As I’ve began my journey to become a software engineer, I enrolled in a coding bootcamp. It’s been almost five years since I’ve felt the pressure to learn as much as I can and being away from that kind of environment made me forget how to learn. You might be asking me: “Isn’t it simple to just do your work and study?”. No, no it is not. Everyone has their different learning style, whether it is through hands on experience, reading, listening, or a combination of all of those. You also have to factor in your learning curve and speed into consideration. Some people are able to grasp the learning materials faster and better than others. I am NOT one of those people.
Learning takes time and it’s not always about how hard you study the material or how fast you understand it, it’s about your mind set as well. Being in the right mind set can make a huge impact on your learning process. These are couple of tips that really helped me get back into that mind set.
Forget your limitation
Whenever you think you can’t do something, you’re actually putting a limitation on your mind. Our mind can grow as much as we want based on how we set our limitation. If you tell other people that you can’t do this or you can’t do that, you’re actually setting a limit on their ability to do things. Never convince yourself or let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because our learning potential is limitless.
Be active
Learning is not a spectator sport. In order to learn better, you always have to be involved whether its asking questions or taking notes. Being engaged in the material that you’re learning allows you to retain that information longer and more clearly in your mind.
State of mind
Whenever you’re learning, you want to be in the right state of mind because learning is state dependent. If you recall the times when you were sad or happy, you are able to remember those moments more vividly because you associated those memories with emotions. Controlling the state of your mind can allow your brain to take in more information and you’re able to recall those information.
Take Breaks
Being able to study or learn for a long time might be great, but the information that stays in your head falls off after a certain period of time. Your brain needs some time to absorb the information that you learned and it’s good to refresh your mind as well. An average person can retain 50% of information in an hour and the percentage decreases over time. By taking breaks, you’re able to reinforce those ideas that you learned by giving your brain time to really understand those materials.
These guidelines of learning strategy helped me get through some of the most difficult materials in my bootcamp. I’ve always thought that studying for a long time can help you learn more, but your state of mind is what drives you to learn better. More information doesn’t mean more learning, so always be conscious of your mind!
