LEARN ANYTHING

FAST
COMPANION WORKBOOK
 LEARN ANYTHING FAST COMPANION WORKBOOK

How to Use this Workbook

Welcome to​ Learn Anything Fast​!

We’ve created this workbook for students to use alongside the online material in the
course to help ensure you really understand and digest the concepts we cover about
learning. This workbook is designed to help you solidify your understanding of specific
concepts and techniques covered in the course.

Think of this workbook as a companion to the course, and refer to the specific modules
to help guide you through the corresponding exercises. ​This is an interactive
workbook, meaning you can type right into the workbook itself.​ We encourage you to
use this method, as it makes it easy to reference and work through; though, you can
also print this booklet out and fill it out with a pen or pencil if you choose.

Contents of the Workbook

This workbook consists of 4 main sections:

Module 1 Exercises: Finding Your Learning Styles

Module 2 Exercises: The Secret to Fast Learning

Module 3 Exercises: Learning in Practice

Module 4 Exercises: Lifelong Learning

Tips for Using This Workbook

Keep this workbook handy as you go through the course modules. We urge you to not
skip ahead, but instead do each exercise one by one as they are presented in the Learn
Anything Fast Course.

As you work through each module exercise, refer back to your previous responses so
you can see how you’ve grown and developed over the course. Really take the time to
reflect on your thoughts before you respond.

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Module 1
EXERCISES
FINDING YOUR LEARNING STYLES

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Finding Your Learning Styles

What is Learning?
➔ Learning is internalizing a new set of knowledge and skills and being able to apply it
into actions to make positive changes in your life.

➔ Time Investments help us make a profit on our time, as it buys us future quality time
for the time we invest now.

➔ Of all the Time Investments, Learning is one of the highest value ones you can do
because it expands your world, gives you knowledge and skills to do things you’ve
never done before and helps you to become more effective in what you do now.

➔ Learning is Not :

◆ Memorizing a bunch of facts or trivia.

◆ Accumulating knowledge just for the sake of it.

◆ Cramming a skill to pass a test and forgetting about it later.

➔ A Fast Learner is someone who understands how they learn and has a systematic
way to apply it all the time to learn a variety of things.

➔ A Fast Learner is someone who continuously improves their skill in Learning.

The 7 Learning Styles

The Visual Learner

➔ If you use the visual style, you prefer using images, pictures, colors, and maps to
organize information and communicate with others.

◆ Can easily visualize objects, plans and outcomes.

◆ Good sense of space and direction - good at using maps.

◆ Like to use charts, graphs, colors, and graphical representations of things.

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The Aural Learner

➔ If you use the aural style, you like to work with sound and music, and have a good
sense of pitch and rhythm.

◆ Highly engaged by sounds and music.

◆ Certain music/sounds evokes emotions.

◆ Easily identify different sounds and instruments.

The Verbal Learner

➔ If you use the verbal style, you find it easy to express yourself, both in writing and
verbally.

◆ Enjoy taking in information by reading - books, articles, etc.

◆ Really good at communicating with written content.

◆ Find words and their meanings engaging, sensitive to phrases and speech of
yourself and others.

The Physical Learner

➔ If you use the physical style, it's likely that you use your body and sense of touch to
learn about the world around you.

◆ Sensitive to the physical world through touch (textures) and movement

(actions).

◆ Like to be physically involved in the action - like dancing, gestures.

◆ Prefer being ‘hands on’ when learning.

◆ Prefer to interact with people, places and things closely rather than at a
distance.

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The Logical Learner

➔ If you use the logical style, you like using your brain for logical and mathematical
reasoning.

➔ You can recognize patterns easily, as well as connections between seemingly

meaningless content.

➔ This also leads you to classify and group information to help you learn or understand
it.

◆ Recognize patterns and connections easily, strong with abstract concepts.

◆ Systematic way of working through things in a step-by-step fashion.

◆ Enjoy working out strategies, plans and simulations.

The Social Learner

➔ If you have a strong social style, you communicate well with people, both verbally
and non-verbally.

➔ People listen to you or come to you for advice, and you are sensitive to their
motivations, feelings or moods.

◆ Highly engaged from social situations, and enjoy communicating with people.

◆ Most active with groups of people with lots of interaction.

◆ Enjoy team based or cooperative activities.

The Solitary Learner

➔ If you have a solitary style, you are more private, introspective and independent.

➔ You can concentrate well, focusing your thoughts and feelings on your current topic.

➔ You are aware of your own thinking, and you may analyze the different ways you
think and feel.

