“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

― Benjamin Franklin

When you’re spending most of your entire life to win in the computer gaming then why not a mind game? Let’s have a try.

There is no option to learning. Every day, every moment, every minute and every second,you’re observing, experiencing and learning many things. There goes a famous quote-

“Never stop learning.”

― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

So how can you learn so many things in short time? How to learn faster and better? From the study, it’s said that adults use only 10% of their brain. If they truly love playing the game then why not the mind game? Just imagine how much we could go far by utilizing 50% of our brain! So learn the tricks and hacks of learning anything faster and better.

Break down the skill into different parts

If you break down the skill into small parts, it’ll let you know which is the most important and which is less. The more you break the skill, the more clear will be the important part that you need to learn first.

Say, you’re learning how to play piano. So break down the skill into parts like- learning the music chords, proper finger placement, learning scale, finger picking and so on.

Now, which is the most important part for you to play on the piano? Obviously finger placement and learning the common cords. Then you’ll be able to play a ton of songs.

Reach out to expert or mentor

In today’s world, outreaching has become easier and faster. When you’re learning on any topic, reach out to the expert or look for a mentor who can guide you to the proper road. The fastest way to be good at something is to reach out to a person who ‘ve already got the result that you’re expecting.

According to Tony Robbins, a motivational speaker and the author of “Power Talk” –

“It doesn’t matter what your age, gender or background is — modeling gives you the capacity to fast track your dreams and achieve more in a much shorter period of time,”

If you know your friends, who’re good at the skill you’re trying to learn, ask them to go to coffee shop and learn from them. Again on the internet, you’re getting lots of information and services. Many agencies offer service for the particular skill like Home Tutor.

Do you know 80/20 rule?

Are you familiar with the Pareto’s Law? It explains that 80% of your desired outputs come from 20% of inputs. This is what we meant it 80/20 rule or Pareto’s Law.

For example-

20% of learning methods lead to 80% of your results

Or,

20% of your customers will drive your sale up to 80%.

When you’re learning something, you’ve so much thing to learn, and thus you’re jumping from one place to another place. But at first, fix which one is your main focus?And learn accordingly.

When you’re learning Spanish for communication in the foreign country, don’t start learning how to read and write. Again, don’t go for the grammatical mistakes rather learn how to communicate which is equivalent to 80% output of your result.

Two-third of your time for practicing

You need to balance between the researching and practicing. I admit that you need to learn and research. But practice makes you perfect.

For example- you’re spending most of the time in reading how to do the driving, but you’re not holding the steering and taking the direct action. Hence, your learning will not be faster or better or effective.

You can gain experience only from the scratches, not from the research work.

So the perfect ratio for the practice and research is stated by Dan Coyle, the author of The Talent Code and The Little Book of Talent. He suggested the rule of two-third. One-third for studying and two-third for the direct action.

He further said-

“Our brains evolved to learn by doing things, not by hearing about them,”

Coyle told TIME Magazine   

If you try to learn how to be a good cook, spend 30% on studying and 70% on direct action and test yourself. So focus more on practicing for the desired faster output.

Compress and summarize

This method is called ABC method. That is Always Be Compressing. This was the keystone of the best-selling guide The 4 Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss’.

Try hard to compress all the information in one to two pages and again turn them into the image if possible.

We receive everything as a form of an image in our brain, not by words. So try to create the image of your information. Pie Chart, graphic chart, mind map, etc. will help to visualize your knowledge in a nutshell.

Make deadlines for every work

If you keep the work for tomorrow, it will never come in your entire life. So make a deadline for every bit of your work.

Did you hear the Parkinson’ Law ever? If you gave reading on “productivity”, you might be familiar with this law. The law is-

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Can you remember how you used to end your paper writing in all semester in your university? Everything was done before the “Deadline.”

So if you want the Parkinson’s Law in your favor, make a deadline. Then you’ll complete it more efficiently.

Want to put pressure for a shorter period? You go through different tricks and hacks like-  time management tricks, the Pomodoro technique. It will ensure distraction-free work with short breaks in between the work every time.

You can also look for free tools available online like- Tomato Timer and e.ggtimer.com etc. to help you out.   

Method to beat hours

Techniques and the tactics can beat your valuable hours. Choose the suitable method for you which makes your learning process easier and faster.

For example-  you’ve started learning vocabulary. There are various method to remember like

Mnemonics, flashcard, puzzle word, vocab app in the mobile, vocab test online, vocabulary game, etc.    

For every kind of work, there are different strategies. From the online source, you can grab various tricks. But choose the method which is easy for you to consume. Every strategy is not for you.

In this way, you can beat hours and learn anything faster.

Use multiple sources for learning

If you learn something from different sources, then it becomes more rigid in our mind. This is because different media stimulate different parts of our brain. So when different parts of our brain are working together, we can absorb more knowledge  quickly with a better impression in our mind.

Therefore, instead of reading books or article only try a podcast, videos and different mobile apps, etc. for the solid pillar of learning.

Say “No” to multitasking.

Now multitasking has become a guilty pleasure to all of us. Out of 100%, only 2% can work properly. Others are simply doing the wastage of time.

To be more clear, when you open multiple tabs in your computer what do you observe? Every work is getting slow, right? This is the same case happens when you do multitasking. It simply destroys your learning in the proper way let alone faster.

From the study, it’s found that it takes minimum 25 minutes to return to the task after distraction. So you can see a huge loss of time and your learning process is getting slow.

Steps to healthy mind

If you want to learn anything faster and better, you need to keep your mind healthy and sound. You need priming of your mind. For that,  follow the steps below:

Daily Workout: doing cardio improves your learning and memory. From one study, it’s seen that memory and ability to think to improve after 15 minutes exercise.

Meditate: Meditation doesn’t only release stress but improves concentration, memory and impulse control.

Sound sleep: Getting the sound sleep is crucial for proper brain function, reaction time and good judgment. The people with sound sleep can learn much faster and better.

Drink water: The reaction times, mental processing and responsiveness increase with hydration. Hence drink lots of water daily and eat lots of common fruits with good sources of water.

Eat PUFA: It’s Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids. This is mainly omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for brain function and controls brain’s memory and learning center. Salmon is a good source of omega-3s. Meet free PUFAs includes- peanuts, chia, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, etc.

Laugh: Be with the people who make you laugh. From the study, it’s seen that laughing is one of the solutions to creativity and problem-solving.