Day 8: Determining How to Learn

Today we continue our creating our learning plan by determine the tactics, resources and ways that we'll engage in the learning process. You will learn strategies for determining the best approach and framework for you learning.

Resources for this lesson:

• Transcripts
• Worksheet
• List of Scientific Resources

Summary

How to Determine How to Learn?

When creating our learning plan we must determine the tactics, resources and ways that we'll engage in the learning process.

Examine other's learning strategies by benchmarking: finding the ways that other people have learned this particular skill or subject in order to default strategy for your own learning process.

• If you're learning an academic subject, look at the curricula used in schools that teach that subject
• You can also look at their course list and then go look at each one of those syllabus and see all the resources and the way that they start stacking concepts as a path for you to learn.
• If you're learning a non-academic subject or a professional skill, search online for people who have previously learned that skill or interview an expert about their learning path.
• Additionally, any popular skill also has online forums where those who have learned the skill previously can share their strategies.

Another strategy for determining how to learn is to use the concepts, facts, and procedures analysis we produced in the last lesson.

• Underline that concepts, facts, and procedures that are going to be the most challenging for you to learn.
• Start searching now for methods and resources to overcome those difficult areas.

To further develop your learning plan, consider the following questions:

How will I actually access and use this information in real life?

• What problems are you trying to solve by learning this skill?
• What parts of the skill you're going to need to know in order to solve that problem?
• Design learning techniques and practice sessions for yourself that mimic the environment or the way that you're going to apply the skill.

What are the primary learning resources that you're going to use to learn?

• These include books, videos, classes, tutorials, guides, and even people who will serve as mentors, coaches, and peers.

What techniques will you use to learn from these primary resources?

• You will need techniques for each phase of the learning cycle, exploring the topic, engaging with it and then executing it and applying it in a new way.
• No matter what the concept or skill is, you're going to have to engage in some practice of that skill to really embed it into your long-term memory.

Who can help me learn this skill?

• These could be formal mentors, teachers and coaches that have a real expertise or understanding of the skill and can help give you feedback while you're practicing.
• Or it could be a group of peers that are also going alongside you in the learning journey.

How will I measure and track my progress?

• Use the SMART process goals set in the last lesson to have clear metrics of success for you learning
• According to Andrew Huberman, we need to be exquisitely detailed about what the action steps are that we are going to take and to constantly update those action steps so that we have a higher probability of meeting those actions.
• A good starting point is to assess progress and the updating of concrete plans weekly.

What will you do if things don’t go to plan?

• The best learners have a backup plan for occasional failures in their learning, to get back on track and prevent one little slip up from derailing you and causing you to give up completely.
• If you have a specific plan in place ready for when this is going to happen, you'll minimize the damage and ensure that you waste as little time as possible.

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Activity

To determine HOW to learn answer the following questions:

• What strategies have others used to learn this skill?
• How will I access this information?
• What are the primary learning resources will you use to learn?
• What techniques will you use to learn from them?
• Who can help me learn?
• How will I measure and track my progress?
• What will you do if things don’t go to plan?

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Skill Lesson Mastered

Demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson by applying it to the above activity. If, and only if, you have a full understanding and have mastered the knowledge and skills presented in this lesson, select the next lesson in the navigation.