We learn because of the neuroplasticity of our brain—it physically changes in response to any new experience. When we learn information or learn a skill that is not familiar to us, synapses form in our heads — connections between two neurons. The more we use this information or skill, the stronger the connection between them becomes.
During childhood, this process happens very quickly －as you know, children absorb new things like sponges. However, learning becomes more difficult with age. At the same time, this is no reason to be sad －there is a way out in any situation.
According to Australian neurobiologist and popular lecturer Dr. Lila Landowski, 6 key ingredients must be used to study successfully at any age:
- Attention
- Maximum engagement
- Sleep
- Repetition
- Breaks
- wrongs
In this article, we'll look at each of these points separately.
Attention
When you think about it, we choose where and how much attention we should direct. Everyone has noticed that if we focus on some information as much as possible, we can remember it for a long time.
Here are some simple tips to help you increase your mindfulness in the long run:
Minimum phone
Scientists recommend reducing the use of smartphones as much as possible. It has been proven that even if we spend only an hour a day browsing social networks, this already leads to attention deficit.
Increase activity
Researchers are confident that exercise increases the size of the part of the brain that is responsible for learning and memory. Sports activity also has a positive effect on the formation of new brain cells.
Just 20 minutes of moderate exercise can increase work and study productivity in the next two hours.
Therefore, it will be quite useful before you sit down at the computer or textbooks, go up and down the stairs several times, jump or run down the street.
Meditative techniques
In order to consistently achieve your goal, be it mastering a material or completing a work task, you need to learn to direct your entire focus to it as much as possible. Meditations to develop concentration will help you learn this.
In this case, you do not need to sit in the lotus position or go to yoga classes. You just need to form a habit of watching your breath or the flame of a candle for five to ten minutes every day without being distracted by extraneous thoughts, and while walking, practice mindful walking －pay attention to the sensations in your body, legs and feet when you take steps.
Maximum engagement
Imagine that you are about to cross the road on a green light and suddenly you hear the signal of a car passing by. Your adrenaline level will instantly jump, and you will immediately focus on what is happening “here and now”, even if you were thinking about something else a second ago.
Oddly enough, it is this state that ensures the highest productivity in the workflow and makes it possible to remember any information quickly and easily. Why is this happening? When stressed, the brain does its best to remember the situation and avoid it next time. Therefore, everything related to stress and fear is etched in our memory for a long time.
It is clear that you will not get into an accident on purpose and then return home and start studying or solving work problems.
However, there are ways to increase adrenaline in a safe environment:
- Take a contrast shower.
- Use breathing techniques, for example, the short breath technique －rapid breathing increases the heartbeat and causes a surge of energy. It is important to take measures and control the situation here.
- Engage in active sports.
- Play a dynamic video game for a few minutes.
- Do not sit down to study after a hearty meal －food, on the contrary, creates a sense of security and weakens attention.
It's important! You can not increase adrenaline too often, for example, several times in one day, week or month －it is harmful for the human body to be under stress for a long time.
Sleep
Everyone knows the benefits of sleep, but why is it so important when it comes to productive study?
The thing is, when we learn new information, we're using a part of the brain called the hippocampus. He is responsible for memory, keeps track of events throughout the day, keeps a diary of what is happening to us.
If someone asks you what you did after dinner, you'll go to the hippocampus to answer that question.
However, the memories that are stored in this part of the brain are short-term memory. To turn them into long-term ones, you need to move them to the cerebral cortex. This happens during sleep. Therefore, sleep is necessary for successfully remembering information for a long time.
Repeating what has been learned
As the famous saying goes, “repetition is the mother of learning.” And this is true — the brain needs a huge amount of energy to remember some information. The more often we repeat something, the clearer the signal that the brain reads is important and worth remembering.
To make the repetition process more effective, use a method called the “spaced petition technique”. Using this system, you repeat material at regular intervals, ranging from a few hours to several days.
Breaks
Breaks are very important because they give the brain the opportunity to repeat and replay the information that has been learned. All this happens on a subconscious level.
The new information that the brain learns is not stable. If you add something else right away, it will be erased. For children, the learning time is a few minutes. Adults have about an hour.
Therefore, it is important to take a break of at least 10-20 minutes while studying, and it is better to study something like this the next day.
wrongs
We're very afraid of making mistakes, and there's a biological reason for that. The anxiety and stress that comes with making mistakes are meant to increase our attentiveness.
－Hey, you made a mistake! －hears the brain and immediately begins to give his best to prevent this from happening again.
If we give up as soon as we make a mistake, we don't let ourselves learn how to deal with difficulties. Don't expect you to be perfect. Just treat the learning process like a game and don't rest on your laurels!
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