Introduction: How to Learn Faster and Be More Productive by Joseph Milano

Learning how to learn is a skill that professionals have to master, if they expect to thrive in the future. I have read a lot of books on Learning and memory because I want to have many tools in my learning strategy toolbox. Despite having read many books on the topic, I realize how little I know. And this reminds me that I need to keep on top of acquiring new learning strategies. How to Learn Faster and Be More Productive had a few surprises for me.

It's good to have a variety of strategies because not all of them will resonate with you. The best learning strategies are the ones that you'll actually use. As I was reviewing the Table of Contents for this book, there were a few topics that were unfamiliar to me. I spent a considerable amount of time on this book because I wanted to make sure that I got a lot of information to create the Bookish Note for my membership site. This summary does not include everything that's in the related How to Learn Faster and Be More Productive Bookish Note.

“Every thought we have can be a ground-breaking idea, a suggestion to improve, or a goal we must set….The right mindset empowers us to set the right goals, work attentively and with focus, and experience success in all walks of life. The right mindset is the single most important factor in determining a person’s success, professionally and personally.”

It's important to master your mindset, so you can achieve your goals.

Have you read?

---

The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll, Book Review

Mind Mapping for Learning: Mind Mapping for Kids by Toni Krasnic

Effective Note Taking Method: How to Take Good Notes by Angelos Georgakis

---

Summary of How to Learn Faster and Be More Productive by Joseph Milano

Secret to Creating and Achieving Powerful Goals

Without having a clearly defined action plan, your goals are pipe dreams.

“To accomplish any goal, you must give your 100%, believe 100% and devote yourself to it with 100% commitment.”

2 Characteristics of Goals

1. Intensity: Resources required to achieve the goal.
2. Content: Outcome of the goal.

Goals and objectives are not the same thing. So, don't use them interchangeably.

“While goals can remain abstract and vague, objectives refer to precise and measurable actions and steps that you must take to move forward towards achieving your set goals. Objectives are usually time-bound and have specific targets.”

Motivation can speed up goal achievement. When you set goals, you become more confident in your abilities, and you perform better. Your thinking becomes clearer and you generate better ideas.

Benefits of Goal Setting

1. Feel more confident and empowered in your abilities and skills.
2. Goals yield better performance and elicit a sense of satisfaction.
3. You value outcomes that result from challenging goals. When you succeed in overcoming a difficult challenge, you feel motivated and positive about taking on the next. In addition, you achieve a greater level of satisfaction.
4. By improving our focus and concentration, we can work for longer on a task.
5. When you set challenging goals, they need more attention and end up using skills that you haven't used before.
6. Encourages you to seek better strategies and plans.

5 Goal Setting Principles That Increase Success

1. Clarity: This refers to a well-defined goal. Your goals need to be clear and specific, so you know what behaviors you need to adopt and which one will yield the most benefits.
2. Challenge: Challenges motivate you and push you beyond your comfort zone to try something new.
3. Commitment: The goal must be in proportion to expectations. You have to agree on the effort needed to achieve the goal and the reward for achieving the goal.
4. Feedback: Timely feedback prevents you from moving in the wrong direction. Tracking your goals and objectives provides feedback. Tracking also shows you how far you've come.
5. Task Complexity: Complex goals give you the nudge to think differently. On the other hand, if the goal is too complex, or unrealistic, that can discourage you.

Goal Setting Rewires the Brain

“The amygdala is a part of the brain responsible for evaluating the degree to which a goal is important to you. The frontal lobe is the part of the brain that does most of the problem-solving and defines the specifics of the goal. They work together to maintain focus and develop motivation to drive forward. They promote actions, situations, and behaviors that make the goal accomplishable and prevent you from succumbing to behaviors and actions that distract you from your end goal or make it harder to achieve.”

When you set a goal, you create new ideas and thoughts. Thoughts are transformed into behaviors, and then into actions. Set ambitious and challenging goals. Ask yourself what you're afraid to try, but always wanted to. What are you passionate about?