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◆ Like to concentrate and focus internally, working through problems at peace.

◆ Good at self-analysis and observation, take time to ponder and consider

before making decisions.

◆ Independent thinker, and prefer to be self-reliant to achieve goals and

objectives.

Understanding Your Learning Styles:

Go to this site to find out your Learning Styles:

https://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/

Maximising on Your Learning Styles

Learning Strengths of the Visual Learner:

1. Diagrams to Understand Concepts

➔ These are visualizations of concepts or systems.

➔ They allow you to see the spatial relationships between different things and how
they interact or fit together.

➔ Especially helpful for understanding complicated systems or processes.

2. Images instead of Words

➔ You remember images more easily than words, and rich imagery stimulates your
mind.

➔ When you encounter large blocks of text, break them down and find the right images
to associate with them.

3. Color and Layout

➔ Color coding helps with memory and association.

➔ Clear layouts and formatting make long blocks of text much easier to read.

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➔ Use distinct headings, subheading styles.

➔ Use Bold and Italics to emphasize words.

➔ Liberal use of whitespace for visual comfort.

4. Visual Journeys

➔ Visualizing a sequence of steps or events to understand things in motion, or

procedures and flows.

➔ Sometimes just “seeing” something at work is enough for you to create a mental
model of it.

➔ Watching movie clips, animated visualizations, live cooking demonstrations.

Combining everything with Mind Maps

➔ Mind Maps make use of all these things together: Diagrams, Images, Color, Layout.

➔ A Mind Map is a diagram for representing information and showing how they
connect to each other, arranged around a central topic.

➔ It uses a free-form graphical layout instead of a traditional rigid arrangement of text.

➔ Go to Mind Mup for free mind map templates:​ https://www.mindmup.com/

Learning Strengths of the Aural Learner:

1. Rhyme and Rhythm

➔ Create little rhymes or jingles when trying to remember new concepts, ideas, or even
procedures.

2. Anchor Sounds

➔ Identify the sounds or songs that get you in a certain mood, and use them as
anchors.

➔ They can even be sounds from nature.

➔ Create a playlist organized by mood using your Digital Brain.

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3. Aural Immersion

➔ Use environmental sounds to stimulate your brain and immerse yourself in what
you’re learning.

➔ We remember things best by experience rather than by rote, and since sounds
stimulate your brain the most, bringing in sounds adds this dimension during the
learning process.

➔ Sources to Explore:

◆ Youtube: h
​ ttps://www.youtube.com/

◆ Freesound: ​https://freesound.org/browse/

4. Sounding it Out

➔ Instead of just taking things in visually (such as reading), try to convert it into an
aural medium.

➔ Examples include listening to an audio book or reading important points aloud.

Learning Strengths of the Verbal Learner:

1. Verbalize into Your Own

➔ This means taking in new knowledge and transforming it into your own words.

➔ This can be in the form of speaking or writing, or both.

➔ When reading out loud, you can even try introducing some drama and variation as it
will stimulate your brain and make what you’re learning more much more engaging.

2. Key Words and Phrases

➔ Try to use certain keywords or phrases to represent ideas or concepts.

➔ Use acronyms, mnemonics, jingles, or rhymes to help you memorize things easily.

3. Interact with Others

➔ This is interactively involving others in your learning process.

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➔ Best when you’re with a group of people who are learning the same things as you.

◆ Discussing a topic with others.

◆ Explain a difficult concept to someone.

◆ Become a mentor or coach.

Learning Strengths of the Physical Learner:

1. Get Hands On

➔ Find ways to get active and practice right away.

2. Use Physical Objects

➔ Your brain is stimulated by touch, so being able to handle objects really aids in the
learning process:

◆ Using flashcards (that you can actually touch) and interact with when learning
words.

◆ A physical scrapbook for your study notes with different texture and colored paper.

3. Be Action Oriented

➔ Anything that involves actions also count as physical activities.

Learning Strengths of the Logical Learner:

1. Break Things Down into Steps

➔ Logical learners are really good at details, so breaking down something complicated
into its logical components and making a sequence out of them is your strength.

➔ Doing this will not only help you understand how something works, but also gives
you a way to take action and put it into practice.

2. Build a Framework

➔ When learning something new, resist the urge to just memorize by rote.

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➔ Instead, extract the key points first and build a framework out of them to help you
understand what’s important and why.

3. Use Numbers & Symbols

➔ Logical learners like using numbers, so you use metrics to help you to associate with
different things.

