How To Learn Anything Psychologically

Psychology plays an important role in your life, whether you realize it or not. Whether you’re trying to get over the breakup of a relationship, learn to play the piano or drive safely in bad weather, knowing the right psychology hacks can help make the process go much smoother. These are some of the most common psychological hacks that you can use to learn anything faster and more effectively than you otherwise would have been able to.


 How to Use Psychology to Learn Anything Quickly


1. Plan your study time



If you’re trying to learn something new, plan out your study time so that you can give yourself some serious concentration time. If you’re studying something difficult or have a lot of material to cover, plan on dedicating at least an hour or two a day—if not more—to concentrating on learning and practicing what you need to know. This kind of focused effort is when your mind really gets down and concentrates on learning new skills. If you don’t allot yourself adequate study time, it’s very easy for your brain to wander off into other areas—like personal email and browsing social media.


2. Get in the right mindset



Before you even step foot in a classroom, you need to be in learning mode. The right mindset will ensure that you learn more effectively and retain information longer. A great way to do so is by taking study breaks, especially when studying long-term. For example, if you’re learning how electricity works, rather than focusing on electrons moving through a wire, focus on what inspired Benjamin Franklin (or another inventor). What were they trying to accomplish? Why did they want to make things better? In what ways did their invention change society as we know it?


3. Find real examples and read summaries



If you want to learn about a specific topic, look for resources that aren’t just textbook summaries or your professor’s lectures. Instead, seek out real-world examples and interview subject-matter experts. Then read any summaries or notes you find helpful and synthesize them together with what you learned from reading first-hand sources. The more sources on a topic you can read and make sense of, the better grasp of it you’ll have in general—and that understanding will help enhance any new information that comes along.


4. When you’re stumped, rely on earlier learning



One of my favorite psychology studies is something called failure-induced elaboration, in which students who performed worse on a test and were then given extra time to study before taking a second test did better than students who performed well on the first test and were not given extra time for additional study. The researchers concluded that when people feel like they haven’t succeeded at something, their motivation increases, causing them to try harder. Think about how your own psyche works in similar situations. If you felt confident about your knowledge of Shakespeare but bombed a test on his plays, would you try harder or give up? To learn more quickly, use your weak performance as an impetus for further learning rather than as an excuse for giving up. Embrace failure!


5. Ask questions and seek clarity



Learning how to learn quickly isn’t hard. With a little bit of effort, you can dramatically improve your cognitive function, no matter what you want to learn or where you are in life. (Want to sharpen your negotiating skills? There’s a psychology principle for that.) The key is asking good questions and seeking clarity. Most people don’t ask enough questions about anything because we all fear looking stupid, but learning how to ask smart questions is actually a powerful skill in and of itself; it forces us out of our own limited worldview and into new ways of thinking and better problem-solving abilities.


6. Break it down into manageable chunks



Instead of trying to take on a big, life-changing task all at once, break it down into manageable chunks. For example, say you want to learn how to play piano. First, find an online course or book that teaches you how to read music and navigate your way around a keyboard. Once you’ve got that down, find an instrument and start practicing—and maybe make it fun by listening to some of your favorite songs as you practice.


7. Put your new knowledge into practice



When you learn a new skill, whether it’s a foreign language or how to use MS Excel, you can often learn more quickly by putting your knowledge into practice. In that spirit, here are three simple steps for remembering anything: (1) familiarize yourself with whatever it is you want to remember; (2) create reminders; and (3) put reminders into practice as often as possible. For example, if you want to remember that 3+4=7 in Spanish, start by learning what those numbers mean in Spanish and write down a few flashcards with their translations. Then make an iMessage reminder on your phone or put those flashcards on your desktop so you see them every day.


8. Test yourself often, but don’t worry about getting things wrong



One of the most common ways we avoid learning something new is by becoming scared that we’ll fail or look stupid in front of others. If you test yourself on things you want to learn, but are worried about getting things wrong, trick your brain into a different response by pretending it’s a game. Don’t worry if you get things wrong; just treat it like a fun challenge and you’ll start building pathways in your brain that make learning easier. Over time, these pathways will become even stronger if you continue testing yourself—and worrying less.

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