Being able to learn effectively is important for students – and anyone interested in picking up new skills or knowledge. It involves not only increasing the speed at which you’re able to learn new things, but also how well you’re able to retain and recall it.

The good news is that there are tips that can help you to achieve all of that. In fact if you start to put them into practice, you’ll find that you’re able to learn more effectively all the time:

• Try different styles of learning

Different people find different styles of learning (https://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/) more effective. For example some find visuals easier to grasp, while others may prefer verbal, physical, or even social learning styles.

Initially you should experiment with a variety of different styles. The goal should be to find one (or more) that works best for you personally, and try to use it more frequently when you’re learning.

• Eliminate distractions

When you’re trying to learn something new, you should ensure that you eliminate as many distractions as possible. Focus is key to memory, and fewer distractions will allow you to pay more attention to what you’re learning.

Sometimes the best way to eliminate distractions can be to organize your time better – so that you’re able to dedicate a specific period of time when you aren’t going to be interrupted. In other cases it may be avoiding bad habits, such as wanting to check social media regularly, or getting distracted by videos that your friends share.

• Get into the habit of taking notes

Notes can be a very useful tool to promote learning. Not only can it help you to keep track of information that you need to know, but the act of taking notes can often help you retain the information far more effectively too.

Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to jot down conventional notes. Instead you can use your smartphone, add in images, or even include videos.

In fact if you study on computers a lot it may help to use Free Online Screen Recorder(https://screencapture.com/). It will provide a quick and easy way to save the content of your screen as a video to add to your notes.

• Test yourself – regularly

Spending as much time as you can learning is all well and good, but you should try to set aside time to test yourself too. Tests can be very useful to check on what you’re able to retain and recall – and will allow you to focus your learning on the right areas.

While actual tests that you can try out may not always be available, there are other ways that you can test yourself too. For example you could attempt to put what you learned into practice, or try to recall and write it out in your own words from memory.

• Teach others what you’ve learned

Teaching others can not only help you to ensure that you remember what you’ve learned, but can actively help you to retain information better.

Although you could teach others directly, if you want you can try different ways to share the information that you’ve learned. For example you could write out a blog post about it, record a podcast, or find some other way to convey the information.

Overall these tips should help you to learn far more effectively – but don’t expect overnight results. It will take time before you start to be able to reap the rewards, which is why you should try to get into the habit of using these tips sooner rather than later.