The Mindset Mentor - 4 Steps to Learn Anything Faster

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. And if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're out there and you love this podcast and you want some extra mindset tips, go ahead and go to mondayemail.com right now. That is where I send out an email every single Monday morning with mindset tips and tricks so that you can improve every single week. And I'll send it out to you every single Monday. So once again, mondayemail.com and absolutely free. And you can sign up right there and I will send you emails directly to your email inbox every single Monday. Today, I'm going to be teaching you a four-step proven process to

Starting point is 00:00:47 help you learn anything that you want to learn faster. This could be used in many different ways too. This could be used if you want to learn something that is completely new. You're like, you know what? This is a new thing. This is something that interests me. I want to learn about neurons inside of the brain. You can use it for that. It could be used to deepen your knowledge in something that you already know, or it could be used to help you study for an exam, or maybe you work for a company and you're about to give a big presentation on oil and gas,

Starting point is 00:01:15 and you're not really sure about oil and gas, and you're trying to learn more about it so that you can kind of speak the language of the people that you're about to go give a presentation for. And so what I'm gonna teach you is an actual strategy that was developed by a man named Richard Feynman.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Richard Feynman was basically a genius. He won the Nobel Prize in quantum electrodynamics. And he is famous for being able to take really extremely complex topics and make it easy for almost anyone to understand. So if you got to think about it, like this guy was teaching and he was teaching and won a Nobel Prize in quantum electrodynamics. And he was able to take quantum electrodynamics and make it easier for most anybody to understand.

Starting point is 00:01:54 And so this is his process that he used to be able to learn something and be able to put it into his own brain, but also be able to teach it to other people to make it very, very simple. And not only is he famous for being able to draw out how the math works with subatomic particles, but he's also famous for being able to teach this for people to understand. So he was able to actually draw out and show the math to someone who's not good at math, who doesn't

Starting point is 00:02:19 understand quantum mechanics. And he was able to show and draw out the math of subatomic particles with pen and paper. And so this is his strategy to be able to take anything that you want to learn and make it locked into your brain. And so we're going to go through the four-step process. So step number one is to pick a topic and study it. Get as much knowledge as you can into that brain of yours. And as you're learning anything, one of the best things to do is to write stuff down with pen and paper. I always get asked all the time, is it okay for me to, you know, when I talk about journaling, is it okay for me to use my computer when I'm journaling? Sure, it's okay. Is it better than pen and paper? Absolutely not. Why? Because

Starting point is 00:02:59 pen and paper takes longer. And when something takes longer, it means that it takes longer and your brain is actually taking more time to process it. So, you know, it's the reason why pen and paper is so much better is because it takes longer, but it's slower and more intentional whenever you're writing something down, which means it is more likely to get locked into your brain. So when you're actually trying to learn something, it's better to write it down with pen and paper. And one of the strategies that Feynman didn't know about, but now through neuroplasticity has been proven to be one of the best strategies for learning is actually the Pomodoro technique, which is 25 minutes on of learning or of focusing, whatever it is that you're doing in five minutes off. 25 minutes on

Starting point is 00:03:38 means that you're focusing on one thing and one thing only for those 25 minutes. So if you're trying to learn, you know, oil and gas like we were just talking about, the only thing that you can do is learn about oil and gas for those 25 minutes. You can't go send a text message. You can't send an email. You can't have any distractions. You're going to, you know, actually only focus on just that thing. And the 25 minutes off or 25 minutes on is just as important as a five minutes off. This is where

Starting point is 00:04:05 a lot of people who don't understand neuroplasticity actually mess up the Pomodoro technique. When you understand neuroplasticity, the off is actually the, you know, I want to say the most important part, but it is equally as important as the learning itself. Why? Because most people think, okay, I'll do 25 minutes of learning and then I'll go send some text messages and scroll on Instagram and screw around for five minutes. But the important thing to realize is the five minutes off, whenever you're learning something after 25 minutes of a learning bout, the five minutes off is where your brain takes time to actually store into your brain and into your conscious mind what it is that you just learned. So if you go from 25 minutes of learning about oil and gas

Starting point is 00:04:43 for this presentation that you have to learn, and then you take five minutes off and that five minutes, quote unquote, off is sending emails, it doesn't allow your brain to take that 25 minutes of learning and store it as efficiently. When you fall asleep, this is what your brain does. Your brain will replay your day up to 60 times faster than your day actually happens. So it can do it over and over and over and over again. It can store it. Well, when you take a break of five minutes after 25 minutes of learning, your brain will do 20 to 30 times faster. So it doesn't work as fast as it does if you were asleep. But this is where the neuroplasticity, the changing of your brain actually occurs. So when you're learning, those 25 minutes is where the actual initiation of the neuroplasticity starts to

