Have you ever heard of frictionless learning before? Do you believe that learning is difficult? Why do you think so? Is it because you are insecure and don’t believe in your own sense of worth? Do you believe that learning is “work”, and that it requires effort? Have you ever experienced learning as a fun and enjoyable activity where you were completely wrapped up in the subject? What was it that made it enjoyable? Was it the feeling of focus, control and not having any loose ends? When learning becomes effortless and frictionless, we start to enjoy learning and retain information better.
In this article, you will find some tips and tricks to make your learning experience as frictionless as possible. Maybe you’ve even been doing some of them already.
To create a learning experience as enjoyable and frictionless as possible, you should not only focus on the time you actually spend on learning, but on the preparation and conclusion as well. Why is that, you say? Well, have you ever painted a room before? Did that only entail the painting proper, or did you prepare and conclude the activity as well? Exactly. It’s the same for learning. You need to create the best possible environment to be able to learn to the best of your abilities. And please, do not wait until 2 minutes before you HAVE to start. Take your time.
A major cause of friction is distraction. In order to create the best possible learning environment, it starts with informing those around you that you will be unavailable for a while. This blocks most distractions, except perhaps when you study at home and your child(ren) or pets are still around. Find yourself a room that works best for you, with good lighting and as soundproof as you need it. Maybe it helps you to put on some background music so you block out outside noises. Have you found your room? Great! Now, is the desk clean? If not, clear it so there are no loose ends pulling your attention away. Oh, did you turn off (all!) your notifications? And, surely, all the apps you don’t need during your learning are closed, right? Is the chair comfortable?
Do you think of anything else? Yes? Okay, so how long does it take you to do that task? 2 minutes? Do it! If it takes longer, put it on your to-do list and do it later.
You’re ready to get studying!
While studying, it is important to stay focussed of course. Did you know that it is impossible to keep your focus on point when you are dehydrated? Keep a bottle of water close and fill up your glass regularly. Oh, and for your information, coffee dehydrates. 😉 Another myth in our culture is that the more hours you put in, the more work you process. Do you have any experience with this? Tell us, how did it go? Not that great, right? It’s important to regularly take a short break. This way you get into a positive frame of mind again, and your productivity will improve.
So, study session’s over? Books closed and done? That’s okay, if you only want to know the information short term. Studies show that if you want to truly remember anything you’ve studied, repetition is key. We’ve already spoken about this in our article about ‘Spaced Learning’ and it is a significant part of our iLEARN Framework©.
