• Set your learning onto one topic at a time and focus on that.
• Make the learning as simple as possible- simplify your language and note down the information clearly in lists and small sentences.
• Keep control of your focus- don't procrastinate and sit in a calm area to take in maximum information, music and TV aren't really beneficial as background noise and neither are screaming children.
• Scan reading (or skim reading) is a beneficial technique to master when learning, developing this talent means you can pick out key parts of texts and digest these easier.
• Test yourself regularly, or get people to test you on the subject. It's very beneficial because hearing people say things or writing them down makes information go in easier, at least for me. Testing yourself also shows you your weaker points and how to improve on them.
• Never assume that you know something after reading it once or twice, always re-read notes and pages if you're struggling to remember things.

• If you get tired or bored stop, walk away and return when your replenished and more awake. Down lull the sleepiness with energy drinks because the stuff won't go in very well. If it's becoming too much for you, just stop for the day, or at least for an hour or two.
• Copying up isn't beneficial as you won't be paying attention while you're doing it and all the information will fly over your head.
• Keep your notes organised because if your books, notes, tests and writing are all over the place it's likely the information in your brain will be as well.
• Similarly, don't panic. I find it very disruptive when your mind tells you that you won't be able to to do and puts in motion a feeling or stress and worry which will tamper with your studies.
• Be curious- ask questions and do some research if your struggling to grasp a concept or want to know more, use the internet and sites like Quora to your advantage.
• Come up with revision techniques and times to do your work that suit your in your lifestyle, make time for studies but don't force it to interfere with your lifestyle. Revision techniques are a must and you should find ones which suit you (i.e. Games, quizzes, reading over and over, putting post-it notes round your house with information on, etc...)
• Linking back to other points, monitor your time by not spending too long on your work each day- just a couple of hours every week (or some more if you feel it to be necessary). Also, do not cram your studies into one night before the test or a day you have free, it won't work as much.
  

Hope this helps, I'll add more if I think of them. :)

I have some tips how to learn fast. Of course, there are different methods for each person, but maybe you can find something for yourself in my hints.

1. Write everything down - write everything that you have to learn and divide it into smaller parts/tasks. In other words, prepare a checklist. You can use a paper and a pen for this or find an application on your smartphone or laptop.
2. Learn smart - science says that it is better to learn 1h/day than once a week for 7 hours. That’s because your brain needs suitable intervals to keep information for such a long time. Also, the easiest way to memorize is to collect information by practice.
3. Take breaks for sweet rewards and coffee (or green tea) - Our brain needs regeneration to work efficiently. Breaks are not a waste of time because after a break you come back to learning with more involvement and energy.
4. Take care of yourself - your brain works best when you are in good condition. Our brains works better when we are rested regardless of whether we are studying for an exam or learning programming.
5. Divide big problem into small ones - It will be easier for you to solve a small problem and you will be able to enjoy a small success instead of feeling unable to solve a big problem.
6. Focus on one topic and try to find as many sources for learning as possible - Using different sources you will not get bored so quickly and your motivation will not go down.
7. Your attitude is important - It helps to find a purpose in what you are doing. Otherwise, there is a high risk that you’ll always have more important things to do or simply procrastinate.

Try to find the rules suitable for you. Other methods can be effective depending on what you want to learn. It is important to find tips that will make learning easier for us and at the same time will not interfere with our lifestyle and responsibilities.

1- pomodoro technique

2- No screenzone while studying if you using books. In case of studying from laptop avoid everything else.

3- Try to find Best time when your brain is highly active ……mostly it is morning

4- Always study in study table and chair….. attitude matters.

5- Have realistic goals before sitting like …I can finish this chapter in 40minutes.

6- Take breaks between study session like 10 minutes between each session.

7- stay away from porn and erotic movies ….it hampers concentration.

8- Have a company of positive and enthusiastic people ….stay away from negative people.

9- Do not take very heavy Carbohydrate rich diet.

10- Most important sleep for at least 7–8 hrs.

Do upvote to encourage me to write me even more.

Named after Richard Feynman, this learning technique is useful for anyone, to learn basically anything at a deeper level, in a short period of time. Instead of using the passive learning method that is less effective, the Feynman technique is an active way to guide you through different zones of learning.

Indeed, this technique is the exact technique Richard implemented to master his exams in Princeton University, stated out clearly by James Gleick, in his biography of Feynman.

You can use the Feynman technique to:

• Learn a new concept or knowledge in a short period of time.
• Understand a topic or study you don’t really “get”.
• Improve knowledge retention after your studies regardless you’re a student, employee, or employer.
• Comparing to memorize a set of information for a presentation or an exam that usually take a huge amount of time (and stress) to produce a lousy result, the Feynman technique delivers a better result in less time (you can achieve the desired results in less than 30 minutes.)
• Making an idea or concept your own by delivering it in your own words with your personal experiences and input. In another word, steal like an artist.

Let’s go through the Feynman technique so you can implement this to learn anything faster and better.

Step 1: Choose Your Concept

Step 1 doesn’t sound like a step at all. But this is one common mistake people made in their learning. Failing to draw a clear line and define what concept we want to learn is the guaranteed way to waste all the time and energy you invest into your study.

The first step is to select the concept you want to learn. If the concept is new to you, walk through it for one to two times before you proceed to step two. Take out a blank piece of paper and write the title out on top of the page.

Step 2: Teach It (to a Toddler)

Now, write down everything you know to explain the concept. Pretend like you’re teaching it (not to an expert or your professor) but to a toddler. This eases off the pressure to get everything right and helps you to revise the concept you just learned in your own words. Avoid using any jargon vocabularies in this step because that usually how we fool ourselves.

This step is crucial because it doesn’t only revise what you have already known, it also reveals and pinpoints the areas that you don’t fully understand.

