10 Accelerated Learning Techniques
(The following tips come courtesy of the breakthrough audio course "Accelerated Learning Techniques")
1. Teach someone else what you are learning.
Practice the accelerated learning system in short bursts of 30 minutes of study. Take frequent rests. To really soak up the knowledge, plan to teach what you are learning to someone else. Having to be accountable for someone else's learning will make you pay more attention and really learn the material.
2. Ask questions.
Intelligence grows through curiosity. By formulating questions about the subjects you are studying, you become very focussed on getting the answers. You zero in on the information, sifting through it to pick up the important points that answer the questions you set.
3. What's in it for me?
Motivate yourself to concentrate and absorb the info by asking, "What will I get out out of it? How will learning this information benefit me in the long run?" By focussing on all the ways it will benefit you, you give yourself more and more reasons to learn and studying becomes easier.
4. Describe aloud in your own words.
Center yourself, focus on your program of learning and begin describing aloud the information that you have been researching. Paraphrasing aloud, particularly at speed, causes you to dredge up and make conscious what you have learnt, and exposes the gaps in your knowledge that you can re-cover until it is part of you.
5. Draw a picture and write in your own words.
Speed learning involves 8 multiple intelligences, including visual and linguistic. You harness your right brain visual abilities by drawing pictures that help illuminate your notes and which stick in your mind. Mind-mapping is especially recommended. Also draw on your linguistic intelligence by re-writing the information you are studying in your own words. This all helps change the information from something that is alien and foreign to something that is familliar and comfortable and accessible.
6. Test the knowledge.
Ask logical questions to test the authenticity of what you are studying. Is it true? You have to be like a renaissance man, and be willing to test established knowledge. Distance yourself from any emotional involvement with the knowledge, and systematically pull and tug on it, testing it from every angle. Critical thinking and examination of the knowledge will deepen your understanding and speed your absorbtion of the subject.
7. Involve other senses.
You are multi-sensual, multi-intelligence being. Reading brings words in through the eyes and has limitations as a means of effective learning. Use pictures too. Record the information onto tape, and/or listen to audio tapes on the subject or watch videos about it. Stimulate your tactile senses with different fabrics, different chairs, by getting a foot massage etc. Eat something unusual whilst you are learning. The taste can become anchored to the info and will help you recall it. The same with smell. The memory of smells is the most immediate memory system. Rub some lavender oil on your wrists, as you start your study program, then when you want to recall the info at a later date simply get out the same aromatherapy oil and sniff. Stimulating your senses will help the info come flooding back to your conscious mind.
8. Move about.
Sometimes we learn best by doing, so get into action. If your area of study involves physical skills, then get doing them. Otherwise, ride an exercise bike while reading; go for a walk whilst listening to your audio notes; have sex while playing the info in the background! Kinesethetic movement locks knowledge in.
9.Visualise the end result.
See yourself practicing the skill you are learning or using the information you are studying as an expert. It's locked in to your brain and fully and easily accessible to you.
10. Peak state and PMA.
Develop a positive mental attitude towards your learning program. The principle of positivity will flood your system with feel-good endorphins and just make the whole training so much easier and more pleasurable. Get into a peak state for studying, by using the techniques of NLP to create 'anchors' to peak emotional states. Basically when you begin a study session: stretch, sit up straight, put a smile on your face and approach your studies with positive expectations.