➔ If words are averse to you, replace them with values or symbols (like in math
equations) to help you create mental models that you can use.

Learning Strengths of the Social Learner:

1. Find Learning Partners

➔ Take initiative to find someone who is learning something similar to you and ideally
at a similar stage.

➔ Learning partners provide mutual support and let you both take on alternating roles
of student and mentor as you help each other cover your strengths and weaknesses.

➔ As a social learner, finding the right partner can be a huge catalyst that accelerates
your learning by leaps and bounds.

2. Initiate Discussion

➔ Find places where you can ask questions and discuss things with others.

➔ Go to like-minded communities online across almost any field with discussion boards
and forums filled with people willing to share their knowledge and experience.

3. Cooperation and Competition

➔ Gather a group of friends with the goal of applying what you’ve learned to solve
different problems.

➔ You can do it cooperatively or as a friendly competition.

➔ The idea is to stimulate your learning and generate excitement through interaction as
a team or in competition.

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Learning Strengths of the Solitary Learner:

1. Set Goals, Milestones, and Targets

➔ Make sure the learning goal you have is also aligned with your own personal
direction (ie: it’s meaningful to your Purpose).

➔ Because you are a self learner, to keep progress you’ve got to set your own
milestones and targets.

2. Measure Your Progress

➔ The hardest part of solitary learning is being able to know how well you are
progressing.

➔ Because you have nobody to ask and nobody to give you feedback, you need to have
a systematic way to measure your own progress.

➔ The best way is to create an effective feedback loop.

➔ Another way is to keep a log or journal of your progress so that you can look back on
your improvements.

➔ Create a new Role or Function in your Digital Brain to keep notes and ideas related
to what you’re learning throughout the process.

3. Follow a Structure

➔ Because you won’t always have someone to guide you, it’s best to learn something
with a structure in mind.

➔ This will give you a sequence to follow instead of learning things blindly or at
random.

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Identify 3 Learning Styles that you feel like are most applicable to you, and rank them in
order of the one that matches you most.
# Learning Style Rank (1=Most)

Now look at the strengths of each Learning Style you listed and identify at least 5
actions you can take that apply to those strengths:
# Learning Style Actions

1 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

2 1.

2.

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3.

4.

5.

3 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

4 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

5 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Module 2
EXERCISES
THE SECRET TO FAST LEARNING

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The Secret to Fast Learning

Fast vs Slow Learners

➔ What separates ‘Fast’ learners from ‘Slow’ learners, is that they understand how
they learn, and have a systematic way of applying it all the time to learn a variety of
things.

➔ Just having some knowledge doesn’t mean you actually know it, the other half of the
learning process is putting it into practice.

➔ Step one is knowing the knowledge for the skill, and step two is practicing the skill.

➔ This is where you put the skill into actual use to create some positive change.

➔ Practicing determines how quickly you can develop the skill into something real.

What is a Feedback Loop?

➔ Step 2 of the learning process is repetitive , you practice again and again to learn
from it.

➔ Each time you practice, you’re improving.

➔ Each time you repeat this, you are going through something called a Feedback Loop .

➔ Feedback means getting information about how well you’re performing each time
you make an attempt at practicing or applying a skill.

➔ Feedback is what tells you what went wrong, or what went right.

➔ How to make Step 2 of learning effective is defined by how effective your Feedback
Loop is.

How to Create an Effective Feedback Loop

➔ A feedback loop is made up of 3 stages:

1. Practice / Apply

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➔ Put what you want to learn into action.

2. Measure

➔ Acquire information about your performance.

➔ This is the part that most people ignore or do ineffectively.

3. Learn

➔ Analyse how well you did, what parts were strongest or weakest?

➔ Make adjustments to improve and practice/apply it again.

Key Factors of Effective Feedback Loops

There are 3 key factors that make a Feedback Loop effective:

1. Consistent

2. Fast

3. Accurate

Key Factor #1 - Consistent

➔ This means having a regular way to get the same quality of feedback.

➔ If your feedback is not consistent, you will have a hard time knowing what
went wrong or what went right.

Key Factor #2 - Fast Feedback

➔ Fast feedback is important, because the longer it takes to get feedback, the
longer it will take to improve on the skill.

➔ The best forms of feedback are almost instantaneous .

➔ The shorter the time it takes for one feedback loop, the better.

➔ You’ll have more attempts, which means more improvements within the same
timespan.

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How to Get Fast Feedback

➔ The key is to take the skill or knowledge and break it down.

