如何通过更少的学习收获更多知识

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• Place first in a three province wide chemistry test. Of which Ididn’t study or was even taught much of the material beforehand.
• Score the top spot in a standardized English exam for my school (no studying here either).
• Achieved an A+ in an economics course where I didn’t even attend the classes.

I say all this not to boast about how great I am, because I feel myaccomplishments are rather modest compared to many people I know. Ialso won’t discount genetic or environmental advantages that canpartially account for my small successes. I mention this because I wantto illustrate a point:

Time spent studying does not equal learning.

More studying time won’t help if the way you are studying is flawed to begin with.

Holistic Learning
Smart people don’t just learn better. They learn differently. Whilemany students get caught up in memorizing facts, intelligent learnersknow to seek the bigger picture and connect the facts together. Thisform of learning I call holistic learning.

Holistic learning is basically the opposite of rote memorization.Instead of reciting lists of facts, rules or formulas, you seek toconnect ideas together. Instead of having separate boxes in your headfor geometry, algebra or ancient India, you deliberately link factstogether, so they form a bigger picture.

Excessive studying shows you aren’t learning holistically. It showsthat you didn’t learn the material the first time. If you properly linkideas together to see the bigger picture, studying should only be abrief refresher.

How to Boost Your Study Habits
Holistic learning isn’t like a brainstorming technique or mind-mapping.It is fundamentally changing how you look at the process of learningand how you absorb information. As such, there isn’t an easy ten stepprogram to master it.

But there are some tools that can help you shift your learning habits so they become more holistic:

1. Visceralize - You’ve probably heard ofvisualizing, right? Visceralizing means taking all of your senses andconnecting it to information. Studies have shown that people remembermore vividly information that comes to us in an emotionally arousedstate. Linking feelings, senses and imagery to bland ideas makes themmore real. You probably counted on your fingers when learning numbers,why can’t you do the same when you are learning now?
2. Metaphor - The heart of holistic learning isrelating things together. Metaphors are literary devices that link twothings that normally don’t go together. Come up with metaphors todescribe more complicated ideas in simpler terms.
3. Ten Year Old Rule - Explain ideas to yourself asyou would to a ten year old. Sure, this isn’t always possible in yourlast years of a medical degree or learning how to apply neural networksto computer AI. But the idea is that you should be able to “dumb down”an idea enough so it seems obvious to yourself.
4. Trace Back - Put away your books and start with arandom fact or concept. Then relate that idea to another concept inyour subject. Keep doing this tracing pattern until you’ve linked manyideas together. The Gupta Dynasty reminds you of ancient Greece whichreminds you of Socrates, reminding you of Confucius…
5. Refresher Scan - Scan through information in yourtext book. Notice whenever you encounter information that you eitherdon’t remember or weren’t 100% sure about. Quickly link thatinformation back to existing ideas through viscerlization and metaphor.If your refresher scan is turning up more than a few points perchapter, you haven’t learned it thoroughly enough.
6. Compress Information - Not all information workswell for holistic learning. A common point cited to me is learninganatomy for first year medical students. Anatomy involves learningarbitrary Latin names for hundreds of different elements of your body.There often aren’t clear patterns and constructs, just a dry list offacts. When encountering information such as this, your goal should beto compress it. Find ways to group information into smaller chunks ofmemory through pictures or mnemonics.
7. Write - Take a piece of paper and write out theconnections in the information. Reorganize the information intodifferent patterns. The key here is the writing, not the final product.So don’t waste your time making a pretty picture. Scribble and useabbreviations to link the ideas together.

Scott Young is a blogger on learning, productivity and habits. You can check out his website here. If you want to learn more about Holistic Learning, download his free e-book: Holistic Learning: How to StudyBetter, Learn More and Actually “Get” What You Want to Learn