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Introduction

No matter how organized we may be, time tends to slip away from us because life moves very fast. It's no surprise that many of us are always interested in shortcuts because we don't have much time to spend on learning a new skill. With all being made so good, these shortcuts do exist and we can learn whatever we want to learn faster by taking advantage of a few actionable strategies. For you to use new information more effectively and get to easily remember something, one skill you must continue to develop is learning.

Though you may have done it all your life and it may not be something that's totally new to you, you can always enjoy the opportunity of being successful every time you learn something new if you follow a systemic series of steps. And, you do have the ability to learn anything faster if you've already learned things like sports, how to cook, a new language, how to drive a car, or any other relative thing.

When you look at some of the skills you’ve learned before, you'll find out that you're not new to learning faster and if you have done it in the past (even though you may not be conscious of how quickly you were able to pick up the skill), you can always learn to do it again. We can now have a firm grasp of how to hold on to information with the knowledge we derive from how our brain works and how we learn — all thanks to neuroscience. In fact, we can now speed up our learning process by making the most out of time. Yes, time is precious and learning does take time, but we must always strive to learn and grow since it's a huge part of life to learn new things.

Today, there are proven ways you can start learning faster. If you're someone who has the intention of becoming the smartest person in the room by getting to know how to retain more and learn faster, this book does help you explore tips on how to become a fast and smart learner with no stress attached.

Chapter 1: Skill, Learning, and Acquisition

Popular author and motivational psychologist, Heidi Grant Halvorson, once said that we must always be getting smarter because being smart is not enough, and one of the keys to success is to be able to learn new skills in this fast-moving, competitive world. Truthfully, in today’s business environment, mastering new skills is a necessity and the words "fast-moving" and "competitive", which describe the nature of the world we live in today, emphasize the little time we have to get things done lest we become stale and shoved far behind.

There are some general rules you can follow, irrespective of the fact that the skill you want to learn and the person who you are will determine your learning technique. Whether you desire to learn how to analyze data, use social media better, or improve at public speaking, you can accomplish your learning goals and gain new insight on how to approach learning new skills when you understand the importance of learning new skills and explore a few tips to learn better and faster.

Why you Should Learn a Skill

Successful people stick to their promise of learning. Rather than vegging out in front of the television, they dedicate their spare time in the pursuit of learning and they stay committed to that. Do you even know that those who are best at learning new skills are those who consistently succeed? If you doubt this, just think of some of the world's most successful people. Without mincing words, learning a new skill is an amazing way to leverage your spare time in the upcoming year. You can enhance your knowledge base, expand your professional networks, and beef up your opportunities for career advancement when you stay committed to learning something new.

Why is it Difficult to Learn a Skill?

One of the beautiful things about difficulties is that they do help us to improve our ability to remember, comprehend, and learn because they facilitate encoding and retrieval of processes and this validates why difficulties are noted to be desirable. Speaking of why people find it difficult to learn a new skill, at times, it's actually a normal thing. It’s not pretty much a big deal because whenever you're embarking on a new thing, it's like setting out for an adventure. Of course, there will be some changes and new connections between neurons because a specific part of your brain is about to get rewired.

Sounds funny or clumsy? Well, it isn't. The simple science is that, when you make things more difficult and challenge yourself, you open yourself up to a new change that may shake you a bit. However, do you ever wonder why some people learn something today and in the next few hours they're blank? Have you ever tried to master something and you feel you're doing great at it until you have to do that thing and you realize that you're blank?

Many of us have experienced this at a point in time and one of the reasons why this happens is because the learning conditions we used were too easy and the simple thing we need to do to overcome this for our subsequent learning is to work on improving our learning by practicing smarter. Identify what works for you and stick to it. You may want to use effective methods such as spaced repetition (increasing your interval between the repetitions when you're first learning something), variation and complexity (checking if your performance can be affected by varying the weather, the rules, the distractions, the environment, the exercises, or other elements — basically, purposely challenging yourself to see your stance), or retrieval.

Before you ask anybody for help, try your best to remember that thing.

How Long Does It Take to Learn a Skill?

Most of us are haunted by the possibility of not doing something better and this thought often prevents us from getting engaged in something new. We have no choice but to quit and find something else to do just to get rid of that feeling of angst. However, one thing we often miss out on is that we don't know that we can benefit from huge increases in a skill when we give in a little persistence while we're experiencing the usual challenges during the early hours of trying something new.

