Learning ‘how to learn’ is the most important meta skill of all – it’s the one master key that gives you access to know how to master every other skill and opens doors for you throughout your lifetime.
Knowing ‘how to learn’ shows you the genius you really are, allows access to anything you’ve learned precisely when you need it, and more importantly, gives you the “edge” by understanding how to learn anything fast!
Learning is the constant fabric of life and these 52 Instant Learning ® tips are a quick taste of a system which shows you how to learn and use any new information at “warp speed.”
I suggest you use one new tip a week for the next year, and add new strategies to your limitless learning capacity.
Here’s a preview:
- Power memory
- Motivation Motivators
- Your Learning Style
- Faster Reading
- How Color Improves Reading Abilities
- Test Taking Tips
- How Music Makes You Smarter
- And much, much more….
1. Learning Is Not About Being Smart, It’s About Strategy
Learning is not about being smart. It’s about strategies that are proven, practical and easy to follow. Instant Learning ® is like having the perfect recipe ingredients, and combining them to become the genius you are.
Find out how you learn best and then learn to add strategies from other learning styles. Go to HowToLearn.com and take the free Personal Learning Styles Inventory to find out how you learn best!
As you add learning strategies from other styles, it will help you master any task.
For example, written tests cater to high visual learners. So if you turn written information into visual images, it will help you perform better on the written test because you can remember it.
For more strategies, ways to connect with learners who share your best learning style, get the How to Learn app in the Apple store or Play store!
Also, subscribe to FREE Instant Learning ® Success Tips Newsletters.
2. Use Your Learning Style to Personalize Your Learning
Your learning style controls everything from how you learn and remember, how you communicate, whether you are neat and organized, to even how you play sports.
Instant Learning ® happens when you know how you learn best and can match learning style strategies with the way in which you will be tested or evaluated on what you know.
Check out the Total Recall Learning online course which to find out how you learn best and how to leverage your learning style for learning succees in your career or in school
3. Improve Learning With Faster Reading Skills
Before you can read faster, you’ll want to make sure any visual roadblocks are out of the way and your visual skills are in tip top shape. Answer these few questions and if you feel like they apply, follow the directions to make sure your eyes and visual skills are working perfectly, so you can zip through your reading materials.
- Do you know whether you see the printed page the same way others do? Did you ever read a few pages and could not remember what you just read?
- Do you get tired when you read, or feel like you don’t even want to pick up a book to read for fun?
- Do you feel like you read too slowly, skip lines, or somehow the print just doesn’t look right to you?
You’re not alone. Did you know that a former U.S. President’s daughter felt the same way too? Millions of people share your feelings, and there’s a very quick solution. Go to these two places:
- Take the FREE Eye-Q Reading Inventory™ I created just for you. Then, if you check off any boxes, get a true, comprehensive, learning-related vision exam. No shortcuts on this one, because your visual and perceptual skills affect everything you do.
- Go to: www.covd.org or www.oep.org and find a specialist who can give you the eye exam that relates to learning. These eye doctors will give you the proper eye exam, plus more… show your doctor your Eye-Q Reading Inventory™ results and tell him or her how you “feel” when you read. You might discover that your eyes need a tune up with some simple eye exercises or even vision therapy, just like some major sports stars take.
4. Reading At Super Sonic Speed
Imagine how good it would feel to read as fast as you can turn the page. You choose – fast, slow or supersonic! It’s all about strategies that good readers use and you can model. In my course, Total Recall Learning, I show you how to overcome the habits slowing your reading down with traditional faster reading strategies, as well as a Hi-Tech Method for reading that will double your speed immediately with excellent comprehension and no drills or exercises for week.
Important Tip: Great readers use a simple strategy and turn everything they read into a mental movies. Pretend you are a movie director and then remember the pictures you made.
5. The Eye-Brain Connection Improves Memory
Moving your eyes to certain locations light up different parts of your brain during learning and recall.
This Eye-Brain Connection makes learning & memory simple when you know how to use it.
Ask someone to recall a picture. Notice which side their eyes go up to (left or right or maybe even straight up, above eye level), and you’ll know where they should look when recalling what they’ve read.
