I'll bet you never thought about what it really means to absorb information like this before here are my seven smartest strategies to absorb what you study like a sponge imagine being able to learn everything and anything you want faster than ever and with far less effort that would be great wouldn't it if it were true hey there smart people your favorite Uncle Matt here with a question how much effort does it take for a sponge to absorb water let's say the pink water in this dish represents what you want to learn and the sponge is
your brain look at how fast and effortlessly the sponge absorbs it that's what we're talking about here I'm going to give you seven specific strategies that will enable you to go through the information one time using this system and be able to retain it and recall it with ease compare that to study sessions that take hours upon hours only to deliver mediocre grades and when you stay tuned to the end I've got a Bonus strategy for you that'll be the icing on the cake but we need to have the cake first also if you enjoy
my channel I hope you subscribe and ring that little bell to be notified when I release a new video if you haven't done so yet think about the process like this it's like watching a movie you don't sit there saying to yourself wow I really have to concentrate and work hard to remember all this stuff no you simply allow it to happen if I were to ask you about the movie a week later you'd be able to tell me all about it what took place is that you let it happen you didn't force yourself to
make it happen the seven strategies rest upon four pillars these four pillars provide the foundation for how you'll structure your new learning cap capabilities the four pillars are input output review application let's elaborate input how you get the information to go from The Source a book PowerPoint recorded session or live lecture and get that information into your head unfortunately where most students stop is during input but that's just the first part of the process output getting the information to flow through you and be produced externally by you you may have heard me talk about the
fact in other videos that learning doesn't happen when you put the information in but rather when the information comes out of you I cover it specifically in my video how to remember more of what you study with the production Effect Review this step is also called consolidation you need to take your time for your mind to digest the information only in that way can it be more fully absorbed application this is simply the manifestation of the phrase learn by doing there's a big difference between understanding how to play a scale on the piano very rapidly
and actually being able to play it there's a big gap between understanding the concept and formulas for solving math problems and then being able to do it yourself so now here in order are the seven smartest strategies to absorb what you study like a sponge the first two deal with how you input information number one preview the information before doing a deep dive into the content pave the road to prepare your mind for what's going to be delivered it's like with the movies give yourself previews of Coming Attractions as I point out in my Breakthrough
video how to absorb textbooks like a sponge you don't want to read a textbook the same way you read a novel that is to start at the beginning of a chapter and read straight through you first want to prepare yourself for what you're about to read by giving yourself multiple previews of what's included in each chapter watch that video for the specific details if you haven't seen it yet if you're attending a live lecture be sure to do the appropriate reading in advance of attending the class with a PowerPoint presentation you should look over the
full slide deck in a similar way to the textbook technique look at all the slides quickly then go back and read the headlines subheads and captions and so forth with a recorded video look to see if there's a table of contents as with many YouTube videos read the description to see if there are chapters number two multiply your brain power through Focus yes without using any additional energy or effort when you focus you increase your brain power many times over in the same way that children will use a magnifying glass to burn leaves or ants
there is no more sunlight being used than was there before using the magnifying glass simply focuses what solar energy is present but the power is dramatically increased so stop doing things that damage your focus multitasking is the opposite of focus eliminate all distractions with your phone other people your surroundings and whatever else may steal your attention pay attention to what is being said listen to the instructor during lectures whether live or recorded pay attention to your thoughts if you're reading and begin thinking of other stuff catch yourself doing it bring your mind back to the
present do it deliberately stop your mind from wandering our next three strategies deal with output you want to use MSP which is multi- sensory perception the more senses you use when learning something the stronger of a mental imprint you create number three hand write your notes it has been proven time and time again that handwriting your notes creates the strongest mental connection with the content writing out information by hand is far superior to underlining or highlighting which are completely passive and it is also dramatically better than typing out your notes whether using a note taking