Do you have the bandwidth to work on the goal? How much time are you willing to invest in working on achieving your goals and objectives. What's your “Why” for wanting to achieve that goal? Craft a clear ‘why' statement because it can almost guarantee your success. Breakdown your goal, then assign daily and weekly tasks to achieve it.

How Memory Works

Think of memory as an ongoing process of data retention over time.

1. Encoding: The process of getting information into our brain. There are three types of encoding: semantic, visual, and acoustic.
   1. Semantic encoding: This involves the decoding of words and their meanings.
   2. Visual encoding: Involves encrypting images. In visual encoding, we form images in our minds when we hear a word.
   3. Acoustic encoding: This involves playing along to the sounds you once heard.
2. Storage: For any memory or information to stick and be committed to long-term memory, it will first pass through three stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
3. Sensory memory: Storage of brief events takes place like sights, tastes, and sounds. They last only a couple of seconds.
4. Short-term memory: Temporary storage unit that stores incoming sensory memory. It is also referred to as working memory.
5. Long-term memory: Where all the valuable information goes to be stored. It is a permanent storage unit without any time limits. What enters the long-term memory isn’t forgotten under normal circumstances.
6. Retrieval: This is the process of retrieval or recall is the act of remembering or bringing information from memory storage to conscious awareness.

Retrieving Memories

The brain needs to revisit neural pathways that were formed during the process of encoding and storage.

• Recall: The power to remember something without it being physically present. Recall refers to pulling information from the brain.

• Recognition: Requires some form of cue to identify a thing. It can be an object, name, place, or thing.

• Recollection: Involves rebuilding or piecing together a memory. Here, the mind uses logical cues and structures to reconstruct the memory.

• Relearning: Refers to repeated learning of something that you previously studied but can’t quite recall. Relearning greatly improves your ability to store and retrieve information. The more you relearn, the stronger the neuronal connections will be.

Consistent Action + Healthy Body + Healthy Diet = A High Performing Brain

7 Steps to Faster Learning

Step 1: Empty Your Cup

If you're seeking knowledge, you must first empty your cup. You don't know it all. Be open to learning.

Step 2: Take Action

Take action to retain what you learned. The more you practice, the more efficient you become. The sooner you use your newly acquired knowledge, the quicker you can commit it to your long-term memory.

Step 3: Optimize Your Learning State

Your posture affects your state of mind, and subsequently your learning state. Don't slouch in your chair. If you sit upright, poised, and ready to listen, your mind will follow suit and remain alert and in a state of attention.

Exercise improves learning:

1. It augments your mindset by improving alertness, motivation, and attention.
2. It promotes the binding of nerve cells to one another, which is essential when you are trying to log in new information.
3. It encourages the development of new nerve cells from stem cells, produced in the hippocampus.

Physical exercise promotes learning and encourages retention.

Step 4: Create A Learning Schedule and Stick with It

Plan a learning schedule. My professional development time is first thing in the mornings. Having a learning schedule increases learning speed, which increases productivity. Start with a set schedule that lists all the activities, tasks, and chores that you are expected to finish. Take each of these tasks, activities and pieces of learning material and put them into an order of urgency and importance. Then arrange it so that the first task that you tackle each day, is the most challenging.

For me, learning first thing in the mornings works best for me. My learning is mostly through books because I'm creating Bookish Notes for the Art of Learning Leadership Academy. A well-structured learning schedule helps to keep you on target, keeps your concentration aligned with your goals and prevents procrastination. It promotes faster and more focused learning because you know what you need to do.

Step 5: Talk the Talk

Discuss what you learn with others to reinforce your understanding of the information. Talking through concepts with others and explaining to them in your own words has been shown to help further your comprehension of these new ideas, as well as strengthen your ability to memorize them.