In a very short period, you can experience dramatic improvements if you persist and practice intelligently. Picking up new skills extremely quickly is quite easy for the brain for it's optimized for such a task. Take note that the 10,000 hours of mastering a skill is nothing but an illusion because it takes only 20 hours to move from “knowing nothing to being pretty good”.

Types of Skill

Hard skills (also known as technical skills) and soft skills are the two major types of skills. For optimal performance and advancements in most jobs, both skills are necessary and it's recommended that you possess the two. Speaking of hard skills, these are the skills you gain through any life experience via training or technical knowledge. For example:

- You may be able to speak a new language fluently if you studied a foreign language.

- You may know how to use Microsoft Excel if you've taken an accounting class.

- You may know how to use a point-of-sale system if you’ve worked in food service or retail.

Some of the most in-demand hard skills include:

- Programming languages like Ruby, Java, Python, and Perl
- Storage systems and management
- Marketing campaign management
- User interface design
- Mobile development
- Data mining
- Statistical analysis
- SEO/SEM marketing
- Network security
- Adobe software suite
- Database management
- Bilingual or multilingual

On the other hand, if you're still searching for work, you'll find soft skills to be very essential for your career because they're the traits and personal habits that frame your interaction and work-relation with others and how you work.

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Introduction

Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Looking at this statement, one can deduce how important habits are and how they determine who we truly are. You may not be so conscious of it but your habits shape your life a lot. Habits create neurological cravings that make our brains cling to them and they're a very significant force.

Habits help us grow stronger in what we do and our performance level because they literally shape our everyday actions and they're a part of our lives. We all acquire different habits and habits do play an important role in our everyday living. It's possible to develop bad habits such as escapism, deceiving others, stealing, dishonesty, telling lies, procrastination, lethargy, drug addiction, alcoholism, and lots more. However, it's also possible to develop and foster good habits like meditation, regular exercise, reading, writing, and hard-working, amidst many others.

Habits are an undeniably powerful part of life and we all are creatures of habit. If you can just take a few minutes to ponder, you'll realize that the direct reflection of your daily habits has been very fervent in determining the state and quality of your life. Habit can hinder your progress in life and it can also help to propel you forward to greater success.

Habits help us form our years of repetitious behavior. The deep-seated habits etched into your mind play out in what you think, say, and do. It's not easy to get rid of bad habits because of the willpower and commitment it warrants. Understanding how significant habits are, this book helps you expand your knowledge of all the tangible things you should know about habits and it also explores ideas on how to get better at your habits to achieve greatness, good well-being, and all-round success.

Chapter 1: Habits - Meaning, Characteristics, and Role

Habit can be explained to be the evidence of the practice of one’s preferences. At times, we're motivated to do different activities by our habits, just as we're inspired to carry out several activities by our instincts. Habits are acquired by living organisms and they can be found in both man and animal.

Habits make us restless to have more taste of some past experience and one can as well say that habit is the second nature of man.

What Exactly is a Habit?

Habit can be simply explained to be a regularly repeated behavior. Speaking of the behavior, it could be a lifestyle, a routine, or an action. Whatever you do usually and constantly without thinking about it, most times, is a habit. Habits do help us undertake necessary activities like following the same routes every day, getting dressed for work, taking a shower, and brushing our teeth because they're behaviors and rituals that we carry out spontaneously. Our unconscious habits help us decide what to make for dinner, solve problems, or do other more complex tasks because they help in freeing up enabling resources for our brain. Habits can be the ones that are bad for us, the good ones or the ones that have been part of our lives forever that we don't even notice, such as teeth brushing and tying of shoelaces. We activate several habits every day and we all have habits.

Characteristics of Habit

There are four common characteristics of habits and they are uniformity, facility, interest, and independence of attention.

i. Uniformity

If you check your mode of walking, sleeping, talking, or how you do other activities, you'll realize that there's usually an underlying specific habit. This is simply because habits bring uniformity to our activities.

ii. Facility

Habit tends to help us facilitate our performance of an activity. Imagine you started learning to play the guitar. You'll realize that it will become easier for you once you've been able to form the habit, despite the pain you had experienced while learning.

iii. Interest

Interest is the primary core of habit. Let's still use the analogy of the guitar. Let's say the guitar training is a bit hard for you because you keep having sore fingers but as soon as you're able to find your proper grip on it and form that habit of the correct finger placement, you'll begin to find it more interesting to play the guitar.

iv. Independence of attention

There are several things that don't require any attention but we still do them due to our habits.