app or not yes writing things out by hand takes longer but in the long run it's actually much faster because the information stays in your head longer and with much better clarity you don't have to write everything down remember paro's law which is often called the 8020 rule 80% of the importance comes from only 20% of the content concentrate your notes on the 20% of the information that's most important definitions formulas examples and so forth number four talk to yourself out loud after you've gone through one chapter or one lecture stop and talk to yourself
out loud for a few minutes tell yourself what you've learned you may have to do it several times if it's a long lecture you will often find that even though you heard what was said you may have difficulty in simply repeating some of the ideas talking to yourself enables you to evaluate how much and how well you grasp the information number five explain what you learned to someone else there's an old expression whose meaning may become clearer to you now the best way to learn is to teach one of the chief advantages of having a
study budy or a study group is that you have other like-minded people you can talk to about what you're learning do your best to explain things as simply as possible this process will reveal where you're strong and also your weaknesses so you can go back and for y yourself especially when they ask you questions number six take absorption breakes this is also called consolidation there are two types of breaks that are proven to help you process and retain information better the first is to Simply get some sleep I discussed that Concept in more detail in
my video boost brain power with the Sleep sandwich technique you study and get some sleep then immediately upon arising study the same topic you'll be impressed at how well it works this isn't limited to getting a full night's sleep you can get the same effect with a 20-minute catnap however recent Studies have shown that by simply taking a 10 to 20 second break during your study session you can dramatically increase your brain's absorption rates the idea is that after studying for 30 minutes or so you take a 20 second break where you do nothing you
don't even have to close your eyes but you can you don't look at your phone you don't have a conversation with someone else you don't do anything other than just relax and let what you've studied sink in some people claim it multiplies your retention by as much as 20 times you heard me 20 times wow number s review the information systematically this is also called spaced repetition psychologists refer to this as mass versus distributed practice which is better study a little bit at a time over a longer period or hunker down and do a marathon
study session well in a nutshell it's better for your long-term memory if you do a little a lot rather than doing a lot for a little it's not double talk when you do a little bit over the course of a lot of sessions it's better than when you try to cram a lot of information into a little bit of time the great martial artist Bruce Lee shared this idea from his unique perspective he said I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000
times when you study it's far better to do it in bite-sized chunks over a longer period of time you want to review it the same way review a few important points several days in a row that doesn't mean that cramming has no value but you want to reserve it for when you've got no other options you can learn the best way to prepare for an important exam at the last minute with my video last second exam prep strategies when you've procrastinated well I promised you a bonus and it's a big one in fact your entire
success either as a student or in business depends on you doing this one thing minimize negative thinking notice I didn't say to eliminate your negative thoughts I said for you to minimize them it's foolish to ignore the negatives in life but it's even worse if you dwell on them instead Focus your energy on maintaining a positive attitude the way to do that is to monitor your selft talk what are the things you say to yourself and to others if you have a class that you're not interested in stop saying things like it's boring the truth
is that it is not boring you are bored big difference the solution is to think about the outcome you want for example if you have a chemistry class that's causing you trouble and it's not holding your attention but you need to pass in order to become a doctor then you must Focus your thoughts on becoming a doctor that is where you'll find the personal strength to power through those tough classes Focus your thoughts on the end result you're striving to achieve see yourself successfully accomplishing that goal for that is where you'll gain the power to
make it your reality we've covered a ton of stuff in this lesson go back and take a look at each of the four pillars and seven strategies you'll see that none of them require you to work very hard you don't have to put in much effort to preview your lessons put away your phone and other distractions hand write the most important part of your notes talk to yourself out loud talk to a study buddy about what you've learned take naps or 20 second breaks and review the information a little bit at a time on a
regular basis it's just like that sponge it doesn't take much effort but you can absorb a lot more of what you study and do it faster and easier than ever before leave a comment about which of these strategies you intend to put into use more often or let us know what results you get with these strategies I read all your comments and reply to a great many of them next I have these two videos picked out for you to watch I think you'll enjoy them and I'll look forward to having you join me on my
next video soon thanks for watching
