Learning to Learn

“Learning isn’t a means to an end; it is an end in itself.”

Robert Heinlein

The skill of learning is perhaps the most important skill to master. Without an efficient process, any learning will be slow, frustrating and most often short-lived. In any subject or area, most people fail to succeed to become experts. The main reason is not because they don’t have what it takes, but because they don’t know how to learn the skill.

Contrary to common belief, research in the past 30 years shows that talent is not given, it is earned. Those who earn it use a rigorous, systematic and persistent approach that makes them stand out from the competition and lead them to become known experts in their respective fields.

There is an art in learning and anyone can master this art. This course aims to approach learning on two fronts; one is that it is important to have the right attitude and mentality without which no learning tool will help. The second is to be aware of multitude of learning tools which help with the actual process of learning. These include managing the environment and reducing distraction, learning shortcuts, planning, evaluation and using memory & creativity tools.

These two areas are covered through the courses in various sessions and the underlying mentality, which is deemed to be critical for learning, is stressed at every opportunity to demonstrate its importance and applicability with the context of each session.

The course is designed with several exercises that help delegates examine their current methodologies and then based on the content of the course get to review and improve various aspects of their learning process.

Interactive exercises along with case studies and examples are provided so that delegates can review scenarios where an individual’s attempts at learning fail. This can help delegates to improve their own learning performance.

There is considerable amount of content, discussions, exercises and also optional content in this course. If you have many delegates, you can easily extend the course to cover 1.5 days.

In this highly practical course participants will learn:

Why Learning Is Important

• Why learning need to be systematic?
• What is your learning style and can you take advantage of it when learning?

How to Reduce Distractions

• Why minimising distraction can be a significant factor in improving your learning?
• What is an ideal learning environment?
• How can you control your environment to reduce distractions?
• How to respond to people’s interruptions
• How to manage distractions caused by new technologies, devices and constant connectivity

How to Develop Self-Discipline

• How does discipline help with learning?
• What is will-power, when does it help and when does it not?
• How to manage temptation

How to Learn by Repetition and Persistence

• How does memory work?
• How does repetition work?
• What is the most ideal repetition pattern for optimum results when learning?
• What does it take to become an expert?
• Is talent innate or learned?
• What is the secret to mastery of a skill? Why some people succeed spectacularly, while others fail?

How to Plan to Learn

• How to plan to learn
• How to evaluate yourself
• How to use mind maps to increase your learning, memory, creativity and data collection

What to Do When You Get Stuck

• Why do people get stuck when learning or solving problems?
• How can you get out of the cycle when you get stuck?

How to Develop a Routine

• Why developing a routine can have a significant positive effect on your learning?
• What is the learning process?
• How to be at peak performance
• How to keep a learning diary