Learning something new

Learning is a process that improves ourselves in something, we learn to use the knowledge to achieve something. The achievement can be productive or non-productive…

• We learn programming to be able to make software
• We learn trends and meme formats in social media to entertain ourselves and keep up with the society
• We learn the sport to be good at the game probably entertainment.

Learning something new can always be difficult especially for people with procrastination habits, but everyone can achieve things by following some steps.

First of all, I believe keeping on learning throughout our life is something we should do. Whatever it is, having a habit of learning just makes us better.

So, how do we learn something new?

1. Start minimal

We should always start minimal, just enough to get something done… If we have huge goals in mind, just break them down to just small enough to reach.

The starting point should be at a moderate one or a bit challenging for us, Calculate our capability and start with what’s easy for us right at the moment.

Tasks being too easy will make us feel bored, too hard will make us anxious and stressed.

It is important to note that our brains can’t handle negation, here’s the proof.

Don’t think about an elephant right now…

You just thought or pictured about an elephant right now…

So focus on what works for us at this point, rather than what won’t work, or specifically what’s difficult.

If we keep emphasizing something that we can’t do because it is hard, our brain keeps focusing on that part and just makes us anxious and demotivated…

The demotivation is enough to make us quit the entire goal… The difficulty will pass over time, keeping ourselves motivated or persistent to something even if the progress is minimal is important.

2. Find different sources

Find different sources of valid references on the same topic, compare them, consume them and let our brain process that for a while.

It will give us an idea of what exactly something is, as we get more information from different perspectives, the picture becomes more clear.

Learning by comparison or relating to what we know is a great way to form a solid and simple idea about something. But also remember not to spend too much time on this.

3. Apply it as soon as possible

The application of knowledge is the most relevant part of learning. Find ways to apply our knowledge. Do experiments.

Experimenting can consume our time and often resources, but this helps a lot in learning. Experiences are worth a lot than just understanding something.

Experimenting will limit test our knowledge and helps us to compile everything and level up. Things we thought difficult gets simplified and become easier for us in this part.

4. Level up and Restart

Once we wrap our head around a part of something we need to learn and have simplified it, Step up the game.

Find the next part and its application goal, learn just enough to reach the goal… and so on.

Continuously doing this process will eventually make us very good at something.

Tips

• Guided learning is a shortcut to this process, an expert can easily walk through but this should be only considered as a boost rather than our primary source.
• Avoid comparing ourselves to others. Imposter syndrome will always demotivate you, Learn at your own pace… Learn to accept failure, be proud to fail and recover.
• Make it a routine rather than using willpower to push ourselves into something. Don’t be strict, just add the process as a periodic routine.
• Tracking results is a double-edged sword, it is motivational when we expected progress and impacts badly otherwise. Make a decision for yourself on this, our goal is to keep learning without demotivating ourselves.