The Secret to Learning – The 3 Keys
If you want to remember 80% of your learning – forever – then you need to pay attention to this. Read on to learn more about the Three Keys to Learning.
Written by Lysette Offley
What you are about to read is probably the most important thing you will ever discover about learning and retaining information. So read on!
There are 3 keys to learning. Pay attention to all 3 keys and instead of forgetting 80% of what you’ve learned within 2 weeks like most people, you will remember 80% and more of what you’ve learned – forever.
So here is the secret to learning.
Key #1.
If you want to remember something, first you’ve got to spend long enough with the information in the first place for your brain to make a pattern of it and send it to your long-term memory.
Some people simply read through their course manuals and think that’s all they have to do! If it really does do the trick for you, then you can skip to the second secret. If however, you’ve ever ‘come to’ realising that you weren’t ‘listening’ to what you just read, so you reread it, again and again, only to discover that each time the same thing happened – you’ll know that doesn’t work for you. And indeed, it doesn’t for the vast majority of people.
Instead, you need to really focus on small chunks at a time – like we did at school when learning a poem or lines in a play.
Key #2.
Second, the notes you make have to be in a form that your brain likes – that your brain can work with.
You have to manipulate the information – actively sucking it up. A passive approach doesn’t work. You can’t stuff the book under your pillow and expect to absorb it. It needs more determination than that. The more effort you put in to absorb the information, the more likely it’ll stay there in your head. And to do that you need to get involved – by creating your own version of the information – in a form that suits your learning preferences.
Key #3.
Finally, you’ve got to go back to that information in a particular way to make sure you keep your memory topped up.
We’re hard-wired to forget. Ignore that at your peril! So regularly go back to the information you’ve already learned, and check you still know it. Bring it out of your long-term memory to your working memory frequently enough to remind your unconscious mind that this is important and useful – and it’ll remember it for you – like your life depends on it.
And that’s all there is to it!
