I used to struggle with grasping new concepts. So, over the past three years, I have compiled thousands of notes from books, YouTube videos, podcasts, articles, and speeches on the topic of learning.

I have used what I learned to create systems and tricks that have helped me boost my comprehension to unforeseen levels.

This is part 4 of the series on my top findings on how to learn efficiently and effectively.

Delete Email

Yeah yeah, I know you don’t want to.

I mean, you need to always be reachable, right? In case an emergency happens?

Well, it is important to realize that if there is an emergency, there are other ways to reach you. Checking your email 50 times a day is not healthy, and creates context switches when doing real work, that make it hard for you to get back and stay focused.

When learning a new task, these distractions break down the connections you are making in your brain as you learn, making it harder to form new skills.

So, schedule how many times you will check your email throughout the day, and only do so on your laptop. Keep it off of your phone, and turn off any push notifications.

Paper and Pencil over Pens and Screens

If you type when taking notes, you are only transferring data. This isn’t useful for creating new connections.

Instead, use paper and pencil. When you use paper and pencil, you introduce intentionality to whatever you are learning about. Using a pencil makes the note-taking process slower and more thoughtful.

This makes you distill knowledge, which is key in learning.

On top of this, it’s important to take notes with a pencil instead of a pen. Why? Well, pencils are more conducive to learning as they make you think more positively about mistakes.

If you write something down wrong, you flip the pencil, and erase. There’s no beating yourself down, just learning how to grow from that point. With a pen, when crossing out stuff you got wrong, your mistakes are always visible. Over time, you will want to see less cross outs on your paper, which means you will be less willing to make mistakes.

And, as we all know, the greatest learnings come from mistakes, and growing from them.

Do One Thing

In this day and age, it is rare to find someone who isn’t juggling a thousand things at one.

For some reason, even as technology becomes more advanced, it seems like there are more non-essential things to do than ever before.

Juggling so many things at once is not helpful for learning, as it is non-conducive to focus. To be focused, you need to laser-point your mind.

This means not multi-tasking all the time, and staying completely focused at the single task at hand. We already have enough distractions.

Focus on one thing at a time, and watch as you progress faster than ever before.

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