#1749 How Do You Learn Best - Harps

effective learning mean for you and I? So you know, the thing is like anything with an individual, that one model of anything or one one kind of method doesn't really work for all people equally. So for example, we can't put everyone on the same diet and expect everyone

to feel the same, function the same. Everyone has different physiology, Everyone you know, has different requirements nutritionally in terms of you know, not only their personal physiology, but regarding their weight, regarding how much they move, regarding you know, genetic variability and all of those things. And so too when it comes to something specific like learning, how do I learn? How do I learn stuff a member stuff and then put that stuff that I've learned to practical use, or

how do I learn best for an exam? Or how do I learn best? To go through this academic process like I am going through at the moment in my PhD, how do I do that? So? And then then there's the you know, there's the academic kind of stuff where you just want to understand things and retain things and then use them in that process. But then there are other things that life kind of teaches you experiential learning. So this is not how to. This is just an

opening of the door. As I often say, this is an opening of the door to stimulate you to think about how do you learn best? And then how do you operationalize that learning? In other words, how do you put into action the stuff that you hear or learn that is relevant for you to improve your life or your situation or your outcomes or your health or whatever it is. So this was something that I didn't really think about for years that you know, think about when

you're a kid. And this is no indictment upon education, the education system or classrooms or teachers or but you know, back when I went to school anyway, we all get plucked in a room and for the most part, we all get subjected to and it's different, it's more evolved now, I get that, but still happens to an extent and for a long time. That was where I grew up. We get subjected to the same information, the same teaching style,

everything is the same. And despite the fact that we've got this one single model of teaching, despite the fact that we might have twenty five or thirty kids in the room who all learn differently, not everybody learns the same. And there are a bunch of different learning styles. Some people are kinesthetic learners or experiential learners. They learn by doing things. Some people are more auditory. They can hear, They hear stuff, they remember stuff. Some people are more visual.

They see someone doing the thing, or they're a bit of both. They see a video which has got obviously both vision and audio, and they tend to retain it, they tend to understand it better. Some people learn really effectively when they read. I used to be a terrible learner when I did my first degree. I was horrible at reading and retaining. In fact, I almost couldn't retain anything. But part of what I had to do was read. I had to read. I couldn't do a decree in

exercise science without reading. But then, because I'd never really studied effectively, let's just say that I was really good at reading stuff that I was fascinated with, and I would read that and remember that and stay focused and present because I was captivated. But as you know, there are often things that you've got to read because you've got to read it, and it might not be something that in that moment grabs you that you love, this

is incredible. You've got to read it because it's part of a commitment of an academic process or something else. But nonetheless, you want to read it and you or you need to read it, you need to remember it. So what I did just to give you an idea of how I made something that didn't work for me

work for me. So what I would do is I would I would get the text, I would read the text, and then I would I would read let's say a chapter, let's say ten pages, and I would read it, and I would put myself in a quiet room with no distractions. And typically I would do most of this kind of learning and study and attention or focus. I would do most of this stuff early in the day when I realized my mind worked best. So that's an interesting thing for you to think about. When is your mind optimal

for you? Like when are you the most present, When can you focus the best, when can you think the clearest? And so on? But anyway, so I would do this in the morning. I would read it. I'd stumble through it, I'd struggle to stay present. Then what I would do is I would go back and I would read it again with a highlight. In fact, as I said in my studio here, I look to my left and I have four highlighters. Highlighters are a constant in my life.

They still are. I still highlight things. But I would read and I would I'd read a paragraph, then I would highlight in that paragraph. Let's say there's two hundred words, I might highlight fifteen words, and I know these words or this sentence or that sentence or that term or

that phrase is really I need to know this. And then I would do that with the next paragraph and the next paragraph, and then I might by the end of it, I've just read a chapter of a book that it might be four thousand words, and I've highlighted four hundred words. I've highlighted three hundred words. I've highlighted less than ten percent of the text. But it's the stuff that will trigger my memory. And then I would go back and I would just read the highlighted stuff.