Break it Down by Steps

➔ If the skills involve a sequence (ie: there is a step by step process) you can
break your learning down by each step.

➔ Create a feedback loop for each step individually instead of the whole process.

➔ Isolate the processes into different parts that you can focus and work on
individually.

Break it Down by Sub-skills / Processes

➔ Identify the sub-skills that make up a larger skill and create feedback loops for
each of them individually.

Break it down by Difficulty

➔ Sometimes you can even break down a more complex skill by scaling it down
from something simple and ramping up the difficulty over time.

General guidelines when breaking down a skill/knowledge

1. Small, but still enough to have meaningful feedback.

2. Feedback is consistent .

3. Each item is relatively independent .

Key Factor #3 - Accurate

➔ This means having feedback that actually reflects your performance

accurately.

➔ Because you’re relying on feedback to tell you what and where to improve for
next time, this is very important.

➔ This is why measuring feedback is a key skill to have when making use of a
Feedback Loop.

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Write down one thing that you’re learning right now - either actively (e.g. taking
lessons) or passively (e.g. by practicing in your daily routine):

Can you successfully identify the feedback loop you’re using to learn this skill right now?

Does your current feedback loop have any of the 3 key elements just described?

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Which key element is the strongest? Which one is lacking the most?

How to Measure Feedback

➔ Poor feedback is a symptom of:

◆ Trying to measure without quantifying your performance.

◆ Trying to measure using the wrong metrics to quantify.

◆ Not measuring or recording your performance at all.

➔ In order to find areas for improvement, you have to be able to compare your
current performance with your previous performance.

➔ When you quantify something, it means you’re attaching a number to it.

➔ Numbers are objective and consistent when you’re comparing two things.

➔ Quantifying feedback can give you a lot of information that will help you
improve during each cycle of the feedback loop.

➔ These numbers we use to quantify feedback are usually called Metrics.

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What Makes a Good Metric

➔ Metrics are only useful when they can give you the right information.

➔ Metrics are relative , in that they are used to compare your performance over
time rather than representing some absolute state of being.

4 Essential Characteristics of a Good Metric

Collectable

➔ Can be recorded consistently and saved as a collection of data.

➔ Example : measuring how many successfully completed passes you’ve made

in each Soccer practice session.

Component

➔ Each metric measures one aspect of your overall learning performance for a
specific skill.

➔ Each aspect can be focused on and improved individually.

➔ Together, multiple metrics paint a full picture of how you’re doing from
different perspectives or aspects .

➔ Example : breaking up your passing skill into different aspects: making passes
vs. receiving passes, long range passes vs. short range passes, passes while
stationary vs. passes while on the run.

Comparable

➔ Metrics measuring the same dimension can be compared to each other in a

meaningful way to see a change

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➔ Example : You can compare your passing performance as a percentage (eg:

12/15 = 80%) from today’s session vs yesterday’s session to see whether you’ve
improved or not.

Chronological

➔ Captures your change that allows you to see where you were, and where
you’re going with your current learning.

➔ Shows the trend of your performance over time , such as the pace of change
or improvement.

➔ Example : You can get an overview of your passing performance over a longer
period of time.

Types of Metrics

➔ As a Quantity:

◆ Number of mistakes made.

◆ Number of successful attempts.

➔ As a Ratio

◆ successes / attempts

◆ speed

➔ As a Time

➔ As a Representative Value

◆ Not everything always fits directly into a quantifiable number.

◆ In some cases, you can assign values to represent something that is

Qualitative.

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Go back to the skill that you picked from the earlier quick exercise. What metrics are
you currently using to quantify and measure your performance?

Using the 4 C’s, how would you evaluate their effectiveness?

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Try to come up with 3 new metrics that you can immediately apply to your current skill:
# Metric

Adjusting Your Course

➔ Adjusting Your Course means knowing how to take the feedback you get and
put it into the right actions.

➔ This means that being able to continuously improve your Feedback Loops is
essential for keeping up your momentum, and avoiding running into the law of
diminishing returns.

➔ Improving your Feedback Loop means knowing what to measure next, and
what questions to ask to find out.

External Feedback Vs Internal Feedback

Internal Feedback

➔ Internal Feedback gives you a degree of independence and freedom in your

learning.

➔ You can set your own goals and metrics , and improve at your own pace.

➔ The pitfalls are that you may not always know the right questions to ask, or
how to get around certain obstacles without lots of trial and error.

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➔ Relying purely on Internal Feedback generally gives slow but steady progress ,
as long as you can continuously find ways to push the difficulty envelope.

