Tips For Improving Your Learning Ability

There is a lot of talk these days about the need to be a lifelong learner. There a couple different reasons why this is an important topic for everyone to consider.

There’s a utilitarian argument which says that in order to remain valuable to a dynamic and rapidly changing work environment that you need to continually update your skill set.

There is a social good argument which says that society is improved by having citizens who have an innate desire to learn and who continually seek self-improvement.

There is a personal satisfaction argument for a lot of people who see themselves as improving when they take action in order to increase their knowledge.

Regardless of your specific motivation for wanting to learn, it is a natural feeling to want to do a better job tomorrow than we did today. In particular, if you are returning to school for the first time in a number of years, you might be concerned about what you can do to reestablish your skill set as a student. Here are a number of ideas that have worked for me and for others in a similar situation:

Be very clear about the purpose of your learning and what a successful and stable look like once you’ve achieved your educational goals. Having specific and concrete goals, especially when you commit them to writing, will help pull you towards that goal. Just the act of writing these things down will support you in your goal to be a better student.

Keep an educational journal in which you mark your progress in your path towards education. It will help you with your writing skills, your discipline and your motivation when times get tough.

Join a study group of like-minded individuals who are also committed to their self development. You will find that their are times when you need the encouragement of others to keep going just as there’ll be times when you can provide that same encouragement to them. Making a commitment to a group of people that you respect and support you in your achieving goals.

Take a speed reading course to increase your speed and comprehension levels, as that is a fundamental skill that will apply to just about every field of study.

Schedule time on your calendar and at priority times in order to stay with your educational activities on a daily and weekly basis. By prioritizing the time you will reinforce the importance of the actions.

Good luck to you in your studies!