Step 3: Fill in the Gaps

There will be questions and gaps pop up when we are doing step two. No worries, that’s the point of using this technique. You now have a clearer picture of what you know and what you still don’t know.

Go back to the materials to fill in the gaps. This process helps you to understand the knowledge at a deeper level. Repeat step 2 and 3 until you feel you can understand and explain the concept completely.

Step 4: Review & Simplify

Review the final concept you get. If you are using overly wordy or confusing language, or you simply rephrase the paragraphs without truly understand the concept, try again so you filter the content.

Simplify your vocabularies and language so you’re explaining it in your own analogy. One way to do this is by pretending you’re teaching verbally. If you’re using your own words and have a complete grip on the concept, your speech and presentation should be smooth without very little lags.

I write on DeanYeong.com on building healthy habits, improving decision-making, and living a happier life.

Few points.

1. Stay single if you are that kind of person who can't control his/ her emotions. There are very less couples who don't think about their marriage and dates while studying.
2. Try to take a short nap in the middle of long study hours. It will freshen up your mind for next hours.
3. Keep your mobile phone in another room while studying. You won't be able to open your phone every 5 minutes which is a big distraction.
4. Try to hold a pen or pencil in your hand while reading books. You can make notes too while reading anything. This is a nice trick to focus on the topics of books and not getting distracted by the surrounding activities.
5. Never read any book or notes with a sound or song playing in the background. It looks nice at that moment but believe me, it's going to backfire you in a long term. You won't be able to remember those points in a long run.
6. Never rely upon the video lectures completely. You have to read good books to gain more knowledge. We find those videos, an easy and comfortable platform to learn. There is nothing one can get easily in this cruel world.
7. Avoid reading erotic stories. Reading those stories would make you feel uncomfortable while studying. Rest you can understand.
8. Avoid those people too who demotivate you while studying. They are jobless creature who know only one thing to demotivate others through their poisonous words.
9. There are many students who read 30 pages in 1 hour and others read 10 pages in 1 hour. They learn at a great speed due to their past habit of reading. You can't get that speed in one day. It takes a while.
10. Quora is one of the best platforms to increase your reading speed and learn fast. Keep reading good stuff on Quora and you will get the answer to your questions soon.

#1 If you've been sitting in one place for awhile, then bounce one of your legs for a minute or two. It gets your blood flowing and sharpens both concentration and recalls.

#2 Take a 5-15 minute break every hour during study sessions is more beneficial than non-stop study. It helps your mind to relax and absorb information easily.

#3 When breaks not working, then change subject focus. Alternate between technical and non-technical subjects.

#4 Efficient speed-reading results in filtering out irrelevant information. If necessary, you can always read and re-read at slower speeds. Slow reading actually hinders the ability to absorb general ideas.

#5 Use acronyms or other mnemonic tricks for remembering large information.

#6 Use symbolism and semiotics which is a particular discipline aids in learning and also allows to record information more efficiently.

#7 Play rhyming games, utter nonsense words. It helps you to loosen up, making more receptive to learning.

#8 Use osmosis trick. Record a few of your own pod-casts, upload them to your IPod and put it under your pillow and playback language lessons or whatever.

#9 Laughing relaxes the body. A relaxed body is more receptive to new ideas.

#10 Apply above 9 tips, and find tip #10 on your own and share it with everyone. :-)

When I first started writing on Quora one of my first posts got 354 views.

Just months later, one of my Quora posts 539,900 views, 11,200 upvotes and was published by Inc, Forbes and Fortune.

One of the keys to my writing success has been the ability to learn faster.

Here are my top 10 tips:

1. Ingest information in multiple ways - A study by Judy Willis in 2008 states that “The more regions of the brain that store data about a subject, the more interconnection there is. This redundancy means students will have more opportunities to pull up all of those related bits of data from their multiple storage areas in response to a single cue. This cross referencing of data means we have learned, rather than just memorized.” So as an example, let's say your learning to speak Spanish. You could combine many different methods of learning to make it more effective including:
1. Flashcards
2. Writing exercises
3. Youtube videos
4. Audio exercises
5. Using an app like Duolingo or Busuu
6. Practicing with someone in person or over Skype
2. Stay fit - Almost every morning, around 6 or 7 AM, I'll do either a cardio workout (Usually a 4 mile run to the Golden Gate Bridge and back) or a 50 minute circuit training session with P90X. When I do that, my mind feels incredibly clear and sharp. There's a study published in PLoS One that backs this claim. (This was also covered in the New York Times) Basically this study involves 81 young women who were native German speakers who were randomly divided in to 3 groups. In each of the groups they wore headphones and listened for 30 minutes to a number of paired words. One word as a Polish noun and the other was its German equivalent. Each person was asked to memorize the unfamiliar word. One group listened after sitting quietly for 30 minutes and the other group listened after riding stationary bikes at a light pace for 30 minutes. Guess what happened? The group that rode the bikes performed best.
3. Learn by experience - I was a terrible writer when I first. Like I said, one of my first posts only got 354 views. But I kept writing. Now I've written over 50 posts, started my own motivational blog and have over 2.4 million views. There are few things that beat learning by experience. When I held my first marketing event, it was hard to get even just 30 people in the room. I had no idea how to build a landing page and registration site, no experience in building an email invite and no idea on how to get the word out effectively. After years of hosting marketing events, now I can get 100 people in a room easily and can launch an event in less than a day. But...maybe my stories aren't good enough for you. Let's use a celebrity. Richard Branson is a great example of this. He wasn't an expert on the airline industry when he first started. It didn't matter, he dove in anyway. Here's the quick story from Virgin.com: "Richard Branson was stuck in Puerto Rico while trying to get to the British Virgin Islands. 'They didn’t have enough passengers to warrant the flight, so they cancelled the flight,' he explains. 'I had a beautiful lady waiting for me in the British Virgin Islands and I hired a plane and borrowed a blackboard and as a joke I wrote Virgin Airlines on the top of the blackboard, $39 one way to BVI. I went out (and got) all the passengers who had been bumped and I filled up my first plane.'" Now Virgin Airlines is one of the top airlines in the world.
4. Stay focused on one task at a time - Research at Stanford has shown that focusing one single task at a time is far more productive than multi-tasking. Travis Bradberry has written that "The frequent multi-taskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully." Stay laser focused.
5. Constantly test - When I would prepare for interviews, I would constantly practice role plays. This form of testing helped me to prepare for commonly asked questions and also taught me how to stay calm and collected when I get curve ball questions. Push yourself through tests. Whether it's multiple choice, free form, role plays or flashcards, find ways to test whether or not you really understand the material you're studying.
6. Express yourself - It turns out that writing about your fears and worries might actually help your scores. According to Scientific American, "Psy­chologists at the University of Chicago found that college students who first wrote about their thoughts and feel­ings about an upcoming math exam for 10 minutes solved more arithmetic problems than did students who sat quietly. And the writing task improved the scores of highly anxious ninth graders so much that they per­formed as well as students with low anxiety on a biology final exam. The authors say that the technique may be most useful for habitual worriers in high-pressure situations."
7. Set up incentives - Studies have shown "findings (that) are consistent with the hypothesis that reward motivation promotes memory formation via dopamine release." So for example, after completing a study session of reading a chapter, you could reward yourself with a short walk, a green smoothie or a funny Youtube video.
8. Space out your learning - Have you ever crammed for a college final before? I have. I passed the test. But I don't remember 99% of what I learned in those cramming sessions. Let's face it: cramming isn't effective. A study done by Nicholas Cepeda (York University, UCSD) shows that periodically reviewing information is a better approach than cramming.
9. Stop wearing that 3 hour sleep badge with pride - We get it, you work hard. But don't lose sleep over it. It's simply not worth it. And there are a ton of studies that show getting enough sleep will help you learn faster and your memory will improve.
10. Don't sprint non-stop - It's hard to sustain that and studies have shown that having regular breaks will actually boost productivity and improve focus. For example, nowadays, I'll spring really intensely for about 30 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. I'll usually meditate during that time or drink a green smoothie to relax. When I'm done with that 5 minute break, I usually feel re-energized and ready to crush it again.