➔ In order to consistently get quality internal feedback, you need to learn how to
evaluate.

How to Evaluate Internal Feedback

➔ Learn what is good vs. what is bad in your current field of study.

◆ What are the standards that are set?

◆ How are these standards evaluated?

➔ Try to review others’ work and see if you can point out flaws and weaknesses.

◆ Evaluate your own performance and do the same thing, using the same
criteria.

➔ After doing this, are there immediate areas of improvement that you can
identify?

◆ What new metrics can you set to help you measure your performance in
them?

External Feedback

➔ The right External Feedback can help you leapfrog in your learning and avoid
costly periods of trial and error.

➔ It comes at the cost of relying on someone else to help you.

➔ Finding the right person to give External Feedback is essential.

➔ You’re looking for experience in the form of a coach or mentor who can provide
critical guidance.

Goals of External Feedback:

1. Help you to set suitable goals, targets and standards.

2. Show you best practices and correct methods.

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3. Help you overcome roadblocks and obstacles.

4. Point out your blind spots and identify your key areas of improvement.

5. Keep you accountable - have someone to hold you to your commitments

and keep you on track.

➔ Effective coaches or mentors should provide a regular mix of:

◆ In-person interactions to get an overview of your progress.

◆ Self-driven activities to do on your own in the form of a set of effective

action plans for self practice, and accurate ways to measure your
performance.

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Module 3
EXERCISES
LEARNING IN PRACTICE

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Motor and Mental Skills

➔ With any new skill that you learn, it essentially consists of 2 main types -
either mental or motor skills.

What are Motor Skills?

➔ Motor skills are skills related to performing physical actions that involve
strength, balance, coordination and dexterity.

➔ When using motor skills, your body is the primary conduit and your brain takes
a backseat.

What are Mental Skills?

➔ Mental skills are skills related to applying knowledge and information.

➔ When using mental skills, your brain is actively engaged and processing
things consciously.

Skills and Long Term Memory

➔ There are two main types of Long Term Memory:

1. Procedural Memory -​ related to remembering physical actions.

2. Declarative Memory​ - related to remembering knowledge and

information.

➔ These two types of memory are directly related to the two types of Skills:

1. Procedural Memory relates to how your brain remembers and learns

Motor Skills.

2. Declarative Memory relates to how your brain remembers and learns

Mental Skills.

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➔ They are almost two entirely different types of memory, being stored in
completely different regions of your brain.

Procedural Memory and Motor Skills

➔ Procedural memory is the memory that stores our Motor Skills.

➔ It’s the subconscious memory of how to do things involving physical actions or

movements .

➔ They’re generally learned through lots of repetition , and form reflexive ,

automatic behaviors we develop in the form of “body memory” or “muscle
memory”.

➔ It takes a longer time for Procedural Memories to develop in your brain.

➔ Once remembered, Procedural Memories become embedded in your

subconscious and allow you to carry out regular physical actions automatically.

➔ This means that once you pick up a Motor Skill, you usually don’t have to
worry about losing it since Motor Skills are mostly stored as Procedural
Memories.

➔ It’s also very hard to change an established Motor Skill.

The Stages of Long Term Memory

➔ One of the key concepts about Long Term Memory, and with Procedural
Memory in particular, your learning continues well beyond after you’ve stopped
practicing.

➔ There are 3 stages of Motor Skill Learning:

1. Encoding - when you are actually practicing the skill.

2. Consolidation - when your brain starts converting the skill into a

permanent state.

3. Retention - recalling the skill smoothly without having to think about it.

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➔ During the Encoding stage, the new things you learn are still in a kind of fragile
state.

➔ Even after you’ve stopped practicing, your brain needs time to process what
it’s learned and internalize it into your long term memory.

➔ Consolidation usually takes a few hours, and during this process it’s
vulnerable to what’s called Disruption .

➔ Disruption occurs when other cognitive processes compete for the brain’s
energy and attention it needs to properly consolidate.

Leveraging Sleep as Your Consolidation Tool

➔ Many studies have shown that it is easier to learn a motor skill and retain how
to do that skill if you practice doing it within 2 hours of going to sleep.

➔ Sleeping right after a practice session essentially guarantees that your brain
will be free from Disruptions, allowing you to Consolidate 100% of your learning
into long term retention.

