It’s a thousand times easier to learn when you can connect the information back to your own life.
This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Our brains are wired to most clearly remember the things that we can use. Things we can’t use become background noise that’s easy to filter out. So one of the most helpful learning hacks is to make information usable.
When you’re trying to remember something important fast, the quickest of learning hacks is to connect it to something you care about.
Imagine that you’re doing new customer service training for your job. The lesson is walking you through different scenarios for how to respond to customers and how to resolve questions. It’s all specific to your company, and it’s not very interesting.
But how can you use what you’re learning in your overall life?
Sure, you probably don’t need to soothe angry industry-specific customers outside the workplace. But you do probably want to understand how to deescalate conflict, how to understand where the frustration comes from, how to create problem-solving solutions, and how to ace boring quizzes.
You can learn about all of those things by paying attention to the lesson!
Stop asking, “Why am I learning this? Why do I have to learn this?” Instead, use learning hacks and give yourself a reason.