Introduction
We all know that one person who learns new things and skills very fast, and I used to believe it’s a God-gifted ability. Nope! Learning fast is a skill and can be developed like other skills. We will talk about this in today’s article.
Learning fast means acquiring a skill or knowledge quickly at its basic level. Mastering a craft is different from learning; it requires time.
Learning things fast will help you develop the skills you need to achieve your goal more quickly. It will make it efficient for you to chase your dreams and succeed in less time.
The question is how? How can you develop the skill of learning things fast? Fortunately, I have the answer to this question; continue reading.
How to Develop Skill of Learning Fast
There are some checkpoints; if you tick them off as you start learning something new, you can learn that thing most efficiently. Learning quality also matters along with speed if you are learning a skill to be good at it. For these two purposes, I compiled a list of five things you should do to enhance your learning speed and quality.
1. Take an Interest in Learning
It is best if you are interested in whatever you are learning. Humans learn things they are interested in faster. If you don’t find anything you are learning interesting, you will have difficulty focusing on it.
Unlike learning to play the guitar, people are not interested in learning time management and communication skills. Then how will you speed up the process of learning these valuable soft skills?
Let’s take a look at people taking an interest in learning guitar. They aren’t interested in taking hours-long lessons to pluck some strings in order. Interest in learning guitar is driven by something related to the guitar they are interested in many times. One can be interested in impressing other people by playing good guitar and getting attention, which can make him interested in learning guitar and taking classes.
You can use this simple trick while learning something boring like communication skills. Relate it to something you are interested in. What is your goal in learning communication skills? One can wish to have fluent and invested conversations with his/her crush making him/her interested, or one can want to sell more products by having good communication with customers. This goal related to the skill can make you interested in reading a communication skills book. It will make you able to learn faster and better.
2. Get a Clear Definition of the Skill
Get clarity on how the skill is defined. The people who have mastered the skill define it very differently than those who want to learn it. An incorrect definition of the skill can cause you to wander and learn unimportant aspects of skills and slow the process.
Unprofessional people on the internet are teaching particular skills they never practiced, causing this error of incorrect definition. You must beware of the person you learn from, as most of us learn things through the internet.
To grow my business on the internet and reach people through search engines, I required the skill of SEO(Search Engine Optimization). So like other people, I went on Youtube and started watching random videos about SEO tactics. I wandered for months and still had no grasp on the skills, I gained knowledge about algorithms and search engines, but I couldn’t grow my business out of it.
Then I took a course from the CEO of MOZ(an SEO company), a professional in this field. His definition of this skill was different from the people I learned from on youtube. He put more emphasis on strategy than tactics. It turned the picture of my SEO game, giving me the missing piece of the puzzle(the precise definition).
Don’t make the mistake I made. Look for the source when you learn something, and seek a valid definition from valid people. It will save you time and make your learning process more efficient.
3. Become Practical
Practice the skill practically. You can’t learn to play the guitar just by watching guitar tutorials. Similarly, you can’t learn other soft skills just by reading a book. You have to perform anything practically to learn fast and well.
Practically practicing whatever you are learning makes the learning process even more exciting, and this is when most learning happens. If two people learn the same skill and one person reads the whole book weekly, the other person reads two chapters and practices them all along. The one who performed it along with learning will have a firm grasp of the skill, and the one who didn’t will get that grasp even after one month of reading without practice.
“How to win friends and influence people” is a fantastic book by Dale Carnegie. “The best book for improving your relationship with people and communication skills,” said my friend. I was influenced, so I bought the book and started reading it. I read half of it in a month and started claiming it was useless and had no effect.
Years later when I get to knew that only reading is not enough. I gave this book another try. I just read the first part (3 chapters) and started practicing by outreaching potential investors for the business I was into. Within weeks I felt the power of communication. I started making people invest in my business idea, unlike before.
Don’t make the mistake I made. Developing a skill is not about just reading or taking classes. For any skill, whether hard or soft, you have to get practical along with learning, and you will outclass those who don’t do it.
A practical exercise is essential to learn fast; not practicing will cause you to take double the time to learn.
4. Perfectionism is Your Enemy
You should focus on learning or acquiring the skill rather than getting it perfect. As I told you in the introduction, you can learn a skill fast, but you can’t master it quickly. Mastering a skill takes time, and it should.
Be the completionist, not the perfectionist. Getting learning down is more important than getting learning perfect. Let’s take a hard skill as an example. Suppose you are learning banner designing; whatever you do, your first design will be crap.
I made a mistake here; while learning this skill, I spent too much time watching tutorials twice and working on that same design until it ended after a week. I was trying to achieve a perfect design. Not going to lie; it was still crap, even after a week.
For the next week, I decided to make one design daily, and following the knowledge I got from the course I took, I made five crap designs that week, and I fell in love with the sixth one I made.
If I didn’t waste my time to achieve perfection, I might have learned faster and acquired that skill earlier. If you want to learn something fast, don’t go for perfection. Go for the imperfection multiple times until you develop the skill. Get the skill down before getting perfect at it.
5. Consistency is The Key
Consistently practicing whatever you are learning is the most crucial part of learning fast. You can practice one day and skip a week, and practice again. You will still learn but not fast. Practice and learn a little at a time but do it consistently to maximize the efficiency and quality of learning.
Learning 12 hours in one day of a week and learning 2 hours a day all week have different effects on the speed of acquiring skills. Practicing and learning 2 hours a day offers more efficiency and proven fast progress.
Distribute your learning and practice sessions evenly in the week to learn fast and efficiently. Reach your goals more quickly.
The same tip works if you want to master the skill. Imagine it as a marathon instead of a race. Don’t run fast; run more. Running fast will cause you to get tired, quit, and not master the skill, whereas running more will make you stick longer till you master it.
Conclusion
Taking care of the above things while learning a new skill will help you learn quickly. Let me summarize those things for you real quick.
- Develop interest in what you are learning(by relating it to the goal you are interested in).
- Get a clear definition of the skill from a valid source or professional.
- Don’t only just read or listen but act. Practice the skill you are learning practically.
- Focus on acquiring the skill instead of getting perfect at it.
- Discipline yourself to practice the skill you are learning consistently.
Learn skills faster and acquire all the skills you need to become the valuable person you were born to be.
What skill are you going to learn, and from where? Feel free to share in the comment section below. Let’s talk😊.
