Why we need to keep learning, and how

The value of continuing to keep learning is more than just arriving at a final destination of accumulated knowledge. It is a process which is necessary for a long term satisfaction in life.

Benefits to keep learning

There are plenty of benefits to learning. Improve self-confident, keep your brain healthy, feeling that you have a purpose, increasing creativity and ultimately make your life meaningful. It is the miracle cure no drug company can sell. Learning starts within you. You hold the key to your better life.

There has been plenty of discussions regarding the ageing brain and neural plasticity. When we’re kids we learn new things more easily but as we get older, the brain “sets” in its ways. One way to combat this is to keep learning and continuing to expose your brain to environmental enrichment and new knowledge [1]. Increasing neural plasticity is necessary to stay sharp and keep your mind focused. The more you learn, the better you become at learning. This is perhaps the best reason to always find new topics, new skills, and new interests. And a famous quote regarding the brain:

Practical ways to keep learning

Since I don’t study at a university anymore, I have to plan and setup my study material by myself. I don’t have dedicated lecture slots or practice hours where a teacher will be able to answer my questions. So, how do I do it? I plan, and research material myself. I do this once a week, on Sundays, and add all my sessions for the coming week in my calendar with links to the material. A total of four hours per day, but more on that later. This is the easy part. The hardest part is sitting down and actually doing it.

Flow learning, or “soaking”

When I do these four hour daily learning sessions I take the opportunity practice flow, or “soaking” as I call it. Because that is essentially what you do, you focus on absorbing information. Flow is regularly used as a term for high productivity sessions and there already is plenty of information on flow, how to reach flow state and so on, by every knowledgeable productivity guru out there.

Start by going easy and dedicate small time slots as often as possible for soaking. Like learning anything, even learning to learn, is like stretching. It hurts like hell in the beginning, but the more you do it the easier it will get. I’ll say it again, the more you do it, the easier it will get. All you have to do is to get started. Start with 15 minutes and work up from there. If you can sit and focus on a topic for 15 minutes without interruptions or checking your phone, you’ll be able to work your way up to hours of flow learning within just a couple of weeks.

When you’re soaking, it is important to take notes as much as possible. Pause, take notes, reflect, and keep going. You will need those notes for the next step which ties this whole process together.

Repeat what you’ve learned

Even the best of us forget stuff. There is an explanation of this which is visualized below. It shows the “curve of forgetting” and the importance of repeating previously learned information to retain the knowledge. The graph shows two curves, one where we don’t repeat what we’ve learned on Day 0 (Blue line), and a line where we repeat the information on the first day, after a week, and then again after a week. As we can see we’re able to retain much more if we just briefly repeat or use the information we’ve learned.

Repetition schedule

Repetition is the key to long-term understanding of a topic. Here is the planning I do to keep track of things I’ve learned and when and what I need to repeat for myself.

1. Later during the same day
2. 1 day after the first day
3. A week after the second day
4. 1 month after the third time
5. Half a year after the fourth time (or roughly before a possible exam)

The more we repeat the content to ourselves, the longer we remember it. This strategy is something I apply and since I plan my deep focus learning sessions, I can easily plan my upcoming repetition of those notes. When everything is digital, it’s very easy to keep things organized through any note-keeping and calendar app.

You might think that this will snowball in to a full time job just keeping track of everything you have learned and are going to learn. But once you get the hang of it, like cycling, you’ll do it without even thinking about it.

First off, you need to repeat what you’ve learned, the SAME DAY. This might seem crazy but it’s true. This is the first and most important step for long-term memory of the subject. This is where most people get tired of learning and feel like they’re stupid. You’re NOT SUPPOSED to know and remember everything you’ve read or watched after the FIRST time. Repeat it again later the same day.

To repeat your notes doesn’t take more than 5 minutes. You can easily fit your repetition session in conjecture with your learning sessions. Preferably before.

Optimize your learning

I’m not going to go too deep in to these subjects. I’m not a personal trainer or a dietitian. But, diet, exercise and sleep are important parts for a health life and more importantly, improved learning. But just remember, if you take care of your body, you won’t only look and feel better, you’ll perform better.

Try and make connections between related subjects you’ve learned.

Try and put yourself in the position of the teacher. How would you explain the subject you’re learning? What questions would people ask? Can you use analogies to easier explain the subject. This is not to prepare you to start working as a teacher, or even push the subject on your friends and family. But it is an easy exercise to further anchor the learning. Use what you’ve learned. Explain the subject to friends and family. If not for their amusement, do it for your own progress. Keep Learning.

[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00075/full

https://pcl.sitehost.iu.edu/rgoldsto/courses/dunloskyimprovinglearning.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035518316823