Learning is one of the best things we can ever experience. When we are growing mentally and physically, it makes us feel alive. It gives us a sense of accomplishment. It gives us a sense of momentum. It gives us passion.

Hopefully this post helped you learn something today. ;)

And yes, that's officially the first emoticon I've ever used in a Quora post. #There'sAFirstForEverything

Edgar Dale, in 1969, revealed the most effective ways of learning.

Edgar Dale came to the conclusion that:

- listening to lectures on any topic or reading materials on the subject is the least effective way to learn something;

- teaching others by using the material studied is the most effective way to learn something.

He presented the results of the studies in the form of a "Cone of Learning" scheme.

Edgar Dale taught the students the same teaching material, but in different ways. And then he analysed their ability to remember the information they learned after graduation.

Although the basis of the cone is indeed the results of Dale's research, percentage data were not calculated by Dale, but by his followers as a result of their own research.

Conclusion:

If you really want to learn something faster, whatever you’ve studied, try to teach or explain it to others. You will be amazed by this method.

I personally confirm that this is a wonderful technique to learn something for a longer period.

(Image Source: Google Image)

There is a method that allows a person to learn instantly. It works for all people no matter what their situation is.

People say that they are slow at learning or that it's hard to learn or whatever else they can think of so that they can avoid learning. The fact is, someone must have tricked you into believing that at a young age because if they hadnt you would continue to learn throughout your life by playing with your toys the way toddlers do.

That is the secret. Play with things. Have a great time taking things apart so you can put them back together. When the act of learning is a fun game it is easy to learn anything instantly. What has changed about how you learn since you were a toddler? The only difference is that now you internally tell yourself that it's too hard.

1. Read Books on Learning - We’ve all had the experience where we spend a lot of time and energy doing something, only to realize that there’s technique that makes the task way simpler. Well that’s the case with how we think, many people are just inefficient thinkers and so it takes us a longer time to learn. There are countless books with techniques on how to drastically improve your memory or learn how to do complex problems in your mind. Invest in these resources as soon as possible. One I would recommend is “How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week” By Dominic O’Brien
2. Immersion - It’s easier to learn something when you study nothing but that for weeks at a time. When everything you read, watch, write, and talk about is that subject. This is especially true for foreign languages, that’s why many of my friends who are polyglots recommend taking bootcamps and while living in a country that speaks that language. The intensity of that experience will leave a lasting imprint on your mind.
3. Scale Up - When you want to learn something new, start watching documentaries on the subject, write down words that you do not know and look up the definition. From there buy introductory books, read them, after every session write down what you remember in a Google Doc. Try to work the new themes, concepts and words into your conversations in everyday life. After you’ve a couple introductory text, start reading graduate papers on specific concepts that interest you. Do the same process of looking up words you don’t know. This process will allow you to sounds like a graduate student in a subject in just a couple weeks.
4. PODCAST - Podcasts are the most underrated way to learn about a new subject. Human beings learned primarily from conversation for a hundred thousand years. The lecture style is a very new phenomena, and it is why we can have a difficult time staying engaged for extended periods of time. Podcast simulate that conversational style of learning, which just make it feel like you are listening to wiser people talk about something.

I wrote a book called “The Power Bible” click this link to find out more!

Learn Anything In 20 Hours By Josh Kaufman

It takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in a field. But it only takes 20 hours to get good at something, if you practice intelligently.

You Can learn anything from Any new language to any new coding Language by just putting 45 mins per day for 30 days straight without Quitting a single day in the middle.

Practicing intelligently is the key to learning any new skill the most effective and efficient way possible.