Starting point is 00:05:26 happen. Neuroplasticity means the changing of your brain is during those 25 minutes, but it doesn't actually occur. That's where it marks the neurons that need to be changed, but it doesn't actually occur, which means the change doesn't actually happen until the break, five minute break, or when you go to sleep. And so one of the most important that you could do is 25 minutes of learning and then go outside or go for a walk for five minutes by yourself or close your eyes and do some deep breaths and realize that your brain is actually starting to store away that information. So if you want to learn something, use what technology now knows, what science now knows, which is the 25 minutes on, five minutes off, and realize that the five minutes off is actually off

Starting point is 00:06:01 of everything. Don't do anything that's taxing on your brain. Don't scroll on Instagram. Don't send emails. Don't send text messages. Don't make a phone call. Use that time to fully just break away from everything. So that's the first thing that you want to do. Pick a topic and cram as much of that topic into your brain. Okay. Number two is to write down and explain it to somebody out loud. So what you just learned, let's say you take 25 minutes on, five minutes off, 25 minutes on, five minutes off, 25 minutes on, five minutes off. That's an hour and a half of learning total. You know, you did three bouts of 30 minutes. It's an hour and a half of learning. Now, how do you get that to be more locked into your brain? Write it down, draw it out, explain it for somebody out loud. And if there's nobody around you,

Starting point is 00:06:41 you can literally pretend that there is. Just explain it to yourself out loud. Take some time to do that. Why? The best way to learn something is to then go and teach it. Because when you teach it, you're creating new neural pathways in your brain. Learning something, a lot of times, like if I'm watching, if I'm reading something and I'm reading about something and then, you know, for 25 minutes, I'm reading about this thing and then I go, you know what? All right, I took my five minute break.

Starting point is 00:07:02 My next 25 minute about, I'm going to go onto onto YouTube and I'm gonna Google XYZ around oil and gas so I can understand this industry more. And for 25 minutes, I'm watching a video that's instructional for me, right? Both of those are mostly passive learning. Passive learning is one of the worst ways to learn. Passive means I'm just sitting back and the information is going into my brain.

Starting point is 00:07:20 The best way to learn, which is 10 times more efficient, is to actively learn something. When you actively learn, which is 10 times more efficient, is to actively learn something. When you actively learn something is when you're actually, so one of the worst ways to actually learn is to sit inside of a college classroom and go through and have a professor just profess and talk to you, right? Because you're passively learning. One of the best ways to learn is to have a teacher, if the teacher wants to teach to you guys, then give you some time to actively teach it back and forth to each other. That's active learning. That's taking what you just passively learned and making it active in your brain. You create more neural pathways

Starting point is 00:07:52 doing it this way, and you're activating new pathways inside of your brain. Now, at this point in time, when you're sitting down to actually teach something to someone else, it could cause some frustration. You might notice that you're teaching something and then it, there's like a block. You're like, shit, what was that? What was that thing? I don't remember what this thing was. And it can cause, this right here,

Starting point is 00:08:10 just so you know, is a good thing. It can cause some agitation. It can cause some frustration. What's actually happening is there is a chemical that's released inside of your brain called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is actually what is released at the specific neurons to make change for neuroplasticity. Acetylcholine is what what is released at the specific neurons to make change for neuroplasticity. Acetylcholine is what causes the neuroplasticity. Usually when acetylcholine is

Starting point is 00:08:30 released from the brain, the first thing that you feel is agitation and frustration. So feeling the way that you're feeling the stress and the agitation like, oh, I don't really know if this is clicking. I'm not really getting it into my brain is actually a good thing because it's the feeling of the brain actually about to change itself. For me, this is something I've learned. It's something I do all of the time with my fiance. So like I'll learn something. There was the other day I was learning something that was really, really in depth about some quantum mechanics and some stuff of the way that the waves and why waves actually pop up in a human body and quantum mechanics and stuff. It was super complex. And I was like, this is so complex. I don't want

Starting point is 00:09:04 it to leave my brain, but it's so interesting. I'm going to go teach it to her. And so I sat her down. I was like, and I drew it out and I was like, this is what it looks like. This is the waves. This is a positive. This is a negative. This is why it looks like this. Now I feel like it's locked inside of my brain. I could have lost it if I didn't write it down. And so what you want to do is you want to learn this and then you want to go and reteach it. This is also why I love this podcast is because I'll learn a bunch of things and then I'll come here and I'll teach it to you guys, which helps it lock it into my brain. And so whatever you're doing, whatever you're learning,

Starting point is 00:09:30 if there's somebody around you that you can teach it to, teach it to them. And if they have any questions, see if you can answer their questions. It'll help it lock it into your brain more. If there's nobody around you, write it down what you just learned and pretend like somebody's there

