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We constantly want to learn something new, but we don’t know what to learn or where to start. Maybe there’s a programming language you’ve been wanting to learn for a long time, but you just can’t find the necessary motivation. Or you start learning, but after a few weeks of effort, you lose momentum. Every year you promise yourself you’ll learn French, but this year too, it slips by. You’re eager to play the guitar, a childhood dream of yours, but somehow you never find the time to learn. Does any of this sound familiar to you? If so, I invite you to read on.
Technology is advancing at such a pace that it feels like, with AI, robots, smart devices, and everything else, we can’t keep up. There’s so much to learn, and at times it feels impossible to catch up. Sometimes, we feel overwhelmed by the sheer weight of technology. Recently, a language model trained by OpenAI dropped into the headlines like a bomb, taking this feeling of being overwhelmed to a whole new level. The cries of “Will it take our jobs?” have already started. Luckily, we asked it a few cheeky questions and managed to outwit it, bringing some relief to our hearts. While these technological developments continue, we have no choice but to keep improving ourselves! If there is a purpose to our existence, I believe the best answer is “to learn.” That’s why, no matter what, we must get to know ourselves better and figure out how to learn more effectively. To cut a long story short, the real issue lies in learning how to learn.
I’ve been searching for the answer to this question for a long time: How can I learn better and faster? After plenty of research and self-reflection, I’ve created a roadmap for myself. Today, I want to share with you how we can learn better through 7 key questions.
Why do you want to learn?
If your answer to this question isn’t satisfying enough, your attempt to learn will likely end in disappointment. With so many things to learn, why should you dedicate time to this particular subject? Without fooling yourself, chase after the answer to this question. If your answers start to excite you, you’re on the right track! Keep thinking and form concrete dreams. Detail your dreams, visualize them. You’ll start to feel more excited as you go along. Once you’ve turned your learning goal into a concrete target, you’ve successfully completed the first step. Now you can move on to the next question.
Are you psychologically ready?
Another key point is the psychological aspect. I think many people overlook this part. You can’t set out on this journey with learned helplessness; even if you do, you won’t reach the end of the road. You must carefully address any feelings of inadequacy you carry from your past — these can stem from family, school, friends, or relatives — and focus on reducing their negative effects on you. I often hear people say, “I’m just not good at learning languages.” How can it be that language learning is a problem for everybody? My belief that this stems from bad experiences we’ve had in the past grows stronger every day. If you were teased by your schoolmates for a pronunciation mistake when you were young, you might feel inadequate for the rest of your life. Yet, the fact that language learning is a completely natural process and that every baby, regardless of their talent, eventually learns a language is a truth as clear as day. If you feel inadequate in a certain area, I believe it’s worth digging into the real cause behind that feeling of inadequacy.
Do you have a learning method?
Just as we all have different temperaments, we all have different learning styles. Finding and understanding your learning method will take you to a different level. There are many different learning techniques, but they can be divided into two basic groups: I’ve observed that many people learn by listening and following an instructor. This is why there are so many online education platforms. If you think you learn well in this way, you can find an online course that suits you.
There’s another group that learns by reading and self-study. These people tend to prefer visual resources. They don’t focus too much on someone’s explanation and enjoy discovering things on their own. I consider myself part of this group. In fact, finding your learning technique is just the beginning. The real challenge is developing your own learning pattern. A learning pattern is the path you follow when you want to learn something new. This topic deserves its own article, so let’s save it for another time.
How do you deal with the problem of too many resources?
Now we come to a modern-day problem: the abundance of resources! You might think, how can having too many resources be a problem? But if you can’t manage these resources well, you’re facing a huge issue. Just like anything that’s not managed well! Let’s say you’ve answered all the previous questions, now the next question is, how should I start learning? What resources should I use? With the internet at our fingertips, it’s quite easy to find the resource that suits you. But once you decide on one, things start to get complicated if you find another that seems equally good and want to follow both. If you ask veteran programmers how they started learning software, you’ll often get similar answers. “I got hold of a software book and read and practiced it over and over again.” The magic lies in repeating the same book over and over, not browsing through dozens of them! Yes, the trick is to repeat one resource multiple times, rather than trying to skim through many.
How should time management be handled?
You’ve found the books and courses, you have the motivation, and the obstacles are out of the way. Everything’s great, but if you’re saying, “I just don’t have the time,” you may have a time management problem. Although time management is a large topic on its own, I have a little time management trick I use: the principle of “everything has its time!” If your goal is to learn English, you must have a time slot dedicated to learning English each day. Find a time slot that works for you, and allocate it just for this purpose. The biggest benefit of this is that you no longer have the excuse of not having time. You’ll sit down to study at your designated location every evening from 8 to 9. The moment you ask yourself when you’ll study, you’re most likely going to put it off.
How can you avoid unrealistic goals?
Another common mistake is setting goals that are not suitable for yourself. There’s a book you need to finish, and if you set a goal of finishing it in two weeks, it’s likely to cause you stress. I believe that unless you have a special circumstance, setting a specific time frame for learning can have a negative effect. Our goal shouldn’t be to finish the book; the real goal should be to learn the material. So instead of worrying about how long it will take to finish the book, it’s much wiser to focus on how well you stick to your daily study schedule and what you learn each day.
How do I maintain consistency?
Everything is going great, you’re learning smoothly, but then something happens and you lose consistency. You stop studying. One day passes, then two, and soon enough, you can’t get back to your old pace. The few things you’ve learned are forgotten in a short time. Does this sound familiar to many of you? I think this is the most tragic outcome! All that effort, work, and struggle goes to waste. There are a few ways to deal with this situation. First of all, remind yourself that such interruptions are completely normal. We’re all human, and from time to time, we stop working due to lack of motivation or other reasons. Show yourself some understanding. If you missed a day and don’t feel like studying the next day, give yourself some time off. That way, instead of feeling like “I didn’t study today either,” you can say, “I gave myself a break.” During this time, remind yourself of the answers to our first question, “Why do you want to learn this?” If your reasons are strong enough, you’ll eventually return to studying.
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