Sometimes I've glimpsed through all of it, but I would know that I would just read a highlighted sentence and I know what the rest was because I've gone through it. And then what I did, then what I did was and this is back in the day. So I did my first degree in two thousand, two thousand, two thousand and one, two thousand and two, so three years full time. I used to record onto CD discs. Oh my god, anyway, that's what I did. So I had these discs that

I could record on. Of course, we'd just use our phone now, and I would record these. I would record the highlighted bits I would ask and answer myself a few questions, and then that would become my study. So once I'd gone through the text, the book, the chapter, the chapters, i would read it, then i'd highlight it, then I would refine it, then I'd read the highlighted stuff. Then eventually i'd record the stuff that I knew that I needed to know, and then I would just play

that ad nauseam. Now this is not a process I recommend, but it worked for me, and I didn't do my first degree until I was thirty six, And for somebody who went in completely terrified to start a degree at thirty six years of age, ironically started my PhD at fifty six. But I did great, and I'd never say that about myself, but I did great in that first degree, and I really started from the furthest back in the field. I remember on day one sitting in a computer lab.

So the year two thousand, sitting in a computer lab, I didn't even know how to use a comput I didn't know what a mouse was, I didn't know what when they told me to log in using my student code, I didn't know what that meant. I had to lean over to the seventeen year old next to me and ask her what that meant. So I had no idea. But what I did was I figured out how I best learned, and I just exploited that we all learn differently, we all thrive with different models and different processes. That's

why I'm not recommending what I did. I'm just telling you what I did. So one of the questions is what's your optimal learning model? It might be more you might be somebody who can read and absorb. That's not me. You might be somebody who can listen. If I'm much better at listening and taking notes and then read listening

and taking notes watching somebody do something. I know, for example, as a teacher in the gym, and I would describe to somebody what they needed to do and explain to them what muscles are working, and I would give a quick demonstration and then they would jump on. They would kind of get it. But if I would actually train with them sometimes and I would do a whole set of whatever it was, one or two minutes of me doing a certain movement, and then they do a set.

Then I'd do another set, then watch me again. Then they'd do a set, then I'd do People would learn exponentially faster in the gym by training with me, even for one session, most people anyway, because they would understand the reality of the theory because they would see me execute the advice or the instruction I'd just given them. So think about that. Think about also, you know clearly,

if you're listening to this, you want to learn. If you're listening to this, there's something that you want to change. So something else for you to think about is what is your optimal learning and iron for me, nature me sitting out in my garden with something that I'm listening to and taking notes on. If I've got to read academic journals, which I have to quite a bit these days, academic journal papers, I will sit in my garden in bare feet, which sounds weird. It's quiet. I'm in the

middle of trees. I love trees. Every now and then I would have some low level music, just instrumental music, which is really a one or a two out of ten. It's not distracting, it's more almost calming for my nervous system. It almost it puts my brain in a good space. Also, think about what is the optimal time of day for you to learn I told you. For me, it's morning, which generally means something like five am six am till mid daysh And also think about what is your optimal

time span for focus and productivity. In other words, how long can you read something or pay attention to something, or focus on something, or listen to something or watch something. How long can you do that thing and be completely present and absorb what you need to absorb and hopefully retain it. So that might mean like when I first started reading academic literature, which I had never really, I mean done a deep dive in heavy duty research the

way that I have in the last four years. I would have to read in five minute installments, Like six minutes killed me. So I'm five minutes, have a break, another five minutes, and then six minutes, and then seven minutes, and now I can sit and you know, I still don't love it, but I can read a half hour. I can sit there for thirty minutes and read something which is very dry and very not interesting, but I need to read it because I need to find some

stuff in it. Some of it's interesting, most of it's pretty dry. And so what's your optimal focus period for you in terms of learning? So there's lots of variables around this, there's lots of stuff for you to think about.

But if you want to be someone who doesn't just listen and doesn't just read and doesn't just see stuff, but somebody who can absorb and remember and recall and use and then as I said, turn that that theory into some kind of positive behavior that creates a positive outcome, then start to think about what is your optimal learning system? Take a break, we'll be back in a minute, all right, So we're back, and rather than ask you a question to wind up today, I want to give you a

little bit of advice. So my bit of advice today would be try some different stuff. Do something in terms of this, do something that's unnew, like maybe I mean not not necessarily, but just this sprung to my mind.

Just then, It's like every now and then, listen to listen to a podcast and if I say some things that are relevant, if you listen to it again with a pen and paper, take notes, and then off the notes that you take, then create an action plan off the back of those notes, and then make some decisions and then create a timeline around that's that's the way to operationalize data. That's the way to operationalize theory. And all I am is the guy that shares theory. Anyway,

some thoughts and ideas for you. Hope you're great, Enjoy your day.