“20 hours isn’t that hard to accumulate. Now, there’s a method to doing this. Because it’s not like you can just start fiddling around for about 20 hours and expect these massive improvements.

There’s a way to practice intelligently. There’s a way to practice efficiently, that will make sure that you invest those 20 hours in the most effective way that you possibly can.”

These Four You Can Follow to Learn Anything in 20 Hours,

• Deconstruct the skill:- If You want to learn anything first break it in small Part. Many of us can’t achieve a big goal because of Procrastination but we can break it Big Goals in small part and achieve it.
• Learn Enough to Self-Correct:- Start practicing the new skill you want to learn so that you can generate feedback and start correcting yourself. You need to start to recognize what good looks like or what good feels like, so you can change your approach as necessary. This is how you will create your learning loop.
• Remove Practice Barriers:- Get rid of whatever gets in the way of your ability and motivation to practice. Make it easier to practice, by getting rid of distractions.
• Practice For at least 20 Hours:- It will help you to make improvement and by improving you can achieve your goals.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Namaste,

Rohit Kashyap

(Feel Free to connect)

Credits:-

Here's a summary from my recent article: How to Learn Something Faster:

In 2013, I read Tim Ferris’ book on rapid learning acquisition, and I absolutely loved how he distilled the learning process. I’ve summarized my favorite takeaways from his book below.

Start with DSSS

DSSS, or DS3, is Ferris' acronym on how to learn quickly. It stands for:

• Deconstruction. Identify the minimal (learning) building blocks you need to know.
• Selection. Of those building blocks, what 20% do you need to focus on to get 80% of the outcome? A 1 page cheat sheet is a great deliverable to clarify and select the most important concepts.
• Sequencing. What order should I learn these topics? Sequencing is important because it not only increases learning efficiency but also minimizes learning frustration. (And giving up is a surefire way to NOT learn something fast.)
• Stakes. What kind of consequences or rewards should I setup to follow through on my learning?

Good Questions to Learn Something Fast

Shoulders of Giants Questions

To help deconstruct the key learning building blocks quickly, start by identifying the top thought leaders in the domain (the giants). Here are some good questions to do so:

1. Who are the most impressive, lesser-known teachers?
2. What are the most impressive, lesser-known books in the space?
3. Who are the top 3 thought leaders in the space?
4. What are the top 3 books that industry experts have on their bookshelf?
5. What are the best instructional books on this subject?

Forced Choice Questions

To help select which 20% you should learn, here are some clever questions to get that more quickly:

1. If I could only do X things to get better in this area, what would that be?
2. If I had only 24 hours to prepare for competition where I have to perform X for a shot at winning a $1,000,000, what Y things should I do?

Mistake Questions

To help sequence your learning effectively, ask mistake questions:

• First, what are the biggest mistakes novices make when learning X? What are the biggest misuses of time?
• Even at the pro level, what mistakes are the most common?

Photo credit: Matt Brown

Amazing answers below.Learning right is more important than learning faster.
Let me try Indian way.

How to Learn - Process of Learning

To learn something, you need to do the following:

यः पठति लिखति पश्यति परिपृच्छति पण्डितानुपाश्रयति |
तस्य दिवाकरकिरनैर्नलिनीदलमिव विकास्यते बुद्धिः ||
The mind of a person will evolve who reads, writes,sees, asks and meets scholars/experienced people.

To learn something fast, there are four steps involved:

1. Read. Read about the topic or concept you wanted to learn. Find resources on that topic on Internet or on books. This will give the idea of the topic you want to learn.
2. Write. Prepare notes. Write points on what you've read. Derive your own conclusions. This will increase your memory power and analyzing ability. Writing one time is equivalent to reading 10 times.
3. See (/Experiment/Execute). Depending on the topic you learning, try to experiment it or try to see it in real world. For example, if you are learning a physics phenomenon, try to experiment on your own/try to watch videos which experimented it on YouTube. If you are learning a computer algorithm, write a code snippet on your own and correct errors.
   
4. Meet Scholars/Experienced people. This is not a required step if you are learning something. But if you want to become master in something, make friends who are working on that field. Nothing beats experience. This will always help in to excel.
   The application of this thing may varies. No need to meet someone in person always. Suppose you are writing code for some computer algorithm, go online, search for similar code. If the code is better than yours, learn it.

Importance of Teacher

गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुः गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः |
गुरुस्साक्षात् परब्रह्मा तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः ||
Your teacher is your God. Always be great full to someone who teachers you something.

While learning, it is very much important to find a mentor/teacher. Teacher need not be a person. It can be anything.

• Online video lectures from which you learn a course
• A coding website which teaches how to code step by step
• A group on Facebook/ a person on Quora that can clarify your doubts
• Online forums
• Your teacher in your school.
• Your coaching institute / experienced senior who guides you

Which ever/whoever it is, find a mentor. Because self learning always may not possible. Learning how to learn is important foremost. For that you need to find something or someone to help you. This is the reason why Teacher is considered to be God.

Every second counts.

क्षणशः कणशः चैव विद्यामर्थं च साधयेत् |
क्षणत्यागे कुतो विद्या कण त्यागे कुतो धनम् ||
The process of learning will be second by second as the earning of money is penny by penny. Do no waste a single second in learning as you do not want to let go a single penny in your income. Each second will help in Learning something as each buck will comprise a big amount.

You cannot have many things at once. Cannot do many things at once. If you want to learn something, focus on it. Learning takes dedication and determination.
Quoting Robin Sharma,
Either you can be distracted or you can be a master. You cannot be both.

Learning is useless unless you have your own mind

यस्य नास्ति स्वयम् प्रज्ञा शास्त्रं तस्य करोति किम् |
लोचनाभ्यां विहीनस्य दर्पणः किं करिष्यति ||
Knowledge cannot help someone who cannot think on his own. The mirror for a person who cannot see is useless.

