Learning to Learn: 10 Tips for sustained and effective learning

"Learning never exhausts the mind" ~ Leonardo da Vinci

While many of us start a new course or pick up a new hobby, only a few people carry it through to reach a significant proficiency level. Many people usually drop off once the initial excitement is over, which is when the time comes for excitement to be replaced by commitment.

A study pointed out that the dropout rate in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) is around 90%, and that for university correspondence courses is around 63% even after paying the fees. Remember the gym? The dropout rate of fitness gyms is around 80% within the first 5 months of joining.

The reasons for dropping out mid-way while learning can be various, that are barriers of learning, including distractions, other priorities, unforeseen circumstances, or boredom. In fact, for some people, it may just be out of habit, the habit of quitting what they started learning.

Now to keep up and stick to your learning plan, here are a few tips:

Have a purpose and connect the learning to it
Know your daily/weekly limits of learning and how long is your attention span
Know your physical efficiencies and your peak performance time
Be emotionally intelligent and do not take impulse decisions - learn everyday
Have patience for experiencing results of the learning
Start sharing and applying immediately what you learned
Avoid distractions during learning time
Know your style of learning, it may be boring because its not the way you like it
Allocate specific time of the day to your learning
And most important, have fun while doing it!

I hope you have decided on something new to learn on any topic of interest and will use the above tips to help you stick.

Please feel free to comment below, share your thoughts, or ask questions.

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