15
Learn How to Learn
The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be.
OG MANDINO
Ever since the day you walked into a school for the first time, your teachers have been doing two things: they have been teaching you what you are supposed to learn, of course, but they have also always been teaching you how to learn. Learning how to learn is one of the most important skills you are taught in school.
Nothing is worse than studying for hours and hours only to feel as though you still don’t get it. Improving the efficiency with which you study is one of the most powerful ways you can increase your productivity. If you are better at learning itself, you will need to spend less time slogging through assignments that you don’t understand.
A major reason for procrastination is a feeling of inadequacy, a lack of confidence, or an inability in a key area of a task. Feeling weak or deficient in a single area is enough to discourage you from starting an assignment at all. Conversely, the better you become at eating a particular type of frog, the more likely you are to just plunge in and get it done.
If you continually improve the rate and efficiency of your learning, you will naturally and effortlessly build confidence. Instead of feeling inadequate, you will start to feel enthusiastic and have all the energy you need to dive right in.
Take Control of Your Learning
The great news is that you don’t need to wait for your teachers to teach you how to learn—you can take the lead on improving your learning yourself! There are many resources available that you can acquire and use on your own. There are books, online courses, audiobooks, and free digital tools and even games that you can find online to improve your learning skills. A list of some of these resources is included in the “Learning Resources” section at the back of this book.
One powerful shift you can make right now to improve your learning is to stop focusing on what you are putting into your head and start focusing on what you can pull out of your head.1 Your teachers usually try to get as much into your head as possible, but it is up to you to be able to get the information out of your head in time for a test.
One reason some students study a lot and still struggle is that they spend more of their time studying what they already know. They miss what it is they don’t know, which is the thing they should actually be studying!
When you sit down to study, before you start, give yourself a minitest. Write down everything you re member from your last classroom lesson or the last homework assignment. See how much you remember. Then open your notes and compare what you remembered with what you wrote in your notes and study materials. Whatever you did not write down is what you should focus more on when you study.
Never Stop Learning
You can improve not only your learning itself but also key skills that are useful for every subject. Improving your learning and your key skills will also improve your time management. Even if you are getting As now, every year you will move up a grade and will be faced with more challenging material. There are many key skills that you will use no matter what level of education you are in.
The better you are at a key skill, the more motivated you are to launch into it. The better you are, the more energy and enthusiasm you have. When you know that you can do a job well, you find it easier to overcome procrastination and get the work done faster and better than under any other circumstances.
One additional exercise can make an enormous difference in your ability to do well on your tests and assignments: identify the skills that are most important to your academic improvement, and then make a plan to continually upgrade those skills. Some examples to get you started are how fast you read, how to take notes when you read through a text for the first time, how well you remember multiplication tables or algebraic formulas, and how you approach and organize your process for researching a paper.
Refuse to allow a weakness or a lack of ability in any area to hold you back. Everything is learnable. And what others have learned, you can learn as well. Even if you feel like your academic achievement thus far has not been stellar, you can pursue certain things that are in your control. You can seek out extra help from teachers, parents, or even friends. If your school has a learning support center or writing center, you can access extra instruction through it. You can also find resources on your own, without parents or teachers. Take advantage of the books on learning how to learn in the resources section of this book, and check out the free online learning tools also listed there.
The best news is that you can learn whatever skills you need to be more productive and more effective. You can become better at any subject—math, writing, history, physics, any subject at all. You can become better at doing research. You can become better at conducting chemistry labs. You can learn to play your instrument in front of others or improve your auditions. You can learn to write effectively and well. These are all skills you can acquire as soon as you decide to and make them a priority.
The more you learn, the more you can learn. Just as you can build your physical muscles through physical exercise, you can build your mental muscles with mental exercises. And there is no limit to how far or how fast you can advance except for the limits you place on your own imagination.
EAT THAT FROG!
1.Identify the key skills that can help you the most to achieve better and faster results. Determine the study skills that will have the biggest impact on your grades and achievement. Whatever they are, set a goal, make a plan, and begin developing and increasing your ability in those areas. Decide to be the very best at what you do!
2.Make it a habit to always test yourself on what you remember before doing your homework. Then make a point to study what you didn’t remember even more carefully.
3.Review the learning resources in the back of this book. Resolve to try at least one of these books or tools to improve your ability to learn. Even books that are written for your teachers will have useful information in them that you can use to teach yourself.