Do not just mug up things while learning. Have your own mind, think around it. If a multiple choice question is given in the exam, do not just remember the correct answer. Work on remaining three answers why they aren't true. Analysis is the main ability that should be improved. Remembering can be even done by some animals.

My another favorite quote:
Mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work unless you open it up.

Half knowledge is dangerous

कण्ठस्था या भवेद्विद्या या प्रकाश्या सदा बुधैः |
गुरुषु पुस्तकेषु च या विद्या तया मूढः प्रतार्यते ||
The whole thing you learn should be in your mind. Learning is useless if you keep half in your mind and remaining half in your books or in your teachers brain.

Never gain half knowledge. Learn something completely. Sometimes half knowledge may become dangerous than knowing nothing. Abhimanyu is the example in Mahabharata who know how to enter Padmavyuha but not how to exit. This half knowledge because curse for him and taken his life.

Learn as if you were to live forever

अजरामरवत् प्राज्ञो विद्यामर्थं च साधयेत् |
गृहीत इव केशेषु मृत्युना धर्ममाचरेत् ||

A wise person is someone who learns everyday and earns money as if he were to live forever. And follows Dharma ( Helping others/doing good/following ethics) as if he were to die today.

There are somethings in life one should never stop doing. Learning is one of those things. Remember we are always like students. There will be much more to learn every day. Every thing in this world will teach us something. So never stop learning.

I think the same thing is quoted by Mahatma Gandhi:
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Finally, if you learn in right way, you will feel:

The more you know, the more you know that you know nothing.

(Line credits : Quora User. :P)

As learning continues, as you start gaining knowledge, you will feel that there is more to learn. There is an ocean, what you know is a drop.

विद्या ददाति विनयं विनयाद्याति पात्रताम् |
पात्रत्वात् धनमाप्नोति धनाद्धर्मः ततः सुखम् ||

Learning gives humbleness because by learning you realize that what you know is nothing. Humbleness is the key which helps you learn more, to deserve more. When you attain this stage,you start realizing the importance of ethics(Dharma). This will help in earning money right way. Earning money by obeying ethics( Dharma). Then you fulfill your desires which will keep you ultimately happy.

Again, the same thing said by Socrates:

Happy Learning.

I know what you want to hear. You want me to tell you about previewing books, about how you should read, about highlighting, taking notes, about condensing them and using memory hacks to remember them.

…but I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’ll tell you a story.

Meet Lisa Learner.

Lisa wants to become a really good soccer player, play for the girls’ team at her school, become a striker and score many goals.

Before practice even starts, Lisa buys several books about the history of soccer, the best strategies of winning teams and a few techniques on how to handle the ball.

She sets the bold goal to read 12 books over the 12 weeks of practice before the big game.

Lisa is diligent. She shows up to every training session and does her best. She does alright with technique, but has a tough time getting past opponents and convert her chances into goals when she gets into the end zone.

In between practice sessions, she reads her books.

Before the big game, Lisa does well in the last practice session. She knows she has a few kinks to iron out, but prepares by finishing all her books, taking notes and reviewing them. She even memorizes different in-game scenarios and the right responses to them to beat the opposing team.

On game day, Lisa quickly realizes the other team has girls that are stronger, taller and faster than her. After the first half, the other team leads 1:0.

In the second half, Lisa recognizes the formation of the other team as one of those she remembered from one of her books. She can’t exactly recall the exact recommendations, but somehow finds a hole, makes her way through and faces the goal.

She aims…

…shoots…

…and misses! The goalkeeper caught her shot. It wasn’t strong enough.

The buzzer rings. The game is over. Lisa Learner…lost.

Meet Paul Practitioner.

Paul has the same goal as Lisa. He wants to play for the boys’ team, become a striker, and kick his team to success.

He’s not big on books, but he sets a strict workout regimen for the 12 weeks leading up to the game. He thinks for a while, makes a schedule, and adds endurance and technique training blocks to his schedule between practice sessions.

Paul does alright in practice, but has a few weak spots like passing the ball and aiming when shooting on goal. After each team training, he goes home, makes a few notes what he has to work on, and then focuses on those areas in his solo sessions.

On game day, Paul faces a similar situation to Lisa: They’re behind by one point and the opponents are stronger, taller and faster. Paul realizes he has to rely on what he’s practiced to turn this around.

Instead of going head to head, he tries to keep the ball as long as he can and runs back and forth. That not only confuses his opponents, but because of their size and speed, they’re exhausted much quicker than Paul, who’s improved his endurance a lot.

Once the defense is weak and slow, Paul finds a hole, slips by and is alone in front of the goal.

Paul goes for the upper left corner, the shot he’s worked on his aim them most for. He aims…

…shoots…

…and it’s in! Score! Paul’s successfully pulled his team into overtime.

Because the opponents are even more exhausted now, Paul can pull his move another two times, and his team wins 3:1.

Paul Practitioner is the hero of the day…a true winner!

We’re obsessed with learning. We’ve all been Lisa Learner at one point or another in our lives. We think we’re well prepared. And then we fail.

Memories you create by studying are memories you made a conscious effort to form. There’s one problem with those memories:

They are weak.

What’s more, even if you do remember them, they are never as helpful as memories formed unconsciously, from actual experience.

In sports, you’d call this muscle memory. If you practice the same shot 1,000 times, your foot will be able to pull it off on autopilot, with great precision and adapt it to any situation as needed.

In business, this is what separates a practitioner from a theorist. You can read all the business books in the world. If you don’t start knocking on doors, you’ll never sell anything.

Reading “all great products are blue” in a book is easy. Being told your blue roses suck by 17 different people is hard. It’s real. It hurts.

But it’s the only way to succeed. You can learn all you want. If you don’t practice what the experts preach, it won’t amount to a thing.