Practice / Sleep / Recall:

➔ When learning motor skills, try to follow this 3 step process of Practice / Sleep /Recall

1. Practice:​ Schedule a fixed practice session (eg: 30 mins) where you focus
specifically on one motor skill only .

2. Sleep​: After your session finishes, follow up by taking at least a 45 min nap, or
if your session is scheduled before bedtime, go to sleep!

3. Recall: ​When you wake up, do another practice session again (eg: between
15-30 min) with the same motor skill and pay attention to your retention --- how
much you’re able to recall easily.

➔ Your brain’s susceptibility to Disruptions is highest when you’ve immediately started

practicing (because it hasn’t had a chance to process your learning yet) and drops off
over time.

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➔ This means that freeing your brain from potential disruptions and allowing it to focus
on consolidation is a key factor in learning motor skills more effectively.

1. Select a skill that you want to learn and break it down into different aspects or
sub-skills. Categorise each sub-skill as a mental or motor skill:
# Sub-skill Mental or Motor Skill

➔ Also, pay attention to which sub-skills are more important at this point in
time--are they mainly motor skills or mental skills?

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2. For the Motor Skills you’ve identified, schedule a Practice / Sleep / Recall session for
the next time you plan to practice it.

➔ If you’d like to experiment with how effective this technique is, you can try
doing one session without the Sleep component, and one with it.

➔ Jot down your experience and the difference in performance. In Lesson 2, you
should have ways to quantify and Measure your Feedback. This is the time to put
these into practice. Use your Digital Brain to help you out!

3. Integrate a Practice / Sleep / Recall routine into your Spaced Repetition routine.

➔ Use Anki to help you remember what skills need regular practice and to help
you remember when you need to practice again next.

Declarative Memory and Mental Skills

➔ Declarative memory is the memory of knowledge, information and experiences
such as facts and events.

➔ It’s the type of memory that you deliberately and consciously recall.

➔ You use Declarative Memory when using Mental skills, to recall the relevant
bits of information you need to piece together the solution to whatever you’re
trying to process.

➔ It takes a shorter time for Declarative Memories to be formed in your brain, but
Declarative Memories easily decay or decline when not used often.

➔ Declarative Memories require active engagement from your brain.

➔ Usually it’s the focus of your attention and diverting it away causes you to be
distracted from carrying it out properly.

➔ Declarative Memories are handled in the regions of your brain responsible for
active thought processes.

➔ These regions of your brain are what you use during conscious decision
making as opposed to the regions driving the automatic reflexive routines that
procedural memories use.

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Declarative Memories Form Networks

➔ Procedural Memories are pretty independent from each other.

➔ They are like individual compartments and rarely interfere with each other.

➔ Declarative Memories however, connect and reconnect with each other all the
time.

➔ The brain creates connections between them and associates meaning to them
through this.

➔ To create an incredibly strong connection, memories with more connections

that also have stronger links between each other, and will stay stronger together
as a whole.

➔ This has huge implications for how you learn Mental skills because your
Mental skills are basically a collection of Declarative Memories.

Learning Mental Skills Effectively

To learn Mental skills effectively:

1. You need to focus on b

​ uilding strong links between memories​, using a variety
of different methods.

2. Because Declarative Memory decays over time, you need to ​employ more
regular use of Spaced Repetition​ to keep things fresh.

3. ​Applying different Learning Styles w

​ ill help you to build different types of
connections as you map it to your long term memory.

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Step 1: Pick a mental skill from the pool of skills you’ve decided to learn.

Step 2: Go back to your Personal Learning Framework and pick at one learning method
from each Learning Style.
# Learning Style Learning Method

Step 3: For each learning method, think of an action you can take to help you practice or
remember the skill.
# Learning Method Action

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The Stages of Learning

Any skill grows through 3 stages:

1.​ Cognitive (Early) Stage —

​ understanding what you’re trying to do,
researching, thinking about the process, and breaking the skill into manageable
parts.

2. ​Associative (Intermediate) Stage​ — practicing the task, noticing

environmental feedback, and adjusting your approach based on that feedback.

3. ​Autonomous (Late) Stage​ — performing the skill effectively and efficiently

without thinking about it or paying unnecessary attention to the process. The skill
is completely internalized.

➔ These 3 stages are the process by which you transform a skill from System 2 to
System 1.

➔ The 3 stage model helps you understand your current level of proficiency .

➔ It tells you what you should focus on during each stage, and how your focus will
change in the next stage.

Cognitive (Early) Stage

➔ This is the first stage of any skill, when you’re just beginning to get a grasp of
what the skill is.

➔ Before you can practice or apply it, you’ve first got to know what to do and
how to do it.

