You Don’t Need More Time To Learn. You Need a Learning System
The secret to mastering anything
I was an average student.
My grades were not the best, nor the worst. Average. But I struggled to learn new things. Honestly, I thought this was a matter of talent (only bright people can learn fast) and consistency (you must sacrifice your social life to study).
Years later, after finishing high school, let me tell you this is very wrong.
You don’t need talent, because no one is born knowing everything.
You don’t need to sacrifice your social life to study overnight.
You need an effective system.
Use it and I promise you’ll notice the difference almost immediately.
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Why You Don’t Need More Time
Let’s say you want to grow your muscles.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s say you planned two strategies. One is to work out daily, hoping to grow the muscle quickly. The second is to work out for a few days, relax, and work out again, without a clear structure, but doing it consistently.
Which one do you think would be better?
Of course, the second approach seems more plausible. But the first is tentative. Who doesn’t want their muscles to grow in a matter of a few weeks? In fact, many would choose the latter strategy, even unconsciously. And they would keep doing it, saying they just need more time.
When results don’t appear as expected, we think we need more time.
But not necessarily.
You don’t need to go too fast, nor too slow. What you need is a reasonable structure. It may not seem like a lot in the beginning. But big habits build from atomic ones. In the end, small but smart decisions and actions can turn into big positive changes in your life.
But still, there’s a difference between doing it linearly or not.
Don’t think about this as moving from A to B, but as a decision tree.
A task is composed of many sub-tasks, but these sub-tasks will also lead to new ones. A linear approach (the more I do this, the more successful I will be) would fail to fit reality.
That’s why you don’t need more time or consistency.
You need a system.
Towards a Learning System
Think about this as an algorithm.
A flexible step-by-step guide to learn anything. With this, say goodbye to uncertainty and forcing yourself to study. You will become more effective. More self-confident. And wiser.
To build a learning system with a decision tree approach, you must focus on three key elements:
Meta-learning.
Effective study strategies.
Planned study sessions.
In short, meta-learning is about analyzing beforehand how knowledge is structured. For example, introductory biology is organized by universities’ programs that focus on weekly lectures (basics of the cell, DNA structure, DNA replication, etc.).
Using meta-learning gives you the unfair advantage of knowing beforehand how the topic you’re learning is structured.
Only when information is structured should you go and study it. But remember, we don’t want a linear approach. We want a decision tree approach. You will not necessarily learn better with more time and effort, but with a system and effective study strategies.
These are retrieval, spaced practice, interleaving, etc. Trust me. I wasted hours of studying by focusing on rereading, highlighting, and rewatching. One hour of retrieval (flashcards, free recall, etc.) felt like four hours of the other passive study strategies.
The last element is planned study sessions. Never start studying without knowing what you’re going to study. Never. Also, avoid planning for long study sessions. Having breaks in the middle is more effective in the long term because our brains need time to consume, store, organize, and learn new information.
My advice:
Apply meta-learning. Understand how knowledge is structured. Use and note your course schedule. If you don’t have one, build one based on other university programs. This will give you structure and a path to follow.
Study with effective strategies. Avoid rereading, highlighting, and rewatching. Use retrieval, spaced practice, interleaving, etc.
Use pomodoros to organize and plan your study sessions. Study in chunks of no more than 30 minutes.
Conclusion
Time and effort alone do not correlate with learning success.
In my years as a student, I learned that it is more important to study smarter. Of course, this does not mean it will be easy. You also must study hard, but with an effective approach. This is crucial. Studying harder doesn’t mean studying for hours until burnout.
That’s why you need a system.
And that will change everything.
Replace this:
Start learning without a plan.
Study with ineffective study strategies.
Study until you are tired.
With this:
Use meta-learning. Know beforehand how knowledge is structured.
Study with effective study strategies.
Study in planned chunks. Use 25-minute study sessions.
Those three elements will compose your system.
Ultra-learning saved my career.
It helped me learn anything without overstudying or overworking. But remember, each person has a different life. Perhaps you work full-time and also study. Or maybe you have a family, etc.
Be reasonable, and don’t fall into toxic productivity.
Here are some last recommendations:
Don’t compare yourself with others. Take your time.
This is not a competition. This is about you. Make it fun and healthy.
Please take care of yourself. That’s the most important thing!
Now it is your turn.
What are you going to learn next?
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