Don’t be Lisa Learner. Be Paul Practitioner.

And maybe, just maybe, you’ll score that winning goal.

PS: The reason I’ve gone deep instead of wide here is simple: I have written the kind of guide you’d expect here. The Complete Guide to Remembering What You Read is one of the very first premium pieces of Medium’s membership program, which I really believe in and am proud to be a part of. I highly recommend you check it out.

PPS: I write more here. Lisa Learner bitmojis taken from here.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. " Abraham Lincoln

So learning skills is very important and investing some time of the day is very productive

How we can Learn Faster: Memory, Concentration, Speed of reading, listening, learning, writing

How we can Enjoy Learning: Make simple, Fun, Creative

How we can perform better in Exam: smart study, Knowledge & study management and Motivation

Read updated and improved answer here: What are some tips to "study smart"?

How to Improve Concentration

We have highest level of Concentration in the morning and after 2-3 hours we connect with our daily routine, real world and our job/business/ school and we start taking pressure then slowly slowly we start to lose our concentration level.

Now we have two options:

[A] Avoid taking pressure: Manage your work and daily routine in such a way that you can balance all things very well, on time so that we can avoid pressure as possible as we can. So increase your efficiency and energy in work or study.

[B] Develop habit of concentration in pressure: We have extreme competition in all areas, our life has become so hectic we cannot control or change the environment we live in. So better thing is we accept this situation as today's reality and improve our efficiency, energy, skills up to higher level.

​

"Do Practice With Tough Conditions and It will Make You to Perform Best in Normal Conditions. "

Try This Creative Idea if it Suits You. Use Controlled Distraction to Remove Uncontrolled Distractions. (don't try during exams days)

​

(Image source: Google)

Use headphone and Play your favourite Song at Very Low Volume (almost not audible) and read your book. Slowly-slowly day by day increase volume (very small amount) and do your study but you will not notice the increase in volume. Keep Increasing Keep increasing volume and do study. (at start try for few minutes then increase time limit also.

Now you have developed habit of reading with distraction. When You Will Remove This Distraction Also You will FEEL Very Peace and VERY HIGHER DEGREE of CONCENTRATION.

Visualize :

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(image source: Google)

Try to visualize Your Book or Notes page, visualize the Diagram/ Formulae/ Paragraph. Visualize the Fonts and Color of Fonts. Try to visualize Lines of Paragraph and Last try to Visualize Word by Word. IT WILL INCREASE YOUR CONCENTRATION AS WELL AS DEVELOP PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY.

Try this with other method of concentration.

A) Read Aloud: WORLD'S SIMPLEST METHOD TO CONCENTRATE ON STUDY. If you find your mind is diverting again and again while you are studying then try to read aloud. It is very effective, fast and of course very simple to apply.

a1) Deep Breaths: Before starting your study close your eyes and take 5-10 DEEP BREATHS. Put palms on your eyes. Use this every 1-2 hours.

B) Observe your thought pattern: When your mind diverts, note down in which 'DIRECTION' it diverts. If you observe this way your Stray Thoughts will be removed and also work on those points you noted down.

C) Recall: Make a recall of every 40-50 min of study. Slowly slowly Your mind will be MAGNETIZE towards study. Your Concentration will be increase and You will be able to Understand or Remember in one go.

D) Use weaknesses of your mind: Connect your study with biggest aim or dream of your life. (Suppose next day you have to make this topic understand to the most beautiful girl of the class. I am sure you will be able to study without any single distraction. Even someone skip his meal also. Because your all energies are directed in only one direction. And EVERY PERSON has SUCH WEAKNESSES THAT CAN BE CONVERTED INTO HUGE POWER, FIND YOUR 'ULTIMATE POWER SOURCE' and use it Positively.

E) Dhyana Mudra:

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(image source: Google)

It is very easy but very effective and powerful. DO THIS FOR ABOUT A MINUTE many times a day. It will IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY as well as CONCENTRATION.

F) Concentrate on Your Body Parts: This is very Relaxing, Refreshing, Energetic and also improve your Concentration Level. Start with concentrating on the tips of your hand finger. Try to feel or visualize this. Soon you will Feel Some Vibration on that parts. Than slowly slowly Extend this concentration to hand and whole body. You will like your body is not there. Only your thoughts, your mind is alive.

Do Some Experiments: Feel some Heat (in winter) or Coolness (like you are holding ice) in Summer. Feel the smell of rose (absence of smell in actual). Feel the soft touch of Rose on your Body.

Go Higher: Feel the any Song, Dialogue ( in mind only no sound is present in actual). Feel the scream of Peacock, Feel the sound of any musical instrument. Visualise white / blue/ orange / violet / green color before you eyes....................

G) Music/Painting: Learn or Practise Music or Painting or any other. It will make you relax as well as improve Concentration also. You will feel mental peace and calmness. It will energise you. It will be like your best friend. You will not feel loneliness.

H) Vitamin C : Include vitamin C in your daily diet. It is natural mood freshener and will improve your concentration power.

How to Improve Memory:

Here are some proven Memory Enhancment Techniques If you follow these steps i am sure you will have surprising improvements in Memory, and you can sense the effectiveness of these in few hours. In addition to, you can turn any of your daily activity for memory enhancement.

[1] Spaced repetition: you can store information for Long Term

If you forget after 3 days it is very natural. And this is applicable for all. To transfer our knowledge from SHORT TERM MEMORY to LONG TERM MEMORY, you have to REVISE it very scientifically that is called Spaced Repetition

Keep recalling with in few hours when you learn any new topic.

There should be first Revision in 24 hours of what you have learnt

Then next Revision in 7 days

[Then next Revision in 15 days if you find something very tough or complex]

Then next Revision in 30 days

Then next Revision in 2 or 3 months

And if it is needed have one Revision in 6 months.

This is called Spaced Repetition because you increase space between two Revisions.