➔ Focus on knowledge acquisition to understand the skill.

➔ The intention of the knowledge is to have enough to get you started .

➔ Learn how to measure and evaluate your skill.

➔ Figure out a learning plan.

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➔ If you feel like accelerating this stage, this is also a good time to start looking
for a coach.

➔ A coach at this stage will help you to:

◆ understand what you’re learning.

◆ help you evaluate your improvement.

◆ give you a plan of action.

Associative (Intermediate) Stage

➔ This is the second stage of a skill where you’ve got enough information to
know what to do in order to start practicing.

➔ This stage is where you make the most rapid improvements as you go from a
pure beginner to intermediate.

➔ Now that you have a way to measure/evaluate your improvement, set some
objectives for each sub-skill.

➔ Make Time for Regular Practice.

➔ Integrate your practice sessions with a Spaced Repetition strategy from the
start.

➔ Use Anki as a reminder of what and when to practice, and your Digital Brain
to plan and schedule practice sessions, to ensure that you make time for it.

➔ Evaluate your performance consistently each practice session.

➔ Always mark down what you should improve on for the next session, and
keep a record of your steady progress.

➔ As your proficiency grows, keep finding new and better ways to quantify or
measure your performance.

➔ Don’t be satisfied with sticking to the same feedback loop because you’ll
eventually hit diminishing returns.

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Autonomous (Late) Stage

➔ At this stage, you’ve internalized most if not all of the sub-skills involved.

➔ For motor skills, you’ve developed enough Procedural Memory (ie: muscle
memory) to the point where you’re automatically doing the motions.

➔ For mental skills, you’ve got lots of strong connections between Declarative
Memories.

➔ You also have regular Spaced Repetition practice to keep both skill types fresh.

➔ Start setting new objectives to push your limits of expertise.

➔ Find more role models - people who still have higher proficiency than you, to
have a concrete benchmark to aim for.

➔ This is the stage where you can start specializing in a particular aspect of your
overall skill.

➔ This is the stage to start on a new skill, as your current skill is at a level where
it should be pretty stable.

Step 3 of the Learning Process

➔ There’s actually a Step 3 to the Learning Process, which is converting your
short term learning into something long term that you keep forever.

➔ The difference between short and long term learning is the system (System 1
or 2) that the brain uses.

System 1 and System 2

➔ System 1 is essentially your intuition, where your brain processes things

rapidly and automatically without you having to think about it.

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➔ System 2 is your brain’s deliberate, analytical thinking process where you

actively think through something using logical reasoning.

The Learning Process

➔ Every skill involves both System 1 and System 2 thinking processes.

➔ But the reliance is different, depending on your proficiency in the skill.

➔ Beginners rely heavily on System 2, while Experts have a thick foundation of

System 1.

➔ The process of learning is simply converting more and more of your skill from
System 2 (active thinking) to System 1 (intuition).

➔ To learn effectively, you need to be efficient as there is simply not enough time
to practice as much as you’d like.

➔ To do so, the method is called Spaced Repetition.

Spaced Repetition
➔ Researchers have found that memory follows a decay curve.

➔ New concepts need to be reinforced regularly, but the longer you’ve known a
concept, the less regularly you need to review it to maintain accurate recall.

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The Memory Decay Curve

How Spaced Repetition Works

➔ We learn new skills through the Feedback Loop, which is by repeating the
process of practice, measure, and learn.

➔ The more effectively we apply the Feedback Loop, the faster we learn
something and vice versa.

➔ Spaced Repetition is applying the Feedback Loop to your brain’s memory

decay curve.

➔ You practice at just the right time to refresh your memory and keep your skill
fresh.

➔ If you can schedule the right practice sessions for the right skills regularly, you
can ensure that those skills are being improved on a regular basis.

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Anki App

➔ Anki is an app that essentially automates your Spaced Repetition learning

process for you.

➔ You can let it know what skills you’re trying to learn, and it will regularly
remind you of when you need to practice that skill next.

➔ It determines the amount of time in between each practice session based on

feedback you give it about how challenging you found the previous session. In
addition, we recommend Anki because it fits a lot of other convenient criteria:

1. It is content-agnostic - meaning it supports different types of media

besides text such as images, audio, and videos.

2. It supports multiple platforms - meaning you can install it on your

desktop/laptop computers as well as iPhone or Android mobile devices

3. And Anki is free to download.

Get Anki App

➔ Download the Anki App here: h

​ ttps://www.ankiapp.com/

➔ You’ll need to set up an Anki account, which helps you save all your learning
progress online, and sync it up between different devices.

