The ultimate goal. Training should bring benefits and benefits. It is much easier to remember information if you imagine where you will apply this knowledge in the future.
How to reward yourself for learning
Dopamine is released not only from learning new things, but also from the consumption of fatty foods, alcohol and cigarettes. He reacts to them faster, and therefore sensitivity to a useful dose of dopamine - reading, learning - decreases.
To avoid this, you need to work on your "pleasure management" - to replace the intensive release of dopamine from harmful sources to maintain a healthy level of motivation.
You can't just give up the usual ways to have fun - a piece of cake, a series on Netflix, watching a feed on Instagram - but you can replace them with new ones.
For example, dopamine is released during any physical activity - walking, running, dancing, cycling. Another source of useful pleasure - learning new things. This is a natural human need that helps to adapt to changing living conditions.
The best option is to combine movement with knowledge: go on a walking tour of unfamiliar places, ride a bike, paying attention to the trees, nature. While not everyone can travel, you can make new routes from home to the subway or go to a coffee shop in another part of the city.
Even at home, you can always try something new: brush your teeth with your left hand (if you're right-handed) or lace up shoes on another knot.
"To make the familiar world unusual, as in childhood - a creative task. But it will help our brain to form new neural connections and thus to solve difficult problems », - Travkina writes.
How discipline will help in learning
Discipline helps to systematize knowledge and focus on them over time.
To organize new information, you need to combine it with what the brain already knows. Otherwise, knowledge will not linger there long.
For example, it is better to choose one topic and study it in terms of different subjects than to delve into unrelated areas. Connections between different fields of science and art can always be found. Photographers often study physics through the prism of lenses, and journalists study economics, technology, or finance through their publications.
To master and systematize new knowledge, you need to focus on learning and ignore secondary issues.
Time management will help in this, because its essence is not in time management, but in attention management: how many hours a day you will work efficiently, and how many you will spend in vain.
Now it is not fashionable to concentrate - the world has a widespread culture of multitasking, when a person performs several tasks simultaneously. However, the brain does not work in multitasking mode - it just switches from one task to another.
It takes effort and time to shift the focus from one case to another. In addition, the more often you change the task, the more tired the brain. As a result, the results are worse.
To correct this, you need to prioritize correctly and train concentration focused on one subject. This will help the "tomato method", when the work is divided into those periods of time that allow you to concentrate on one thing and not get tired. Thus the person works according to algorithm:
Decides what her task is.
Set the timer for 10, 20, 30 minutes.
Works until the timer rings.
After completing the task, deletes this block of work from the to-do list (and thus encourages your brain to continue).
Rest for 5 minutes and set the timer again.
After 4 blocks take a long break.
The habit of turning off notifications on social networks also helps you focus on learning. After all, every like, new post or message activates the release of dopamine, and the brain spends it on checking alerts, not on motivation to learn.
Why interest matters
Usually, teaching in schools and universities is structured as follows: the teacher transmits knowledge, and the student remembers.
Scientists propose another model, inquiry-based, based on dialogue. New approaches to solving ordinary problems and creative thinking are important for such a system, while discipline, honesty and following the rules are important for the traditional educational process.
Thanks to this approach, learning is boring and uninteresting for many people. It does not stimulate the brain to work better. For effective learning, it is necessary to create an environment in which cognition becomes a style of communication, and the subject - the object of interest, not alienation.