Using your Eye-Brain Connection when you learn new information and when you want to recall it, gives you quick access to what you’ve learned precisely when you need it. For instructions on how to use your Eye-Brain Connection check out the Total Recall Learning course.
6. Be In Your Success Position for Learning and Testing
To learn and remember anything, you’ll want to be in the perfect ‘state of mind and body’. Act as if you’ve just won the lottery or your best friend, who you haven’t seen in years, shows up at your door.
Here’s how: Get up and stretch. Move to a new location. When learning, take a break every 30 minutes for just 3 or 4 minutes.
Use this proven technique for activating both sides of your brain: inhale slowly, holding one nostril closed, breathe, and then do the same with the other nostril. Use a vanilla candle to increase serotonin (the feel good chemical) in your brain. Be sure and hold your head high and have your shoulders back for that perfect success position.
7. Move to Learn
Want to change how you feel instantly?
Move your body, cross the mid-line by crossing left arm over to the right side and vice versa, and lift your hands above your head. This activates all the regions in your brain and lets more oxygen in. You’ll think faster and remember things easier.
Remember, to look up, above eye level too. Notice that “winners” stand taller, and tend to look up more. Think about a winning sports team. How do they look? What are their bodies doing – moving and looking up of course!
8. Match Learning and Testing Styles For Instant Learning® & Memory
Research on over 200,000 people shows that matching learning and testing styles leads to higher grades, and better results on any test.
The quick tip: written tests cater to people who think in pictures. One picture triggers a thousand words, and neuroscience says that picture recall is faster than saying the words aloud in your mind, one at a time.
9. Make Your Memory Permanent.
Memory is affected by your learning style, your beliefs, whether you’ve had success before, your sense of smell and taste, whether you’ve had enough sleep, nutrition, stress levels and much more.
Those memory experts you see on T.V. use two strategies to get the results they want: pictures and associations. Find out what they are in the Total Recall Learning: How to Learn Anything Faster Course.
10. Lighting Improves Learning and Mood.
Dr. John Ott’s research on light shows that the type of light you work in significantly affects your brain, mood and learning. Recently, kids in classrooms using full spectrum lighting, (with all the colors of natural daylight), had higher grades and were better behaved.
Full spectrum light calms the brain, and nervous system, reduces fatigue and eyestrain. I use it in my home and office. The light I like most is below.
11. Great Ways To Improve Your Life
Consider a diet with more organic foods, so you’e not exposed to so many pesticides which have been shown to harm your brain. Also reduce the sugar load because it can negatively impact your performance.
12. The Power of Positive Habits
When you first get up in the morning, don’t check your phone right away. Your brain waves are in alpha state and you’re more impressionable to adverse news that can change your whole day for the worse. Instead, think of a couple of people and things you are grateful for. This will realign your mind and body to be in sync and set a positive tone for the whole day.
13. Next 6 Weeks – Instant Learning® for Instant Memory
Neuroscientists say that memory is stored in many places in the brain, but what’s more important is how you retrieve your memories.
This week, improve your memory using ‘Context’. Just link what you want to recall by attaching it to certain locations in your home or office or even on a daily journey.
See the items on the chair, your mirror, your refrigerator, or in your car or office. Ask, ‘where was I when?’ Next week, PEGS…
14. The PEG Memory System
How would it change your life if you were like one of those TV memory experts?
Well, Good News! They all use the same systems to remember things – pictures & associations. You can remember anything in order using the PEG Memory System.
Hang what you want to remember in a sequence on a ‘PEG’. The system that is the most fun is the Body Peg System. Make a grocery list for example and peg it to your body. See the items in this silly and humorous way when you’re at the store and memory is a snap!
15. Memory Training Fun
Want to improve your memory with games & fun exercises? How about stretching your attention, improving spatial, logic and language skills too? Check out the memory enhancing strategies in Total Recall Learning.
16. The Fats That Make You Smarter
What are the Smart Fats? They are called Omega 3’s and research shows hundreds of benefits when you eat them or take them in capsule form.
Omega 3’s improve memory, help prevent Alzheimer’s, calm ADHD and hyperactivity, and can even help you lose weight.
Your brain is made up primarily of fat – and your cells allow more nutrients in and out, with good levels of omega 3 fats in your system.