Why Habits Are Key to Our Health

Your chances of maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be increased or decreased by the habits you cultivate. Habits are very essential to our health. If you want to promote longevity and increase the quality of your life, it's very important that you practice good and helpful habits like exercising regularly and eating healthily. On the other hand, you can risk developing diabetes, obesity, or other chronic diseases when you cultivate bad habits like low activity levels, excessive fast-food consumption, and increased consumption of sugary soft drinks.

You can lower the risk of diseases such as cancer and diabetes, keep your blood sugars in range, and achieve proper weight with healthy habits. In fact, your health will be grateful to you if you exercise regularly, eat enough fresh foods, take plenty of fruits and vegetables with the healthy habits you maintain.

Why you Must Develop Good Habits

Many, at times, are still struggling to understand why it's important to develop good habits. Forming good habits is very necessary and here are five reasons why you should:

1. Habits are who you are. Habits ultimately become who you are because they grow to be a considerable part of your routine.

2. You can change your habits. This is one of the beautiful things about habits. If you know you have some bad habits, you can always step up to change them. Although your worst habits may be harder to stop and it could be quite challenging to break your old habits, with single and consistent steps and actions, you can successfully change your bad habits.

3. You can easily reach your goals with good habits. One of the things that draw most people back in life is bad habits. Do you still remember the saying that bad habits are like flat tires? Trust you do. Well, if you don't fix those flat tires, my dear, you'll remain where you are.

4. Habits set a foundation for life. You'll end up becoming a healthy person if you foster the act of eating vegetables often. You’ll end up becoming a joyful person if you cultivate the habit of joyfully greeting your family. The tone of your life is set by the habits you develop because these habits get to become you. Choose to develop good habits and you'll realize that you're setting yourself up to live happily and healthily.

5. Habits can replace motivation. There are usually some days when we can be low on motivation. During those days, we may find it difficult to do what we should do but at times, our habits tend to stand up for us and propel us to do what we need to do. Habits are what we do without having to think and because they get to become our second nature. There's this unconscious push they give us to get up and do what we must do.

Chapter 2: Habit Formation

Acquired normally consequential to learning and repetition, habit is an automatic response to a specific situation. It's a change of behavior with experience and it's a simple form of learning. Habit doesn't necessarily demand our conscious attention.

How We Form Habits

It takes about 18 to 254 days for someone to form a new habit. This is according to a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology in the year 2009. Before a new behavior can become automatic, it will take 66 days, on average. This is also in accordance with the study. The cue, the routine, and the reward work together for habit formation as the three main components. Habit loop is the process by which new habits form.

Starting with the first component, which is the cue, it could be a scent, an event, a feeling, a person, an object, or any other thing at all. The cue is whatever reminds you of the habit or prompts you to take an action. Simply put, the behavior you're about to develop is encouraged by a trigger which is the cue.

Next, we move on to the other component which is the routine. The specific routine that your brain has developed is what you'll start following whenever a cue triggers your habit. It's more like you're prompted to do something and then you started taking action to do it. Your habit includes what you do before and after the habitual behavior. This is to tell you that your habits are also connected to your other actions because habits aren’t just one action.

Now, moving to the last component, which is the third, whatever outcome you accomplish is the reward. Your reward may be feeling better emotionally with the habit and because of the satisfaction you derive from the reward, you'll have a higher tendency of constantly repeating the habit unconsciously.

Basis of Habit Formation

Physiological and psychological bases are the two terms that can be used to explain habit formation.

The physiological basis

It affirms that there's a pathway we get led to when there's a connection formed by a clear nervous signal prompted by several repetitions of an action. The connection gets strengthened when the response is elicited and a stimulus is repeated.

The psychological basis

This affirmation focuses on how individuals retain any learning process or experience. Habits are acquired dispositions and this is what the psychological theories explain. We form a habit with our ability to keep retaining and getting it strengthened. What are Examples of Habits?

There are series of examples of habits and several of them will definitely be explained in the course of this book. As earlier mentioned, some habits can be health-promoting and some may be harmful. If you buckle your seatbelt without thinking about it or pick up a pair of running shoes after getting home each day, that's a habit. There are some people who wake up and the first thing they do automatically is to reach for a cigarette — it's a habit too.

Why do Humans Have Habits?

Without having to ponder over what to do or waste time and energy, people can easily perform useful behaviors — all thanks to habits. Habits are efficient and we all are creatures of habit. Habits offer us the beautiful advantages of quick and efficient responses but they can be compromised when we let them get overridden by destructive habits such as consumption of unhealthy food or usage of addictive drugs.