Speed Study Secrets (Not Taught In School) | Jim Kwik

Welcome to Kwik Brain, bite-sized brain hacks for busy people who want to learn faster and achieve more. I'm your coach, Jim Kwik. Free your mind. Let's imagine if we could access 100% of our brain's capacity. I wasn't high, wasn't wired, just clear. I knew what I needed to do and how to do it. I know kung fu. Show me. How do you study? In this episode, I'm going to share with you speed study secrets to cut your studying time while getting better results By studying smart, not just hard. Now, this is intended for all kinds of students, or if you're a parent of a student, middle school, high school, college, graduate, maybe you have to go for continuing education with your work, maybe you're a student of life, basically anyone who wants to study with ease, enjoyment, and effectiveness. Now, this is a topic near to my heart and my head. Many of you know I grew up with learning challenges from an early childhood brain injury. I struggled every single day. Every single day. Every day in school. And I thought it was so unfair that I worked so much harder than everyone else. In this episode, I'm going to share with you skills and strategies, brain hacks if you will, that I've taught everywhere from Caltech to Harvard and in our best-selling online course called Kwik Student, which is basically a 16-hour boot camp used by students in over 150 countries who have now cracked the code to higher test scores and have maximized their return on their studying time. If you'd like information about that, just go to kwikstudent.com, K-W-I-K student dot com, and you'll have the ultimate academic advantage. So you might have heard this phrase, study smart, not hard, but where do you learn how to do it? In school, you learn what to learn— math, history, science, Spanish— but not so much on how to learn. It's rare to find classes on how to learn, how to think, how to remember, and how to study. In this fast-paced, ever-changing world, these are the skills that will serve you as a student. Not only in school but also in life. And that's what this episode is. So let's get started. I want you to take rapid notes. And if you're driving or you're working out, I want you to use your memory techniques that you've learned from prior episodes because this really is not even just a podcast. This is an academy. So let's activate your quick student brain now with these advanced study tips. And when I say advanced, this is not typically what's taught in like school or online, like use a highlighter and rewrite your notes and make an outline and sit in the front of the class and use flashcards. All those are really good, but the things I'm going to talk about here is based in neuroscience and brain science. And so I'm going to share with you 4 things you need to stop immediately and 4 things you want to start. 4 things to stop and 4 things to start. Number 1, I want you to stop multitasking. That's right, stop multitasking. Many of you believe that you're doing 2 things at once or 3 things at once and you're not actually multitasking because every single time you switch from one task to another, you have to regain your focus and your flow. And it could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. So the more accurate term is not multitasking, it's actually called task switching. But it takes more time, it's less productive, and there's more errors. There was a study done at University of London saying it could even lower your IQ. Multitasking or attempting to multitask can even lower your IQ, similar that if you stayed up all night. If you stayed up all night, it could actually drop up to 15 points. So I want you to do one single mental thing at a time. So stop multitasking. The second thing I'm gonna ask you to stop is I want you to stop and eliminate distractions. In order for you to soar to the head of your class, you must focus. So turn your phone off, put it on airplane mode, put it in another room if you will. You could also use self-control apps if you're gonna have your phone there, like Freedom or FocusMe, to block certain websites like Facebook or Twitter. Or you could even block everything except for the sites you need for your work. And I would ask you to reference the episode we did on fast focus and productivity. That's something very important to re-listen to if you haven't listened to it yet. Number 3, I want you to stop cramming. Stop cramming. Many people don't study for days or weeks, and then they'll pull an all-nighter. They'll go 6 or 7 hours straight, which is really bad because you need sleep. That's where you consolidate short to long-term memory. But the big mistake that Students are making, I see over and over again, is they study for too long a period without taking breaks. You heard me right, it's important to take breaks. We know you study better when you study in chunks. Your attention, your retention diminishes after about 25 or 30 minutes. There's a time management method called the Pomodoro Technique where you set a timer to break for your work into intervals, traditionally