But beware – all omega 3 fish oils are not the same. Make sure you get the purest form with third party assurance that they are mercury free.
Here are the ones that I like best after doing some thorough research about them for one of my books about nutrition and learning.
17. What’s Food Got To Do With It?
What you eat affects how you feel as well as your memory. Eating foods that raise your blood sugar rapidly (sugary drinks and simple carbs like chips), make your body start to fatigue and want more sugar. It’s a vicious cycle of eat sugar, feel tired, cloudy thinking, eat more sugar, feel tired, etc.
Eating protein (like nuts or eggs) before learning, keeps your blood sugar levels stable for a longer time.
18. Instant Memory for Numbers and Dates
Want to system to remember numbers and dates. Use the long proven, number-shape system. Each number has a shape.
To recall a date like 1492 use a story with your numbers in their corresponding shapes. Columbus wrote with his pen, (one) as he sailed on his boat, (4) smoking his pipe, (9) when he spotted a swan (2) who led him to America.
Create a visual object and shape for each number. Remember your number shapes for the date!
19 & 20. Want An Ivy League Vocabulary? Two Tips.
Make associations & pictures with the words you want to learn.
Ask, ‘What does the sound of my new word remind me of?’ Then connect that image with the word itself. For example, using a Portuguese word like “tia”, what does the sound remind you of? It reminds me of tea. Tia means Aunt.
So, in the middle of a notecard, I draw an image of having tea with my aunt; write aunt on the top left side and ‘Tia’ just below my picture.
Voila! Instant Memory.
Adding to Your Ivy League Vocabulary. Last week, you created pictures with associations. It works with any word, from a complex medical term, to a new word in a foreign language.
Now, add some pizzaz by using 5 x 7 inch colored notecards, play some Mozart music in the background, hold your notecard up above eye level to the side where you remember pictures best, and say the word and meaning aloud three times as you write it down. Result – You’re a word wizard!
21. Instant Motivation
When was the last time you were motivated to do something? ‘How’ did you do it?
The ‘quickest’ way to motivate yourself is to think about how you will feel when the task is done or to really feel the painful the consequences if you don’t do the task.
Most people put things off, not because they are lazy because they think it will bring more pain than pleasure to do the task. Yet, a serious deadline, like paying taxes, will instantly motivate them, because they connect more pain to NOT paying the taxes. Amazing!
22. Instant Learning® In The Workplace
Want to improve memory and productivity at the same time?
Companies who understand how to systematize ‘how’ their employees learn, ‘how’ their trainers train, and ‘how’ to match learning and evaluation styles, get the best training results while saving money.
The Benefits: Happier, healthier employees, longer employee retention, increased productivity, improvement in mastering new job skills and higher self-confidence. Email fasterlearning (at) gmail.com for more information.
23. Two Instant Learning® Solutions for Special Needs Like Autism, ADHD
If you or someone you know, has a special learning challenge or any form of autism, we have two experts on this subject on our site. Email us and we’ll get you in touch with them. fasterlearning (at) gmail.com
24. Instant Learning® for Spelling Bee Champs
Want to spell like a pro? Spelling champions use the same strategy – a picture of the word in their mind. They look upward, and see the word as if it is written on a chalkboard or paper. Get a new word, use colored markers to print it on a strip of colored paper, using different colors for letters that don’t sound like they’re spelled.
Hold the paper up above eye level, and create an image in your mind.
25. Dyslexia Is A Gift!
Some of the world’s most highly regarded geniuses had dyslexia. Einstein, Da Vinci, Walt Disney, Churchill, Whoopi Goldberg, Cher and many more…Dyslexia helped them be more artistic and creative, seeing everyday things in a completely new way.
Imagine what happens when you instantly learn a few super-powered reading strategies? Discover how these ‘trigger word’ strategies can help you read effortlessly with the The Gift of Dyslexia® Online course.
26. How Color Helps You Read Faster
Sometimes people who don’t like to read have ‘contrast sensitivity’. Light and dark on the same page make the words look strange or even ‘jump around’.
Placing a colored plastic sheet over the printed page often makes the words look perfect. Color even opens new neural pathways in the brain. Research shows that reading scores can increase a year and a half almost instantly just by laying the colored sheet over the printed page. Try one today – get your Colored Overlays here.
27. How Music Makes You Smarter!
Our bodies don’t lie. Plants don’t either. Music has very specific effects on our cells and in our brains. Plants grow faster and larger when Mozart is played nearby. Your brain responds to what you hear as you’re learning.
Low bass, heavy metal sounds can make you feel unsettled and anxious, even depressed or angry. However, playing Mozart quietly helps you focus and improves your memory. Try experiments like playing Mozart to one plant and critizing the other plant. See which ones grow faster and healthier.
28. Instant Learning® Using The Mozart Effect
Research from Stanford University shows a molecular basis for what is known as ‘The Mozart Effect’. Listening to a specific Mozart sonata (but not other music) improves learning and memory.
Two other benefits emerged as well: Alzheimer patients performed better on spatial and social tasks, and electrical activity associated with seizures quieted in epileptic patients. For more on improving learning, visit The Mozart Effect.
29. Instant Learning® for Instant Creativity
Today, there is one constant – change. Change leads to innovation and innovation sparks creativity. We are all born with creativity, yet slowly, many adults edit it out because they’re afraid to try new things.
You can jumpstart your creativity by implementing new habits. Crawl around the house to get a new perspective. Notice 3 things you’ve never noticed before, brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand.
30. Instant Stress Busters
Stress affects your ability to learn and remember by increasing a hormone called cortisol. High levels of cortisol have negative effects on every body organ as well as your ability to think clearly and maintain a good memory.
Here are a few instant stress busters: Take long, slow, deep breaths. Pull your shoulders back, hold your head high and look up toward the ceiling. Smile – it changes your facial muscles and signals your brain to emit ‘happy chemicals’. Do jumping jacks and cross the mid-line of your body with your hands.
31. Instant Learning® From Mistakes
Psychologists call certain mistakes ‘one trial learning’. How many times did it take you to learn that it hurts when you put your hand on a hot stove? Making mistakes are human, and it’s your response that creates new neural pathways (stronger learning) in your brain.
Make it safe to make mistakes, write them down and what you learned from them. Learn from other’s mistakes too. Read about people whose biggest errors created some of the best inventions on the planet!
The best part – there are no mistakes at all. Everything you do simply gives you information. You either like the result of your actions or you don’t. When you want to get a different result, try another strategy.
32. Instant Learning® For Self-Improvement
Want to improve a particular area in your life? Where do you look for answers? Too many choices, so little time? Too many experts – who should you choose?
Well, those problems have been solved in a unique book with information from experts in the self-improvement field.
33. Instant Learning® For A Best-Selling Book!
Do you have a book or a product that you would like to see as a best seller on Amazon? Nearly every author uses this formula. You can too. Email our office for an application at fasterlearning (at) gmail.com
34. Instant Learning® That Frees You From Overwhelm
You know the feeling – and so do I. You’ve just got too much to do and feel stuck, almost unable to do anything.
According to research from the University of Arizona, Gary Schwartz finds that ‘within one minute, spiced apple scent yields more relaxed brain waves and an average drop in blood pressure of 5 millimeters per person.
Spiced apple scent has also been associated with the prevention of panic attacks. (Hey, vigorous exercise kicks your brain into high gear too!)
The other fragrance that raises seratonin levels in your brain is vanilla. I use a waterless lotion called Ecco Bella vanilla – try it!
35. Instant Learning® To Raise Self-Esteem
Whenever you’re feeling low, do this.
Ask yourself – what steps do I follow to feel bad? How does my face have to look, how do I stand or sit, what thoughts do I create, and in what order?
This one simple exercise makes you laugh because you actually have a set of rules you follow in order to feel bad about yourself.
Now, do just the opposite. What are your rules you follow to feel good about yourself? Write them and carry them in your wallet. Focus on someone else. Do a good deed. You’ll feel great about yourself.
36. Instant Learning® for Great Ideas
Great ideas & creativity result from specific strategies and questions.
When you want to create innovative solutions or new ideas do this.
Go outside your field; break routines; combine ideas in different ways; get curious, ask lots of questions about a subject; gather your facts – rearrange them; engage all your senses; daydream (remember how relativity was discovered?); get out into nature; go to sleep and just before bed, command yourself to wake up with answers.
Ask yourself what your favorite person in history would do.
37. Instant Learning® for Smarter Babies Tip 1 of 3
Richard Restak, M.D., says that, ‘within the next minute, an average of 250,000 brain cells will have multiplied in each and every well-nourished growing fetus in the world.’
Medical experts say one of the single major deficiencies in some mothers’ diets is essential fat – you have to eat it because your body doesn’t make it alone.
These fats are called DHA and omega 3’s. Adding these good fats can make your baby smarter. Ask your doctor first.
38. Instant Learning® for Smarter Babies Tip 2 of 3
In the book, ‘The Infant Mind’, Richard Restak, M.D., says, ‘If a pregnant woman smokes one cigarette, her fetus will stop breathing for five minutes.’
Smoking will starve the fetal brain of oxygen, just at a time when oxygen is essential for cell formation. Alcohol and drugs affect a growing fetus even more, causing the baby’s brain to be smaller.
According to the experts, well nourished mothers who breast feed have healthier babies.
39. Instant Learning® for Smarter Babies Tip 3 of 3
Child development specialists say that early brain development happens in a certain order. Children see before they learn to talk; crawl before they walk, walk before they run and so on.
If a child misses out on even one of those steps, learning problems can happen later on.
Make sure, as a new parent, you find out what order your child should develop certain skills in, follow that order and you’ll discover ways to have a smarter child. For visual development tips visit these two sites: www.covd.org and I Read…I Succeed
40. Instant Learning® For Instant Writing Tip 1 of 3
Want to write faster, break writer’s block and generate more ideas before you even begin to write? Use Picture Perfect Summaries ™.
The brain is not like a linear outline – when you start to write, make a circle with your main theme in the middle of the page (turn the page sideways); add spokes out from the circle and write down ideas as they pop into your mind. You’ll use more of your brain, & reflect more of who you are. Pictures cover a larger surface area of the brain.
41. Instant Learning® for Instant Writing Tip 2 of 3
Now, take all those ideas written on the spokes, and create more by drawing lines perpendicular to the first lines.
This will help you organize your ideas, give you ‘sub’ or ‘related’ ideas and begin to focus your brain on how you are going to organize your thoughts. I write all my books this way – just start with a big circle in the middle of a sheet of paper, add spokes with lines and let the ideas flow. Next, I’ll chunk my ideas into smaller parts.
42. Instant Learning® for Instant Writing Tip 3 of 3
Have you ever heard of the 5 W’s when you were in school? Well, Instant Learning ® adds to that, with Who, What, Where, When, Why, How and How Much?
As you use your Picture Perfect Summary™, answer each of those questions and place the answers into separate folders of different colors. What used to seem like a logistical nightmare, becomes a coordinated, colorful and fun writing project. Now, tie each idea back to your theme.
43. Instant Learning® for Using Music To Heal and Improve Memory
Many researchers have shown that music has a profound effect on the body and the mind.
In Carol Bush’s book, Healing Imagery and Music, she shows how music passes into the brain and is a key factor in healing and faster learning.
She says 3 things happen. The first two are: 1) ‘Music moves from the ear to the center of the brain and limbic system, which governs emotional responses of pain, pleasure, temperature and blood pressure; 2) Music can release endorphins which produce a natural ‘high’ and deter pain.’
44. Instant Learning® Using Music, Tip 2 of 2
Last week you learned about the first two ways music has an effect on the body and brain.
This week, we’ll finish with 3) ‘Music may activate a flow of stored memory across the corpus collosum. As a result, the recall of associated memories is greatly enhanced by music.’
This third process addresses the theory that music is a key factor in accelerating the learning process. Find a playlist that activates your alpha waves – go on youtube or spotify and use this music when you study new material.
45. Use Neuroplasticity to Accelerate Your Learning
Plasticity is the newest science in brain research. In other words, the brain literally changes, the more you use it. More experiences will stimulate intelligence, even as you age.
