You can do more things during the same time if you find the correct approach. This approach is a set of habits you need to gain. When having them, you understand the information faster, process and use it better.
Yes, it is not easy to learn something new. You need a power of will, persistence, and practice on purpose. But if you are decisive enough, nothing will be able to stop you. Think about learning to be your investment in yourself. All your efforts will start bringing you serious dividends if you use them in work.
Create a list of skills you want to learn.
Sit down, take a list of paper and write down all the skills you would like to gain. Maybe, there are 10-15 of them.
Logically, it is impossible for you to master them all at once. At best, you can start learning 2-3 skills simultaneously. For instance, while working and at home.
So, the question is the following. How to determine priority skills?
Prioritize Skills
There are several important criteria:
- Skill point: additional income? Hobby? Self-development?
- Demand and supply: if the point is about incomes, you need to understand which skills have the highest demand. As a rule, hobbies do not bring income (though things depend on you). So, what is more important for you now: money or pleasant activity?
- Talent: do not waste your talents. Determine, what you can do well, and what you can’t even touch;
- Your goals: maybe, you’ve created a plan for your next five years already, and you are sure about it to be right. Does the skill correlate with your goals?
- Ongoing possibilities: is it possible to gain a skill for free or with minimal investments? Maybe, relatives or close friends could become your teachers;
- Resources: a skill takes time, money and emotional energy. Be realistic and estimate if you have enough of that all;
- Life situation: sometimes, life brings tough conditions making your ability to study effectively depend on them. Is your learning connected to a precise place? Does it depend on physical conditions or other people?
Estimate each skill according to these criteria from 1 to 10. Add all the numbers and see what skill you should learn first of all.
Useful Learning Habits
These habits are targeted towards saving your time and helping you understand new things.
Morning Review
Review all the things you learned yesterday right after awakening. It is important for you to remind and memorize the info better. Wake up 30 minutes earlier and read all the key points you noted the day before. Those are quotes, definitions, formulas, rules, etc. Start a studying notebook for every skill.
30 Day Trial
There is an opinion that if you do something during a month, that activity becomes your habit. It does not matter what kind of action that is: learning foreign languages, morning runs or stopping to comply with everything. Set a goal to keep up with the plan during 30 days in a row with no excuses.
“Three in One” Approach
This means that you use different kinds of resources while learning:
- Read Books;
- Pass Test Courses;
- Watch Educational Videos;
When acting that way, you’ll get key points and definitions important for learning with different levels of perception. It will have a positive impact on your skill-gaining speed.
Instant Skill Connection with Life
There is nothing better for learning than the combination of theory and practice. Many people are afraid of using new knowledge in real life until they reach a certain level. And that is the biggest mistake they can make.
Stop thinking that you are going to look stupid if you make mistakes. Failures at the start are normal and even right. But you still have to understand where exactly the mistake used to hide.
Read Topical Books
It is especially important to read books that touch your skill indirectly. Why? This is how you can find connections in various fields. This influences the understanding positively.
You can even read classic fictional literature and find things connected to your skill in this or that way. It is exciting, and it allows remembering about studies all the time.
Write as Much as You Can
Despite the development of educational technologies, writing by hand still is the most important skill. It is useful because you write down a thought and memorize it simultaneously.
Write down everything that makes you feel difficulties. People often fail to understand something just because they forgot to write the definition and to analyze it. Divide the phrase into parts and try to understand each of them.
Paraphrase New Definitions
Reading just for reading does not help you memorize things: it can’t cause a significant impression in your long-term memory. Paraphrase things you’ve found out. Tell about them with your own words. This is the trick that will connect new knowledge with things you already know.
How to Learn New Skills Fast?
The following tips will serve not only as a practical guide. They can also contain certain tricks that you might use at once.
Invest Your Money, Emotions and Time
First, ask yourself: “What for?”.
You should always ask yourself this question. When you find out a real reason (get the emotional stimuli for improvement), you’ll be able to overcome all the obstacles expecting you on your way to the goal. When positive emotions are mixed up with a certain activity, a human becomes unstoppable.
There are many possible answers that can add some speed to your skill learning. Here are the most widespread ones:
- I double my chances for success with every new skill;
- More skills mean more incomes;
- Gaining a skill guarantees me to use my potential;
- I need to pay attention to my body, soul, and mind every day to live a full life;
- I want to get a new job;
- I want to respect myself;
- New skills improve creative thinking, as they are new instruments for it;
- My life will become more interesting;
- It will be easier to deal with problems;
Still, things can happen that way: you’ve got a serious reason to study, but you still lie on a sofa and do nothing. What to do? Create a step-by-step plan and don’t feel pity for yourself. Buy a calendar or download time management applications. The deal is going to stay undone until you include it in your task-list.
And of course, an old trick you can’t forget: you take responsibility if you buy something. Chances for you to look through the course or to read the book get several times higher, as nobody likes to lose their money for nothing.
Read other tips on gaining skills fast here.