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Starting point is 00:10:59 slash dial. Next, number three, whenever you get stuck, go back and study that part specifically because it is showing you a gap in your knowledge. It's showing you where your knowledge is not clear and where you don't understand. And so what's cool about it is that, you know, if you just go and you learn something, you're learning it and you're getting some stuff into your head. But when you learn it and then you go back and teach it, you can actually start to see, oh, I don't fully understand this because I don't feel like I can teach it. If you can't teach it, you can actually start to see, oh, I don't fully understand this because I don't feel like I can teach it. If you can't teach it, you don't understand it. And so going back and figuring out what are the actual parts that I don't understand and then going back and relearning that is super important. So let's say once again, you're watching a YouTube video. After you get

Starting point is 00:11:38 done watching a 25 minute YouTube video, you take a five minute break and then you go and you try to teach it to somebody. And as you're teaching it, you notice, I'm not really sure what's going on. I don't feel like I've a hundred percent got this locked into my brain. I'm not really sure. Maybe that's a question. You don't know the answer to that question. Like you feel like you kind of know it, but you're not a hundred percent sure. Go back and fast forward through the video until you get back to that part, relearn it, and then write it down and try to reteach to that person so that you are locking in what you have in your brain. You're learning and you're figuring out what you don't know and what you need to know. Then you're

Starting point is 00:12:09 going back and learning that thing. And then you're reteaching that thing to make sure that you get it locked into your brain. And so that's number three is whenever you get stuck trying to teach this, go back and study that part so you can make sure that you get it. And then last, when you're done, go back and repeat this entire process. Here's the key. Do it in as simple language as possible. As simple language as possible. The thing that I always like to say, and I always hear people say,

Starting point is 00:12:37 oh, I love listening to your podcast because you can take really complex topics and make it very easy to understand. I tried it when I first started my podcast. I said to myself, I want to make it so easy that a 10-year-old can understand everything that I'm teaching. And so that's the viewpoint that I try to teach the podcast through. And the reason why is because when I was younger, I remember reading a quote from Einstein and the quote from Einstein said, if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. And so if you find yourself trying to teach something to somebody, but you're teaching it very complex and you can't seem to pull it back, you don't understand it as well as you could. When

Starting point is 00:13:05 you really truly understand something like quantum electrodynamics, which is extremely complex, which with Richard Feynman, he would challenge himself to go, can I get more simple? Can I get more simple? Can I get more simple? Because the more that you can understand, the more that you can teach something very, very simply, the more that you understand it. And it's very, very important. And why is it important? Because if you're going to teach a 10-year-old whatever it is that you're trying to teach them, what is so great about children? They almost always ask one question. Why? Why? Why does this work? Why does this happen? Why is it like this? Why, why, why, why, why, why, why? If you taught it to a 10-year-old, whatever it is that you're trying trying to learn let's just continue on this oil and gas topic if you're learning about oil and gas could

Starting point is 00:13:48 you take if you have children can you take your children say honey i want to teach you about oil and gas and they're like okay cool and then just have them drill you with a bunch of why questions they will be the best audience for you why because if children don't understand something they ask questions if adults don't understand something they don't ask questions why because they't want to look dumb. And so the best people to go back and teach, if you can, are children. And the more simply that you can teach something, the more you understand it. So if you're going, okay, I need to learn oil and gas so I can teach, I can make this presentation for my client who's in the oil and gas field. I'm going to learn about oil and gas. I'm going to learn about this. I'm going to learn about the rigs, whatever it is

Starting point is 00:14:23 that you need to learn about. You go through, you teach it to your 10 year old, your eight year old, your nine year old, and then say, what questions do you have? Oh, why this? Why this? Why this? Why this? They might get you hung up. If they get you hung up, what do you do? You go back and learn that exact same spot. Whatever it is that they're asking, oh, why, why is it that you do, you know, fracking? Oh, we do fracking because of, I don't really remember. How does it work? I don't really remember how it works. Okay. I'm going to go back and learn this. Now, when you get done with this entire process, does it take time? Yes. And most people aren't patient. So it's harder to do. You

Starting point is 00:14:52 have to go back and learn this and follow this exact same process. It's been proven that once you can explain something in very, very simple language, you understand it and you're 10 times more likely to remember it. And so you repeat this until you feel like you have a concept down, you understand it, you can teach it to a child, the child can ask you why questions and you can answer it. And now, now you go out and you make that presentation for your oil and gas clients and you can speak their language at a much higher level. So this is the four-step process of being able to take something and lock it into your brain. Number one, you pick a topic, you study the hell out of it. You do the 25 minutes on, five minutes off.

Starting point is 00:15:27 Number two, you write it down and you explain it to somebody out loud or explain it just out loud if there's nobody around. Number three, when you get stuck, you go back and you study that part. And number four, when you're done, you go back and repeat the entire process to see if there is anything that you're missing and anything that you don't understand. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in it. Rob Dial Jr. R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R.

Starting point is 00:15:53 And I'm going to leave the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.

The Mindset Mentor - 4 Steps to Learn Anything Faster

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