Being effective and impactful starts with finding a way to learn, retain, and use the information you come across. In this post, I will go over a method for learning how to learn.
The idea of learning how to learn may sound weird at first, but the better your process for retaining information, the better prepared you’ll be to use it for good.
5 steps for learning how to learn
Put together, I call these tips the ROUTE to learning. You can refer to these strategies and examples in your own learning process. Application of this is only limited by your imagination!
R – Repeat
You have to go over information more than once to get it to stick. Think of repetition as a process of layers. Each time, you learn more and go deeper into the topics.
Compare learning to something like drawing a map of the United States. You’d first draw the outside borders, then move to state borders, add in some cities, sketch the highways, etc. You wouldn’t just start with Florida, for example, and complete it and all of its intricacies before moving on to the next state.
Develop the big picture first, and with repetition, you’ll be able to zoom in on more detailed topics with increasing clarity. Start shallow and broad and then add depth each time you go over the information.
This way, it will be easier to make connections between topics just as highways connect the states on the map. These connections between ideas in your head will happen most fluidly if you can see the bigger picture the whole time.
O – Organize
Especially when the quantity of information is large, it can easily get lost or messy if you don’t find a way to organize it. My favorite ways to store information are acronyms, stories, and spatial storage.
With an acronym, assign the letters in a word to helpful ideas that start with that letter (like it did with ROUTE in this article).
To build a story around information, take each major idea you learn about a topic and work it into a story. On a podcast I listened to, the main points were about creating your own path, stacking positive thoughts, and changing perspectives on familiar things. So, I built a story where I was walking down a beautiful path to a skyscraper where I climbed up the stairs that were stacked on top of one another and eventually got to the top and had a new perspective. Each element in the story allowed me to remember a key point from what I learned.
Finally, for the spatial technique, assign each concept you learn to a room in a building or place you are familiar with (probably your house or apartment). And then have a mental thought process of going from room to room and engaging with the different concepts.
Making information meaningful in a way that sticks with you is crucial in going from memorizing to understanding. If you design these organizational structures well, you will remember them for years.
U – Utilize
Organized information is great but does little unless we do something with it. The U and the T in this ROUTE method are all about acting upon our learnings.
To get something from what you learn, you need to utilize it. If you learn about a new habit or technique that could help you, put it to use. For optimal results, do this as soon as possible after learning
You will learn more from experience than you will ever learn from theory. Somebody who has firsthand knowledge of a topic knows than somebody who just studies it.
T – Teach
In my experience, the best way to learn something for yourself is to teach it to somebody else. In doing so, you will create all sorts of connections within your own understanding. You will also see which areas you still need to review to be able to grasp them better.
Trying to get another person to fathom what you’re saying will make it simpler for your brain to do so. Your communication skills will improve, too.
If you do not have anyone to teach, pretend you are the student. Talk out loud and explain each concept, topic, or main idea to yourself. Whether you are teaching yourself or a friend, you will find that you get stuck when trying to explain certain things.
Go back and relearn or readjust your mental representations, and then try again. Learning how to learn in an iterative cycle will lead to greater understanding of the information.
In the context of studying, many people passively read through their notes many times but do not engage. Instead, with each subheading or new topic, cover up the information below and try to explain it aloud to yourself. Only refer to your notes when you get stuck. Once you can explain all your notes about each topic to yourself without help, you’ll be prepared and confident.
E – Empathize
Finally, empathize with others’ points of view. Don’t automatically accept your ideas and understandings as fact forever. Challenge your beliefs and be open to new perspectives and information even if they seem foreign to you. Having this sort of openness will only help you in the long run.
True learners want to find new information and theory that they can use to update their own understandings.
Learning is an ongoing process. Go through this method many times to get the best results. Learning how to learn will pay off in major ways!
Thank you so much for reading! Please share with others who may benefit! 🙂