about 25 or 30 minutes. And then you take about a 2 to 3 or 4, maybe a 5-minute break to stretch, to breathe, to hydrate, so on. Remember, as your body moves, your brain grooves. Also takes advantage of 2 very important memory principles that we teach in Kwik Recall. It's called primacy and recency. Primacy says you tend to remember something in the beginning. Recency says you tend to remember stuff towards the end. Meaning that if I gave you a list of 30 words and you didn't have some of these memory techniques, you probably remember the words in the beginning, primacy, and the words towards the end, which are more recent, or recency. So what happens is if you study for 6 hours straight with no breaks, you remember the information towards the beginning and towards the end, but there's a huge dip in between for all that time. And the benefit of taking breaks every 30 minutes or 45 minutes, whatever you choose to break, is you create more beginnings and more ends so you can recover a lot of that information. The 4th thing I'm going to ask you to stop is to hack this thing called akrasia. Akrasia. And now this is the state of acting against your own better judgment. And Socrates was said to have asked precisely, how is it possible that if one judges action A to be the best course of action, why would anyone do anything other than A? Right? You want to major in the major things and focusing on the 80/20 rule, right? Pareto's principle. Focus on the 20% of the things that give you 80% of the results or the rewards. And the challenge is a lot of people can't stick with a course of behavior. So I would recommend apps like Stick. Or BeMinder, which helps you to keep your commitments. Also listen, if you haven't, to the episode on how to stop procrastinating, the earlier episode we did called How to Stop Procrastinating. That will give you a number of brain hacks to be able to do the things that are holding you back, do the things that you need to do that are holding you back. Now, now that we've gone through the 4 things you want to stop, I'm going to rapid-fire give you the 4 things that you want to start. You want to start these 4 things. So number 1, I want you to practice what we call active recall, active recall. I actually don't recommend you reread textbook chapters over and over and over again. That's what most people do through rote repetition. Because you could delude yourself that you know the information that you're reading instead of really testing yourself. I'd rather you close the book and recall and recite all that you could remember because there's a difference between recognition and recollection. There's a big difference between recognition and recollection. Many times when you're rereading that chapter over again, You actually delude yourself thinking that you remember this information when you're really just recognizing it in front of you. 'Cause recognizing requires a trigger for you to remember something. And you may not get that on a test. You probably very well, like, you get that on tests. So study actively with a focus on recollection and quiz yourself. Don't just glance over your notes, your highlighted notes. Number 2, I would say, is start doing spaced repetition. Spaced repetition. Basically what this is saying is you wanna be able to space out your studying into intervals like you could your body when you're working it out. And separating the information, reviewing it through intervals, like maybe reviewing it an hour later, a day later, a week later, a few weeks later, helps to take it from your short-term to your long-term memory. And if you want software, many of you are very digital, that could help you accelerate that, There's a free software program called Anki, Anki, and it's like online flashcards, but they break it up into spaced repetition, so it makes it very straightforward on how to learn a language. Studying for medical or law exams, we use this kind of spaced repetition for memorizing people's names and faces, brushing up on your geography, mastering long poems word for word verbatim, even practicing musical instruments like guitar chords. It helps having spaced repetition. Number 3 thing to start is using your sense of smell. Using your sense of smell. Here's the thing, a lot of people don't realize that your environment gets anchored to the information that you're learning. And so you can't always bring the environment into the place. So it's obviously better to study in the room that you're going to take the exam in because you're unconsciously going to anchor that to the temperature, to the lighting, to the smells. All of that will get anchored to the information. But we can't always do that. So what you're going to do is you're going to take the environment in there with you. And one of the most powerful ways of doing that, actually most connected for your memory out of your senses, is your sense of smell, your olfactory sense. And so spraying an unfamiliar scent onto you, your body, maybe it could be an essential oil, a lip balm, a chewing gum, it's very unique flavor or scent. It could be a