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Module 4
EXERCISES
LIFELONG LEARNING

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Your Learning Values

➔ In order to keep investing in learning as a skill, you have to review how you see
learning in your life in general.

➔ Just like all the other skills we’re employing learning strategies to tackle,
learning is a skill on its own.

➔ If you fall for the commitment fallacy, you’ll end up preferring skills that seem
“easy to learn” instead of skills that are really the most useful for you.

➔ When you decide to learn something, it doesn’t mean that you’ve got to aim to
become an expert. That should be more of a side-effect .

➔ Learning a skill should be for the function it will serve in your life.

➔ Besides learning with goals in mind, it’s also important to learn with passion ,
to keep the learning sustainable.

What’s a skill you’ve considered learning, but were put off by the potential heavy
commitment?

Let’s try to look at it from an application/goal oriented perspective. For this skill:

1. Set a concrete learning goal to start off

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What is the simplest way that it can make a positive difference in your life?

Break it down, and start with a smaller goal that has immediate impact.

2. Commit at most 2 weeks of time into this skill to hit your first target.

3. Make sure you follow your Personal Learning Framework.

Apply Learning Techniques to your Learning Skill

➔ You’ve been applying learning techniques to other skills.

➔ Now you should apply learning techniques to your learning skill itself.

1. Upgrade your Learning Styles

➔ Your Learning Styles represent your learning strengths.

➔ Treat each Learning Method an individual Learning Skill .

➔ Focus on your strongest Learning Methods and constantly upgrade them.

2. Measure Your Learning

➔ Create a Feedback Loop for each Learning Skill

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◆ What are your objectives for this skill? What do you envision it being
able to do?

◆ What are the key factors that make this skill more effective?

◆ How can you quantify and measure these key factors?

◆ Can you find examples of high proficiency in this skill to use as

benchmarks for yourself?

3. Spaced Repetition

➔ Avoid the natural tendency to use only one or two Learning Skills and forget
the rest. Instead, employ the use of different Learning Skills regularly.

➔ Use spaced repetition to remind you of different Learning Skills that you can
employ for your next practice sessions to keep them constantly progressing too.

➔ Use the Anki App to prompt you.

4. Stages of Learning

➔ Find out what stage each of your Learning Skills are:

1. Cognitive (Early) Stage​ — understanding what you’re trying to do,

researching, thinking about the process, and breaking the skill into
manageable parts.

2. Associative (Intermediate) Stage —

​ practicing the task, noticing
environmental feedback, and adjusting your approach based on that
feedback.

3. Autonomous (Late) Stage — ​ performing the skill effectively and

efficiently without thinking about it or paying unnecessary attention to the
process. The skill is completely internalized.

➔ Use the Stages of Learning as a way for you to understand how your
individual Learning Skills and therefore your overall Personal Learning
Framework is improving over time.

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➔ Remember that your Personal Learning Framework is a set of skills you are
improving forever.

Take a look at your Learning Styles and choose the 5 strongest learning methods you
have right now. Treat these as individual learning skills:
# Strongest Learning Methods

Set out some objectives for each Learning Skill, and find at least 3 ways to quantify and
measure each one:
# Learning Skill Objectives Ways to Quantify and
Measure

1 1.

2.

3.

2 1.

2.

3.

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3 1.

2.

3.

4 1.

2.

3.

5 1.

2.

3.

Add the Learning Skills into your Spaced Repetition system (ie: add to Anki if you’re
using it) and start practicing it like any other skills.

Evaluate which Stage of Learning each of your skills are. If you can, try to show
indicators of progress:
# Learning Skill Stage of Learning Progress (0-100)

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2.

3.

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Our Farewell Offer

Thank you for enrolling in the Learn Anything Fast Course! We value your feedback and
want to better understand your unique experience.

Please take a few moments to complete this questionnaire and send this PDF to:
[email protected]​ with Subject​: “Learn Anything Fast”

In return, we'll send you a discount code that you can apply to our other courses and a
special thank you gift!

Why did you choose to enroll in Learn Anything Fast?

Do you feel that Learn Anything Fast has changed your life in any way? If yes, how
(please give examples)?

How has your mindset shifted from the concepts taught in Learn Anything Fast?

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Do you feel more empowered to become a Lifelong Learner?

Overall, how did you feel about Learn Anything Fast?

Do you have any other comments/feedback for this course?

Would you like to share any thoughts with the instructors?

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