 7 Learning Myths Debunked 👈️ 

Myth 1: Taking Passive Notes

I thought copy and pasting everything down was the only way to take high quality notes.

❌ More notes = Remember more? ❌ 

Quite the opposite.

In order to understand why, I must explain to you this simple concept→ Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) (I’ll keep it short.)

CLT showed that the more you struggle mentally, the more you are learning.

When you struggle mentally, you would feel:

• Insecurity

• Overwhelmed

• Tired and drained

If you feel this way, then you are on the right path.

So next time you take notes, ask yourself these questions:

• What does this remind me of?

• How can I apply this in my life?

• Why is it important for me to learn this?

From there, you would find some common themes immerse. From there, think about how the themes relate to each other and map it out on your page.

In most case, this requires a lot of practice beforehand, so start with something “pausable” + “replayable” like a YouTube video or a recorded lecture.

To make sure you don’t miss the details, draw a line in the middle of your page.

Use the left side to:

• Capture the keywords, key ideas

Use the right side to:

• Process the information as mentioned above

As a general rule, avoid full sentences, use arrows and symbols, think about your notes first.

For more details on note-taking process:

Myth 2: Cramming near exams

If you started preparing for the exam only a few days ago, then you are probably in trouble.

Cramming things at once gives you the illusion of progress. It feels good to learn for 2 hours. But was it an effective use of your time?

Instead, space out your session into small chunks.

This helps you:

• Give you feedback early on

• Fight against the forgetting curve

• Stop feeling overwhelmed by the workload

Quick tip: If you have problem scheduling your tasks in your Calender, use Reclaim.ai - Just enter your tasks and the AI will find the best time block for you.

Here’s a detail video to teach you more about Reclaim.ai:

Myth 3: Not Actively Thinking

Similar to the point on note-taking, CLT affects all areas of your learning.

From your prestudy/ priming to your revision techniques, learning is supposed to feel challenging.

Additionally, your brain is great at problem-solving and pattern recognition

Whenever you learn anything, ask yourself:

• Why is it important for me? (The more personal the better)

• What problem can I solve with this? (Use your imagination)

• What can I relate to this concept? (Build your spider web)

Your knowledge is like a web. The denser the connection the better.

Myth 4: Over-Reliance on Flashcards

I used to think that flashcards were the only way to remember what I learn. In my earlier years, I remember cramming words by words for specific events for my history exam.

Just to forget it afterward 🥹 

Now, I change my perspective and only use flashcards for what I can’t understand/ relate to.

If you need to rote memorize something, here’s a quick tip:

• Use basic association → Relate it to something you already remembered

• Use storytelling → Tell a story with lots of actions and emotions.

• Use microlearning → Instead of learning for 2 hours, turn it into 4 x 30min session.

Myth 5: Always Looking for Quick Fixes

Learning is a complicated and time-consuming task.

And since school did not teach us how to learn, most people have developed horrible learning habits.

So here’s an important mindset shift for you:

• YOU WILL FAIL AT EVERYTHING YOU DO! *most likely

If you do something for the first time, expecting to get it right away is simply naïve and impossible. *unless you were a wizard with a magical wand 🧙‍♂️ 

You practice and collect data point.

And from there, use something like the Kolb’s Experimental Cycle to get feedback and create new experiments for yourself.

You are a mad scientist. Remember that.

Myth 6: Learning Linearly

Unless you’re the author of your textbook, there’s a 99% is designed in the wrong order.

We all have a different level of prior knowledge about something.

For example: I might be a gold medalist Olympian at chemistry, while you just learned chemistry for the first time in your life.

Hence, the way I can understand everything at once, while you need to read page 20 to understand what is on page 2.

And that’s ok. This trick alone would set you apart from 90% of your peers.

To engage in this process:

• Write your headlines and keywords on Google doc

• Find one that makes you curious

• Now write all the questions you have about that topic

• Answer those questions and repeat

Here’s my work :https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NlHDBPV6WWkayhXSpzniJvWlAWZ2Y1GkJatO7M-vlJM/edit?usp=sharing

I take my notes on my iPad with an app called Concepts. 🙂 

For more details on non-linear learning, watch this video:

Myth 7: Pseudo-learning

When you learn something new you feel like you are making progress.

But are you?

The learning myths I shared would be useless if you don’t take action with it.

That’s when I gave myself a mental model:

Ratio: between practice and theory = 5 - 20 : 1

For every one hour of theory I learn, I spend anywhere from 5 to 20 hours practicing and experimenting.

From there, I get actionable feedback to improve.