Essential: Learning How to Learn

Are you using the superpower of learning to become a better version of yourself? Believe me, you can.

Learning is the journey I took to understand that learning is the destination.

When I was younger, I always thought I'd be successful by knowing a lot of things. Now if you asked me again, I'd reframe my answer to: I'd like to have the ability to learn a lot of things. It's quite similar.

Have you seen how a 5-year old plays football? Now compare that to a 25-year-old. Learning is the fun part, learning is not boring.

I always thought that I am a bad learner, having some bad habits. So while procrastination on youtube, I stumbled upon the Coursera Course: Learning How To Learn taught by Dr Barbara Oakley and Dr Terrence Sejnowski. The course is fairly simple and taught in a way that you can immediately start applying the concepts you learn. There are many interesting and essential points in this course, but here are some definitive takeaways which I found to be helpful.

LET’S DIVE IN!

Focused and/versus Diffused Mode thinking

Learning consists of two modes of thinking: Focused and Diffused.

Focused-mode thinking is when you devote 100% of your attention to something. Your brain processes precise information, deeply.

On the other hand, diffused-mode thinking happens when you're not focusing your attention on a single thing; the brain analyzes much more information at once but with less depth. It can happen when you're whiling away in bed before sleep or when you're taking a walk around your neighbourhood.

Learning should be an amalgamation of both. Effective learning is learning something difficult while switching between the two modes. I am sure many of us struggled with a study problem and then thought of the solution while showering or buying groceries.

Focused thinking is familiar pathways while diffused thinking enlightens the broad-ranging perspectives. In my experience, thoughts and solutions have bubbled to the surface while doing a light jog by the lake.

Try switching between them while learning. Focus, then let your thoughts diffuse, and repeat! After all, when you are learning something new, you need to understand both: the context for the information (diffused) and the specifics of the subject (focused).

Chunking and Zombie Mode of Habits

What is a chunk?

Chunks are compact packages of information that your mind can access. Chunks help you in creating a complex neural activity that ties together abstract thoughts and learning.

How to form a chunk?

Step 1: Focus your undivided attention on the information you want to chunk

Step 2: Understanding the basic idea

Step 3: Gaining Context in order to know where to apply a chunk

Chunking should bring together both modes of thinking.
For example, glancing the chapter before starting studying will help you to put chunks where they need to be kept. Outline of the chapter (Top-down approach) in your mind will ease the chunking (Bottom-up approach) as shown:

Dr Barbara Oakley also talks about doing the hard thing: Deliberate practice; where I learnt that if a topic or concept seems difficult at first, always remember the Law of Serendipity: Lady luck favours the one who tries.

Habits and Zombies!

This part of the course is one of my favourites.

“Your life today is essentially the sum of your habits. What you repeatedly do (i.e. what you spend time thinking about and doing each day) ultimately forms the person you are, the things you believe, and the personality that you portray.” – James Clear, Atomic Habits.

How hard do you have to think while backing up the car in reverse out of your driveway? Not very much. Hardly, a little.
It's because of your half-asleep zombie mode, you can do that inadvertently. It is because you have done it so many times that it has become your habit. It's like taking a shower, or other things like catching a ball, which you can do on autopilot. These habits are directly related to learning.

A habit can be consisting of 4 part which will help you harness the zombies inside your brains!

1. The cue: Let's use an example of your phone getting a text message notification

2. The routine: It happens when you're triggered by your cue and you check your phone

3. The reward: The goodness you feel when you check that message

4. The Belief: The thoughts which reinforce the habit of doing the same

The trick to overwrite a habit is changing your reaction to a cue. Apply the willpower to do exactly this.

Willpower is a very limited resource which depletes very fast and thus isn't that important for the long term. No point in flogging every day.

We have to use the least willpower. We know today that self-control and self-discipline have much more to do with our surroundings than willpower (a limited resource), and our surroundings can be changed. How? Let's break it down. The key thing is reducing the willpower you apply and focusing on the cue.

• Recognize the cue which can be any of the following.

1. location

2. time

3. how you feel

4. reactions

You're often unaware of you beginning to procrastinate.

• The routine

The brain automatically wants to go into a routine when you've got your cue. So, at this time, rewire your own habit.

Have a plan, develop a new ritual. For example, leaving the phone in your kitchen. The plan may not work at first but keep at it.

• The reward

Provide yourself with an evening mindless television watching without guilt. Habits create neurological cravings. It helps to add a new reward to overcome your previous, procrastination cravings. Important rewiring will only take place when your brain will start expecting that reward.

Also, always remember that the better you get at something, the more enjoyable it becomes.

• The belief

Believe that your new system works.

Build new communities, develop cultures with like-minded friends.

To summarize, create a habit where you create a routine around a cue after which you reward yourself and start forming a belief that you have formed a good habit. Also, do not break the chain.

Procrastination

When you feel like not doing something, it's like a pain, so the brain switches the attention to something else.

When we reach a difficult point while solving a problem, we find it very uncomfortable and seek shelter by opening a social media website, checking messages, browsing, etc. and then we get sucked into a wormhole of distractions. What happened?

When you reach a distressing state, it's like a pain, so your brain switches your attention to doing something pleasurable. Procrastination can be a single, monumental keystone bad habit according to Dr Oakley.

What tool do you use to tackle this? The course has suggested the Pomodoro Technique in which you work in focused mode on something for 25 min and then reward yourself with a 5 min break afterwards. It's basically an intense 25 min workout in your mental gym. Pomodoro Timers can vary depending on your tasks. I generally use 1.5 hours of studying followed by a 20-minute break.
You cannot decide the number of things you complete before sleeping on a given day but you can control the effort you're putting in to do those things.

Being smart is not good enough to make you successful, being persistent is the key.

Renaissance Learning and Unlocking your potential

Learning is not something that happens in a day, a week or month. It's not an instant chemical reaction. You could learn something for a week and then go to work on a Monday morning and no one would know.

Sometimes, you'll feel that after a week you're worse off than when you started.

In this course, Dr Sejnowski tells us that learning is not a linear process. When I started learning Python, I just wanted to learn everything quickly, but then I was focusing on the product and not the process. When I was into 10 days of learning Python, I realized that there's so much I don't know. Learning will feel to you like an infinite staircase but always remember that every genius starts somewhere. Dr Oakley wasn't an engineering professor in her twenties but by changing her belief she changed her life, that too, by learning. You should not tell yourself that " I can never do this". Always focus on the journey. Challenges are inevitable, but take the responsibility and get to the thick of it.

You're not alone if you think you're not good enough to learn anything. Do not get the imposter syndrome. Everyone has different gifts. Keep your chin up.

Santiago Ramon y Cajal felt that the key to his success was his perseverance, which he called "the virtue of the less brilliant."

Approaching material with a goal of learning it on your own can give you a unique path to master it. No matter how good the textbook, mentor, or resource is, sneaking off and looking at other books, videos, etc. will help you with getting the 3D-reality of the subject. Taking responsibility for your own learning is vital.

Empathy is not good universally. It's important to switch on the occasional cool dispassion to help you focus on your learning and tune people out who want to undercut you. People are co-operative and competitive. Everyone can't be reasoned with. Everyone does not wish the best for you. Take pride in who you are and use them as a secret talisman for success.

Keep learning. Start today!

"Anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly at first." — Ray Congdon

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If you have any questions or feedback for me OR want to discuss various other key takeaways: