I can't focus. It's not because I'm diagnosed with a learning disorder, or that I'm lazy. I'm just easily distracted, and because of that I struggle to focus for long periods of time. During school, I'd spend one hour of a three-hour exam working, and the other two staring out the window daydreaming.

It was the same during class, studying at home, or anywhere really. It's not that I hated learning — I enjoyed it, actually. But a lot of us got told what to learn, and never how to learn. That's what I'm going to teach you now.

Learning How to Learn

What I mean is this: how can we learn better, in ways that actually work for us? Of course everyone's different, and what works for me might not work for you. Still, here are a few tricks that have helped me focus and learn better.

Spaced Repetition

When we learn something new, we often cram it all in at once, then forget it a short time later as new information crowds it out. Spaced repetition means reviewing what you learned the next day, then again a few days later, to stop your brain from letting it go.

Breaks

I struggle to hold high-quality focus for much more than half an hour at a time. So I do 25 minutes on, 5 minutes off. It may seem pointless, but it helps me stop and refresh my mind — grab a drink, step outside — before I'm back to work. For you it could be completely different: an hour on, 15 minutes off. The main point is giving your brain a break.

Interleaving

Interleaving means switching topics every hour or so to keep your brain fresh. When you learn the same thing continuously, your brain starts to switch off after a while. Changing topics regularly keeps it engaged with new material.

At the end of the day, learning to learn better isn't straightforward, and it won't automatically make you a genius. What it does do is help you focus for longer, and improve the quality of what you actually retain. I encourage you to try some of these throughout the week and notice if they make a difference.

There's always something new to learn, no matter who you are.

— Nate