So, the old adage, ‘use it or lose it’ applies even today. Keep learning new things, solve word puzzles, play bridge or learn another language, travel and constantly create new experiences. You’ll create new connections in your brain that improve your memory.
Current brain research confirms that your brain is like a muscle – it atrophies from disuse and increases with active use. Even moderate physical exercise can increase your cognitive ability.
Women 60 to 75, who walked briskly for just an hour a day, demonstrated 25% higher scores than those who only stretched and did not push their limits. They also passed their memory tests faster!
In a premier book, The Power of Full Engagement, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, the subtitle reads, ‘Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal’.
They report research studies showing that challenging the brain protects it as you age. The authors target things like pessimism, negativity & depression, & tell you how to create positive rituals to engage new neural pathways, thus changing unwanted behaviors.
46. Instant Learning® Tip if You’re Feeling Overactive or have ADD/ADHD
Many experts believe that ADD/ADHD may be disguised as something else. In fact, there are books written by medical doctors saying that there are 52 other things that ADHD could be instead.
The world can sometimes be a cookie cutter mold & people with what may be termed a ‘lack of focus’ simply don’t fit those molds. One of my dear friends is an eye surgeon. Yet, people around him in his daily life ask if he has ADHD. Remember, it’s not about whether you can focus, it’s just about what you choose to focus on.
If you have ADD, find your genius in what you love and do it well! Don’t try and be a version of yourself that someone else wants. The world’s most creative people in every field will all tell you that someone thinks they have ADHD.
Use spaced learning and deep slow breathing to pace and focus yourself.
47. Instant Learning® For The Spirit
Your spirit is your most powerful source of motivation. Beyond your own self-interest, you’ll find your purpose for life when you determine your mission and reason for being. You’ll discover a renewed sense of self and positive way to interact with others.
Jot down what gives you courage, what your values are and how you will handle hardships that come your way. You’ll find that you’re more present and more passionate!
48. Instant Learning® for The Last Two Weeks
During these last two weeks of Instant Learning ® Tips, I suggest you review the tips you found most helpful to you.
Print them out, place them in a three ring notebook and add some journal thoughts of your own next to them. Add action steps so you can get the most from the tips.
Continue to visit HowToLearn.com for the latest updates, coaching classes and learning systems to improve your life.
49. Want to Use Your New Learning Skills to Start a Business?
Once you know all the brain proven tips for faster learning and decide you want to start your own business, here are two of the best books I know of.
He writes to one million people every week and here’s his best-selling book! Imagine how you’ll feel when you’re the owner of your own business and can put all the strategies you just learned to work for you and your employees!
Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki helped me with his advice in having your own business. His is one of the best-selling and most informative books of all time. I highly recommend you read it and take his advice.
50. Instant Learning® With Instant Gratitude
Did you know that learning and gratitude are linked? There are many health benefits yforour body and your brain, including better sleep when your brain turns short term into long term memories.
I encourage you to check out this One-Minute Gratitude Journal and write one thing you’re grateful for each day. It lowers stress, helps improve your relationships and boosts your immune system – all things that also improve your learning.
51. Quickest Way to Speed Up Your Reading
Use your finger when you read! The eye is drawn to motion and when you use your finger, you won’t subvocalize as much or re-read information. You’ll naturally speed up your reading.
And when your teachers in school told you to not use your finger, all they meant was to not individually point out words with it. Keep your finger moving and your speed will increase right along with it.
52. Practice Mindfulness
You may want to know what mindfulness is and what it has to do with learning.
Mindfulness is a purposeful practice to raise your awareness and calm and center yourself. According to Mindful Schools mindfulness decreases stress and anxiety, improves relationships and strengthens compassion.
As far as it relates to learning is improves attention and focus, deactivates the fear response in the amygdala in the brain, activates the hippocampus region of the brain related to learning and memory, and enhances the prefrontal cortext so people make better choices.
Check out this lovely best-selling book on mindfulness meditations to improve your attention and learning.
If you e-mail me with a story on how they’ve helped you in any way, I’ll add it to next year’s tips. You are always Instantly Learning, and now you know how and why. I am grateful for your comments, & for being the genius I know you are.
God Bless You, and I encourage you to share your own tips with those you love and care about.
In gratitude, Pat Wyman.
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