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[2] CREATIVE LOGICS (MNEMONICS) : Apply some Creative Logics to remember things for Long Term. This is very powerful and easiest technique. (if once you have learnt how to apply it). The more your Links Creative and Strong, The more you will remember for longer term.

[3] Enjoy: Take Interest and fully Enjoy what you study. It is also very Easy and Powerful. We remember movies or time spend with our friends because we fully enjoy these.

[4] Connect with real life: Apply on real life what you want to remember .

[5] Role Play: Fit a real life character to any concept so that you can recall easily. Associate with famous personality.

[6] Make Easy and Funny: Books are written by very experienced and knowledgeable authors. And some authors have skill they can say many things using very few words or line. But as a learner it will be very difficult to learn or remember. So MAKE YOUR OWN LANGUAGE and translate all contents in your language that will be very easy to understand and easy to store in mind.

[7] File name ,Folder name & Save button: Can you save any information on computer without File name and Saving. No computer can not save without name and save button.

This apply on human brain also. If we do not store information in very systematic manner we cannot retrieve that information when we want. You can not find a book easily if books are placed this way.( See picture above)

Most of the times when we are studying we just read read and understand. We do not STORE INFORMATION IN LOGICAL OR SYSTEMATIC WAY.

But you can find a book from a library of thousands or lakhs books. If these are stored systematic and logical way.

[8] Information, Data & Facts Management: Make a logical sequence of what information you want to remember.

Make arrangement for similar things that can Create CONFUSION after some time. Like you may have confusion, is Irani Trophy related to Cricket or Hockey or Football. Davis cup is related to Tennis or Badminton and so on.

"If you have confusion it does not mean it is your Weakness but it happens because you did not make any Link to remove Confusion"

[9] Active Learning: Be Curious (like child )and make your mind very "Questioning Mind" and Ask a lot Questions

What am i reading

What is meaning of it

what is importance of it.

When did this happen.

Where this happen.

Why this happen.

How this happen.

What are the results of it.

What is difference between 'this' and 'that'

what is similarity between 'this' and 'that'

[10] Make a Hobby: Chose one or two areas of your interest and make it your hobby like Remember name, Mobile Numbers, Countries and Capitals, Birthdays, Events etc. It will develop your habit, improve your confidence, develop your interest. And your Trained Mind will help you in other areas also.

[11] Practice with Daily Activities: Be creative and curious, make practice even more simple and interesting.

TV: Try to remember channels number and also sequence, before and after channel. Change channels very quickly with remote and try to find movie, song, Advertisement or Daily Shop with just a glance.

Cricket: If you are cricket fan. Try to remember players face, name and country. Try to remember important matches, records, where and when played.

Like this Movie, Song, Celebrities, Events, Inventions, Technology, Mobile Brands and Products........It is limitless.

[12] Music: Learn Music, Chords, Singing, Playing Instruments it will increase your concentration and memory.

How to perform better in exams:

There are four Levels of Learning:

Read

Practice & Understand

Feel and Application

Production

Our study is very sequential: first chapter then second, third fourth,....OR first page then second , third,....OR first question then second, third ,...and so on. But in exams we have to write answers of random questions and we have practice of arranging facts and information in order. This affects our performance.

What is solution:

Give sufficient tests at home/coaching in very disciplined environment and if it is possible chose exactly the exam time. It will activate biological clock in your body and brain that will activate your mind during exam time.

Play Game:

With the help of your classmate or friend ask random questions to each other.

Flip the pages: Flip the pages of your book or notebook quickly. (at start flip very slowly). You will be able to see some words. Now try to guess what is the topic, what is the point where these words or lines are used. It Will Activate Randomness in Your Knowledge Bank as well as It will increase Speed of eyes, Brain/Mind and Thought.

How to Improve your Listening Skill: In dark room with no light, toss a coin the floor and listen the sound. ( room should be quiet, With no light, no carpet and no furniture or other stuffs). Now try to find out that coin. Slowly slowly your hand will touch the coin in first or second attempt.

TV: listen TV and don't watch, Then try to recognise persons with their voice or dialogues

In a big hall observe all things available there. Close your eyes try to recall which is where and try to reach there with your closed eyes.

Like this you can Develop your own methods that can most suit you and most effective for you.

[all images source is google]

Please Share your Ideas, Methods Techniques if you have any or you developed, it will help me and many others a lot. If you like i will include in this answer with your Name.

Please share Your feedback. Which method work for you, Which didn't work for you, What problem you face, How Effective are these for you.

[Always secure your Safety when Applying any of suggestion that can produce injury to you]

I will give Scientific answer not based on my personal observation unlike many answers written by different author

To Understand how we Humans learn, I introduce You to the most Intelligent Organ of Our Planet : The Human Brain

This diagram of brain highlights the Papez Circuit which as the name suggests is a circuit which involves various different parts of brain playing a role in Emotion and memory.

To explain how it works, I will give examples instead of going into medical jargon

• Example one: Suppose You have a long time crush on this girl who is looks something like this.

One day she calls You and says “ I Love You”. As soon as You hear those magical words you will jump in happiness, and you won’t forget this event for your entire life.Irrespective of your future with her, you won’t forget the event.

• Example 2: Suppose Your mother asks you to bring some grocery items and she verbally tells you the list which has stuff like Milk, Egg, Potato, Bread, Butter and bunch of other stuff. There is a high probability that You will forget to buy some items when you go to market and have to either call your mom or get scolding after you return home.

So Why in Example one you remember the event for a lifetime while in example two you couldn’t remember bunch of grocery item for a hour?

Answer lies in Papez Circuit.

Papez Circuit is related to memory and emotion. When we are given any information which is loaded with emotions the papez circuit becomes active and the information in the form of neurotransmitters ( bunch of weird chemicals) move in this circuit thousands of times finally moving to Neocortex ( a part of brain which has all remote or old memory).

