be honest you probably dreamed about how awesome it would be to learn anything instantly like snapping your fingers and boom you've got it maybe you wanted to learn how to do a flip to show off at school and catch your sixth grade crush's attention or maybe it was learning guitar piano random skills like running faster jumping higher or even that Viral dance move from 2016 basically anything to be the cool kit everyone noticed now as teenagers and young adults what we want to learn might be a lot different usually we want something that will benefit
us in the long run something along the lines of business language Tech or Sports the problem is most of us are terrible at learning efficiently it's not our fault really schools taught us to memorize facts for a test and then forget them the moment the bell rang well memorization isn't learning after all so it makes sense learning is about understanding applying and retaining information so well that it feels like second nature think back to when you last tried to learn something maybe it was a new language musical instrument or a skill like coding what did
you do chances are you crammed you read a lot or you watched a ton of tutorials and then nothing's stuck why because most of us focus on input reading watching listening when we should be focusing on output doing practicing and teaching it's like trying to learn how to swim by reading a book about swimming you might know the theory but the first time you hit the water you're going to sink learning is mainly a contact sport you have to get your hands dirty or in this case wet let me just clear this up before we
continue not everything is equally important the 8020 rule also known as the Paro principle states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts when it comes to learning this means you should focus on the core principles that give you the biggest return you want to learn a new language don't even think about memorizing 10,000 words instead learn the 1,000 most commonly used ones they make up 80% of everyday conversations already why to play guitar Master the basic chords before diving into complex solos in simple terms once you've got the essentials down everything
else becomes easier and one technique that can help you master these Essentials faster is active recall basically instead of passively reviewing information you actively test yourself not necessarily new but it's very useful especially when preparing for an exam let's say you're trying to learn history instead of rereading the same paragraph about World War II for the 10th time close the book and try to recall what you just read it forces your brain to work harder which in return strengthens your memory think of it like lifting weights but for your brain if you just stare at
the dumbbells you're not going to get stronger you're going to have to pick them up and do the work but that doesn't necessarily mean you should start overloading your brain cramming feels productive in the moment but it's a short-term solution the spacing effect on the other hand is a long-term game this principle states that you learn better when you spread out your study sessions over time ideally 30 to 60 minutes a day throughout the week if possible here's why every time you have to to revisit a topic your brain has to dig it out of
your storage the more times you do this the stronger the connection becomes it's like carving a path in the woods the first time through it's rough and overgrown but with each pass the path becomes clearer and clearer and eventually easier to navigate so instead of studying for 6 hours straight break it into 6 1hour sessions over a week your brain and your sanity will thank you however as I mentioned previously you need to get your hands dirty or whatever in order to learn something effectively and that's exactly why why brilliant the sponsor of today's video
is worth talking about brilliant is an Interactive Learning platform that actually helps you understand stuff by making you solve problems experiment and practice as you go with thousands of lessons in programming data analysis Ai and math all designed to help you learn faster and smarter the lessons are built by experts from places like MIT Google Microsoft and more so you know you're learning from the best what I really enjoyed about brilliant is that you're actually dragging dropping solving and testing things from the get-go a method proven to be six s more effective by the way
plus with their Sleek mobile app I'm able to access these lessons anywhere no matter how much time I have and yes it's way more satisfying than staring at a textbook and hoping for the best their data analysis courses for example are perfect if you're curious about spotting Trends or making sense of real world data from places like Spotify or Airbnb or if coding's your thing their python lessons let you start building projects on day one it's practical useful and you guessed it faster so if you're like me who appreciates Hands-On learning head over to brilliant.org
unfiltered guy or scan the QR code you see on your screens you'll get 30 days of brilliant for free plus 20% off an annual subscription in case you get fired up and decide to well get brilliant once again thanks to brilliant for sponsoring this video okay so remember the swimming analogy this is where it really comes into play if you want to learn faster you need to practice but not just any practice deliberate practice deliberate practice means focusing on the areas where you're weakest not just coasting through what you already know it's uncomfortable sure but
that's the growth happens for example if you're learning to draw don't just sketch the same anime character 69 times instead challenge yourself to draw hands faces perspectives or whatever you find hardest it'll be frustrating at first but you'll improve much faster that way another unpopular way that will significantly help you learn faster is to teach it it sounds counterintuitive I know how can you teach what you don't fully understand but that's the point you see when you teach you're forced to organize your thoughts and explain Concepts clear clearly this deepens your understanding and highlights any
gaps in your knowledge plus if the person you're teaching asks questions it pushes you to think critically and problem solve you obviously don't have to get someone to sit and watch you stutter for hours just set up your phone camera record yourself and pretend that you're going to be uploading it on YouTube that way you'll think to yourself that hundreds of thousands of people might see your video and well encourage you to understand what you're teaching even more it's like the old saying you don't really know something until you can explain it to a 5-year-old
on the other hand and engaging your other senses is another great way to truly understand something and make it second nature your brain loves variety the more senses you involve in the learning process the better you'll retain information for instance say you're learning Spanish don't just read the words listen to native speakers around you watch Spanish YouTube channels documentaries Etc then write them down and speak them out loud the combination of visual auditory and kinesthetic inputs creates stronger neural connections just like building a house the more materials you use the sturdier it'll be well most
of the time that said learning doesn't have to be boring in fact the more fun you have the faster you'll learn set small achievable goals and reward yourself when you hit them turn challenges into games compete with a friend use apps that track your progress and give you virtual badges it might sound casual but your brain thrives on dopamine every time you achieve something no matter how big or small it releases a little shot of this feel-good chemical which motivates you to keep going and although I said you can use apps that gives you virtual
badges for achieving goals that can also lead you to while switching to Tik Tok or YouTube the second you lose focus that's why in order to keep the momentum going you might want to try putting your phone on silent or closing unnecessary tabs and creating a distraction for environment multitasking might make you feel productive but it's kind of BS your brain can only focus on one thing at a time so instead of half reading a book while scrolling Instagram try to give your full attention to the task at hand but here's where we need to
start glazing the proper sleep and enough rest both are just as important as effort your brain needs time to process and consolidate information and the best way to do that is through sleep during sleep your brain organizes everything you've learned strengthening connections and clearing out unnecessary informations so if you're pulling all nighters to cram you're actually sabotaging yourself taking regular breaks during study sessions can boost your productivity too our brain just like our muscles it needs time to recover after intense use and since we're already here let's talk about mindset if you believe you're bad
at learning you'll struggle obviously so but if you adopt a growth mindset the belief that you can improve with effort you'll be amazed at what you can achieve instead of thinking I can't do this try saying I can't do this yet that one little word makes a world of difference it shifts your focus from failure to potential and most importantly enjoy the process because at the end of the day learning is not all about acquiring new skills it's about you growing as a person and that is pretty simple actually
