When someone is really good at something or knows a lot of things, chances are it is not sheer talent, it is most likely due to their perseverance, practice, and how soon they started learning that information or skill.

Οur brain has the ability to physically change in response to experience. The more we do something, the more robust the connections between our neurones :

that’s neuroplasticity.

The earlier the better! Is it ever too late though? No. Just start paying attention to the 6 keys that can improve your learning experience.

1. ATTENTION

We are designed to focus on one thing at a time. When fully focused, we are more likely to retain information. We get to choose how much attention we pay to something. Aren’t you ignoring what’s going on around you as you are reading this article?

• Focused attention meditation

• Exercise

increase your brain’s learning and memory area by helping make new brain cells. (Wild things going on in there!)

20 minutes of moderate exercise improves attention for about 2 hours afterwards. Before sitting down to study or work, run up and down or do some star jumps !

2. ALERTNESS

Αctivating your flight or fight system increases your alertness. That’s because of the adrenaline and noradrenaline released by your sympathetic system (hormones run our lives!).

Here are ways to activate your flight or fight system in a way that makes you more alert :

• Exercising

• Breathing techniques

• Consuming caffeine

• Taking cold showers

• Little bits of stress

However you can’t, and shouldn’t, be 100% alert all the time. That would be too stressful and overall counter-productive.

Having too much food shuts off the system. It is not recommended if you want to reach peak performance.

* Prioritise sleep before and after studying. Avoid all-nighters and cramming. (We’ve all done it, no judgment here !) *

3. SLEEP

Sleep serves a really important constellation of functions.

It resets your immune system, your metabolism, and your emotional control.

It gets rid of the waste that builds up in your brain over the course of the day.

It’s critical for memory consolidation as it gets short-term memories from the hippocampus to the cortex and turns them into long-term memories.

• Repeat the thing you are trying to learn as many times as you can

• Space your learning out over multiple days

4. REPETITION

Reading or hearing something once is not enough. Practice makes perfect, repetition is key. Why? Because repetitive patterns will reinforce the pathways and connections in your brain.

Your brain won’t invest a lot of energy for a one time thing. But if the thing keeps coming up, then it will do its best to be the most efficient. (Maybe our brains do have better relationship skills! ^^)

You might have heard or experienced though learning things in one go…

This is called one-trial learning. It happens when there’s a really strong emotional component tied to the experience. If it makes you really happy, sad, scared or afraid, the brain will want to remember in great detail everything so that you know how to respond or avoid it next time you encounter it.

5. BREAKS

Taking a break gives your brain a chance to replay the information 20 times faster and to stabilize it. If you don’t take a break, the newly encoded information can be destroyed if you were to use those same networks to learn something else soon afterwards.

So take 10 to 20 minutes after learning to either :

• have a quiet break (no scrolling)

• have a nap

• do a round of non-sleep deep rest

If you can’t do any of these, try doing the things that don’t require much thinking for an hour.

6. MISTAKES

The feeling of anxiety and stress you get when you make a mistake serves a really important purpose : it’s telling you you need to change, do better and become more efficient.

Neuromodulators like acetylcholine are released. They improve your attention, they make your brain ready to take in whatever happens next.

• Set yourself up for a little bit of failure

• Make things a little more difficult

Have a go, don’t wait for them to be perfect. Make mistakes and then fully embrace them. Turn out learning into a game, don’t view anxiety as a bad thing. Lean into that feeling and just keep going. It’s really your brain’s way of helping you be your best self.

by : antιdrastιc element

bαsed on : Lila Landowski’s Ted Talk

Brain hack : 6 secrets to learning faster, backed by neuroscience

ιmαges credιt :

123rd, medical express, istockphoto, vecteezy,

pngtree, creazilla, istock, clipartlibrary