If You have noticed in first case, after the event of phone call you may not be able to think anything other then the girl because the Papez Circuit will keep running the information thousands of time. In the second case You forgot the list as the information wasn’t loaded with emotions.

So How does this Help You Learn Better?

• Attending Lectures in which the Teacher introduces some emotional component will help you to remember information better.
• After We learn something, Hippocampus ( Part of Papez Circuit which stores recent memory) will conveniently delete some information which it finds unnecessary in few days because it has limited space just like Your computer Hard disk.
• After few days when You try to recall, You will find that there are multiple gaps in the memory due to Hippocampus deleting the information.
• Hence to fill the gaps you again have to read again.
• Active recalling of a information forces your brain to search Hippocampus for the memory and consolidate memory.
• Consolidation of Memory is a process in which Hippocampus transfers the memory to other parts of brain mainly Neocortex where the recent memory finally is stored as permanent memory.
• Hence Active recall and revision multiple time is necessary for a complete memory to get consolidated. Adding emotion component speeds up the process. Keeping Gaps in between recalls and revision is necessary.
• So if today You Learnt about Newton’s Law of Motion rather then revising the topic from the class notes, recalling the information allows to find gaps and if you follow this with revision, during revision you will be able to stress on the points you forgot and retain them better.

Note: There are other methods by which we learn and doesn’t include Hippocampus and Papez Circuit but those methods are not relevant to this answer hence not mentioned. Answer written trying to make it simple for common readers.

Source:

1. All images from Google
2. All Information from various lectures that I attended during Medical training

Thank You

Try the learning/studying techniques that have more scientific support

There's a lot of different tips, tricks, and ideas out there on how to learn better, faster, more, etc. Some work for some people, some work for others. It's really hard to know which ones might help you.

Thankfully, there are some learning techniques that have been shown to have high utility across different ages, abilities, and subject areas.

5 Psychology professors/researchers explored them in a paper called Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques That paper is a meta study of 10 common learning/studying techniques. In it, the authors tried to figure out which techniques have the most generalizable support.

The 5 best (out of the 10 considered) were:

High Utility

1. Practice Tests: Quiz yourself to check how much you know
2. Distributed Practice: Short learning sessions spaced over a longer period of time (vs. cramming).

Moderate Utility

1. Interleaved Practice: Study or practice different subjects in a practice session
2. Elaborative Interrogation: Explain to yourself why a new fact or piece of information is true.
3. Self-Explanation: Explaining how new information is related to known information.

So to learn faster, the meta study suggests: Start early and study for short bits regularly. Test yourself with quizzes, test, or flashcards to assess how much you know. Regularly stop to explain to yourself why things are how they are and how they relate to your existing knowledge.

Learn faster by focusing better. Focus better by thinking smaller

There are a lot of good ways to learn faster, but I’m pretty sure this is one of the simplest and most widely useful. It doesn’t involve detailed study plans, copious notes, or complicated systems, though it can work with those if you wish.

In short: work on one thing at a time, with complete focus, for a the duration of your natural attention span, then rest, spike your energy, and go again.

In detail:

• Pick one thing to work on. This could be a chapter to read, a concept to figure out, a sticking point to resolve, a problem to solve, whatever, as long as it’s something you can do within your natural attention span. Write that down, as specifically as possible, in a place you can see it to keep yourself on track.
• Start a timer for your natural attention span, ideally 25–30 minutes. Work without distraction until the timer goes off. If your span is shorter than this, it can lengthened with training
  [1]
  . Then, decide the next thing to do, and write that down, as in the previous step.
• Do rapid deep relaxation for five to ten minutes. This will be easy if you know how to meditate. If you don’t, you can learn from apps like Calm or Headspace, or free guided meditation scripts on Youtube, along with a good pair of headphones and some binaural beats
  [2]
  . When you get good at this, you may start day dreaming after five minutes or so, which is a great break from work and will accelerate your recovery.
• Do some quick calisthenics like squats, jumping jacks, or 10–20 pushups. This is to wake you up, make you alert, and get your blood flowing. Now, repeat on the next thing you wrote down.

Now, you may notice that I’ve described the Pomodoro Technique with a few additions. To finish the description, if you work for between 25 and 30 minutes, you’ll have about 8 of these in you per day. If your breaks are 5 minutes, take a longer break after four rounds. If you take longer breaks in between each round, like I do, the longer break in the middle may not be necessary.

This setup is very simple, and it will significantly improve your focus and productivity for just about any solo intellectual task, studying or otherwise.

In general, optimizing your focus gives you way better bang for your buck than trying to be more organized or to have more will power. If you want to learn more, check out my blog/email list at The Focus Formulas.

Footnotes

I learn new stuff all the time. Josh Kaufman, author of the book, "20 Hours" boils the process down to its essentials and talks about how you can grasp a new skill in 20 hours of practice. His rules are:

1. Deconstruct the skill
2. Learn enough to self-correct
3. Remove practice barriers
4. Practice at least 20 hours (in a month)

You won't be a virtuoso, but you will be amazed at how fast you learn. This is what makes me what Josh calls a "learning junkie": when I hit that first plateau after that first amazing learning curve, I get strongly tempted to learn something new so that I can make fast progress again instead of banging my head against the wall.

For what you do after the first 20 hours, check out this highly detailed article by a guy who learned the MIT’s four-year computer science curriculum in one year:
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2013/05/10/learn-anything-in-less-time/

The executive summary of the 3500-word article is:

1. Take your learning goal, and craft it into a compelling, obsession-worthy mission.
2. Find material to learn from, structure it into a flexible curriculum.
3. Define feedback mechanisms to constantly direct your future learning efforts and ensure high-intensity, active recall.
4. Test and enforce a schedule that is sustainable over the entire lifetime of the project.
5. Develop a long-term retention strategy (formal or informal).