How To Learn Faster Without the Frustration

Sometimes we charge into learning something new full of excitement. However, as the weeks go by, our passions sometimes  dissipate. What seemed exciting at first can grow tedious — even frustrating. Why? Because we are not aware of the fundamental paradoxes of learning!

Surprisingly often, the very things that we should be doing can also end up getting in our way. Here is a roadmap to help you be aware of the paradoxical pitfalls of learning, and how to avoid them.

• Persistence: We are often told that to be successful learners, we have to be persistent. That is true in the long run — but not in the short run! Here is what neuroscience is telling us: When you are learning something new, the best way to approach it is to focus and do your best to understand it. But if you are stuck, you need to stop focusing. By temporarily taking your attention off the problem, you allow other neural modes of thinking to attack the problem in the background. Later, when you try again, new understanding can suddenly appear! Good learning often means knowing how to balance your persistence — to stop when you get frustrated and return later after your other thinking modes have had a chance to work on the problem in the background.

• Success: We always want to be successful in our learning. But this means that we sometimes shy away from making mistakes. However, if you make a mistake when you’re studying — and just catch it with a tiny  “ouch” — that is one of the very best ways to learn! As you are learning, celebrate each mistake. The goal is to make those mistakes before your high stakes tests. (And also keep in mind that the ones who never make mistakes are the ones who never do anything. Go for it!)

• Concrete Learning: We often want to learn something in concrete terms. If you are learning math for a professional program, for example, you often want to be able to apply your learning directly to the type of problem you will be expected to solve on the job — calculating doses of medication, for example. But instructors often want us to first step back and learn ideas more abstractly — they want us to understand the fundamentals behind the concrete problems. It turns out that the instructors have a point. Being able to solve not only concrete problems, but also to understand the abstract ideas behind those problems, helps us to transfer our thinking to new situations. Sometimes the real world throws problems at us that we have never seen before, and it is important to be flexibly ready! Take the time to understand the abstract concepts that are being presented; ironically, this leads to solving problems in more concrete situations.

• Memorization: We have often been told that memorization is bad for us — that understanding alone is the essential key to learning. While it is true that understanding is important, it turns out that memorization can also be very helpful when you are learning something new. Experts in any domain generally have great volumes of memorized information readily available. If you try memorizing some of the key ideas you are learning about, you’ll find that the memorization process can, perhaps surprisingly, lead to deeper understanding.

Learning, as it turns out, is a paradox of contrary, often contradictory approaches. Being aware of these paradoxes can help make your path to learning much more fun and successful.