perfume or a cologne. While you're doing that, while you're studying, Then you actually put it back on when you need to be able to basically spray it again when you need to take an exam. And so the same thing could work with a different kind of unique kind of gum will work the same way. Also, there are certain scents, for example essential oils, that actually stimulate and wake up the mind. Peppermint is very good for your focus of your senses to improve your memory. Rosemary is really good for your memory also as well. So try Tapping into your sense of smell. And then finally, number 4 thing to start doing is to listen to music. And not music that would distract you, not heavy metal, not rap, but research done at Stanford School of Medicine says that playing certain types of music, like classical music, especially from the Baroque era, it's 60 beats per minute, which also harmonizes with the resting heart rate. And that could actually help accelerate the students to engage parts of your brain to help you pay attention. and make predictions. It puts you into what they call an alpha state, a brainwave state, alpha state, where you're relaxed and aware. Not to mention, listening to music can improve your mood and change your whole outlook in studying in general. And as a bonus, I'll add this in here to continue education, is to sharpen your saw. Sharpen your saw. One of my favorite books by mentor Dr. Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, where they studied all these effective people, broke it down to 7 habits, and the final habit, number 7, is called sharpen the saw. Metaphorically, if you had all this wood you need to chop and cut, you don't want to wait to be able to sharpen your blade. If you have a dull blade, sharpen it first. So I would recommend highly that you listen to all the past episodes and subscribe so you receive all the new ones for Kwik Brain automatically each week so you don't miss anything. I highly recommend for students the episode on how to learn anything faster, the top 10 keys to unlock your, your optimal brain health. So, so very important, foundational. Fast and Fun Way to Recall Lots of Information. That's the episode we did on memorizing technical information like the periodic table. Invaluable. How to Create New Habits Fast. That's study habits. How to Read Faster. And the episode on how to take notes is essential for study skills. And of course, if you want the very best advantage, join our Quick Student online program. It's 16 hours of my very best training on how to succeed with enjoyment and ease. Go to quickstudent. Now, did you like this episode? Please share it. Let me know what your favorite brain tip is. So tag me and follow me @JimKwik on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for new updates and more brain tips. And use what you learned, and you and your quick brain will rapidly soar to the top of your class. Want to double your brain speed and memory power? If you'd like to learn rapidly and get ahead faster, I'd like to give you my brand new Kwik Brain Accelerator program. You will discover exactly what I teach my clients to learn, read, and remember anything in half the time. There is no charge. It's my gift to you for being one of our subscribers. That's kwikbrain.com, or simply text the word podcast to 916-822-7246, and we'll send you a direct link. That's 916-822-7246. 82 brain. Growing up struggling with learning challenges from a childhood brain injury, it's been my life's mission to help you have your very best brain so you can win more every single day. Now, want more quick brain? Here are four ways to fast-track your results and lock in what you just learned into your long-term memory. Remember fast. F A S T. The F stands for Facebook. You're not alone on this journey. I invite you to join our. There you can connect with me, your fellow brain lovers, links to resources, and even submit your questions for me to answer in future episodes. Go to kwikbrain.com. That's K-W-I-K brain.com. The A stands for apply. Act on what you learned today. Remember, knowledge is not power, it's potential power. It only becomes power when you use it. So use what you just learned. And the last letter is the letter A. The S stands for subscribe. Don't miss the next episode and other free brain training. And finally, the T stands for teach. You want to learn faster now? The key is to lock it in right away by teaching it to someone else. When you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Here's a simple way to do that. Leave a review on iTunes. Leave a review with your biggest takeaway from this episode. You could also post and share this podcast on your social media. It helps us spread our mission of building better, brighter brains. And of course, tag us so our team can properly thank you. #KwikBrain, K-W-I-K Brain. Mine is @JimKwik, K-W-I-K, on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. So what does FAST stand for? Facebook, apply, subscribe, teach. I'll see you in our next episode of Kwik Brain. Until then, remember, you are faster and smarter than you think.