For me, I write a book summary on my blog, and I often write about books in my weekly newsletter. I also find ways to connect different books.

Step 6: Create Mental Pictures

Creating vivid mental images or models is a great way to commit information to the long-term memory. Visual learning is an effective aid to adults with their retention of knowledge and speed of recall. Using visuals to memorize information helps to improve your planning and anticipation.

Step 7: The Importance of Sleep

There is a strong correlation between your mind and your sleep. Studies have revealed that sleep affects your academic performance. Those who suffer from poor sleeping habits have a hard time pushing information into long-term memory.

Taking Notes

Note-taking is a form of learning. It's an essential study tool, and when you use it correctly, it greatly improves memory recall and how you push things into your long-term memory.

Outline Note-Taking Method

This is a structured organization of your thoughts and ideas which helps with reducing the time needed for reviewing and editing later on.

• Use bullet points to make note of important ideas and thoughts during a lecture or webinar. Each bullet point introduces a new thought.
• Every important topic that is being introduced is placed farthest to the left of the page.
• Under each heading, subtopics will be added, indented a little to the right to denote that they are an expansion of the same idea.
• Try to use key phrases and words rather than writing down reams and reams of text.
• If there are more supporting subtopics, they are added below, indented further towards the right side of the page.

Cornell Note-Taking Method

You start with a blank page and divide it into two columns and one row at the bottom of the page. The right-hand column will be greater in width than the left-hand. In the narrow left-hand column, you will write down critical cues such as keywords or questions.

You can also use this to note any reminders or comments regarding the topic you are studying. In the wider right-hand column, you write down the notes related to the cues in the left column.

Here, is where you expand on the thoughts and ideas, including some bullet points and diagrams as well as full sentences. In the row beneath the two columns, you summarize the topic being taught in your own words so that recalling it becomes easier.

Mind Mapping Note-Taking Method

This is a visual layout of your notes. It is ideal for use during lectures, in a meeting, during a presentation or even when brainstorming ideas. Key thoughts, ideas and questions are spread out as subheadings around a main central heading/topic, where they are linked together (outwardly from the central heading) via labeled and unlabeled branches.

Expand each subheading/subtopic further, linking your expanded thoughts and ideas in the same way. These connecting branches represent how your ideas connect as well as the direction of your train of thought at the time, which will make it feel easy to pick back up on when you review and study from your mind map in the future. Repeat the process of expanding and linking ideas until your visual information map has taken shape.

Bullet Journaling

Journaling has always been a fantastic way of recording thoughts and ideas as well as managing tasks. The bullet journaling technique helps you to track and manage your study plan and materials similarly, allowing you to curate your thoughts in a tangible, sleek manner. Create a personalized, well indexed set of notes including daily logs and check lists.

The Power of Consistent Action

Knowledge is potential power. Applied knowledge is power.

“Being consistent means that you are fully aware of where you want to be and what you need to do to get there (this is potential power) and then following that up with the actions necessary to make it happen (this is true power).”

Healthy habits keep you working at your optimal, giving your best, and setting better priorities. You are determined to keep going because you feel like you have all the support you need. A good diet, quality sleep, and a moderate level of physical exercise are included in healthy habits.

Conclusion: How to Learn Faster and Be More Productive by Joseph Milano

After reading How to Learn Faster to Be More Productive, you'll have many strategies to become a more effective learner. It's important to become learning agile, so you can quickly learn new workplace skills.

Reading List

Learn Speed Reading Fast by Joseph Milano

How to Learn Faster and Be More Productive by Joseph Milano

Next Steps

1. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel
2. Join the Art of Learning Membership Site
3. Buy and Read How to Learn Faster and Be More Productive

If you access to my Bookish Notes, join my membership site, Art of Learning Leadership Academy.

This post contains affiliate links and The Invisible Mentor® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

The post How to Learn Faster and Be More Productive by Joseph Milano, Summary appeared first on The Invisible Mentor.