One of the golden skills in this information age is the skill of learning. The world has evolved into a fast-paced environment where knowledge is key and the one who can harness it is king and can make the rules. One would have thought that going to school and graduating with a college degree is sufficient to make it in this world, yet every day new challenges arise and so are the solutions hence the need for continuous learning beyond a college degree and venturing into fields of study outside your comfort zone.

❓ Define your why

In a pool of information, where would one start learning? We were all born in a country with a well-established education system. The default is that at a certain age a child is allowed to go to school as a right to education. The idea is good and novel as it aids in societal development. The problem is that there are a lot of pupils who are just going to school for the mere seek of it, not really understanding why they are doing this subject and most importantly how they will use it.

Yes, the education system is good to an extent, however most of these average and basic systems fail to make the student understand why he or she is learning the subjects prescribed. It is very important to define your real reason for learning something otherwise the exercise will not be fruitful.

In most cases your why is the problem you want to solve. The problem you wish to solve gives you a unique drive and motive firstly to make the process more enjoyable and fun then the determination to it that it has been solved. This is the stuff that will keep you up at night and make you work even longer hours, as your why will make you determined to find the solution to the challenge.

The level of operation when you define your why can be matched to the level of determination a child develops when playing a video game. The child cannot be told to get out of the game and rest. Rather he can play all day and all night without keeping time and getting tired. This could be why you are determined to find your solution to the challenge you have in hand. Your Why becomes the challenge and your lectures become the bits and pieces of the solution you have to discover to solve the problem.

🏫 Learn, not just study

Learning is different from studying. Studying is like reading a book and taking notes whereas learning is actually your mind taking in the information and being able to apply it.

In a world such as ours what benefit does it have to read a piece of information without the ability to apply it? The havens aren’t in favour of such, rather they are the ones who can apply new knowledge to solve complex challenges. Take for example a student doing maths at school. He can study a whole maths textbook and get good grades but the moment he steps out of the classroom and is faced with a challenge that needs those maths skills and he fails to apply them, what good is he to society?

It is why the notion that a college degree isn’t really relevant in today’s world, because someone with a marketing degree is being outperformed by someone without the degree but is self-taught and is applying the skills he has properly. There is life after grades. Learn, do not just study for the sake of a mark.

🎯 Focus in a distracted world.

The fact is the ocean of information we are in also comes with a lot of distractions. Staying focused on the learning task at hand is important. We easily get more done in a short time and we will be sure that it is of the best quality.

There are a number of tactics that can be employed to help us stay focused. Deep work is one of them. Deep work is a super skill that can impact all areas of your life.

Rule 1 of deep work. Focus on a single task for as long as you can. While some people believe in multi-tasking, the sad truth about our biological brain is that for optimum performance and results. Multi-tasking is not an ideal tactic compared to tackling a single task at a time. The reason this is so is that each task has its own activation energy – getting into the right mindset and flow to get it done. When we switch to a different task we go through the activation energy of the new task, however when we switch back to the original task, we don’t continue from where we left, we reactivate the energy similarly as we are starting the task. This results in wasted time and effort in our productivity.

Rule 2 of deep work. Tolerate boredom. Our mind hates negative thoughts and tries to escape them where possible. That is why we find it easy to grab our phones or daydream when it gets boring. This translates also to when we are doing tasks that the mind defines as boring. If we are not careful, we may find ourselves getting distracted easily. You need to embrace boredom and let your mind know that you are not messing around and raise the bar for tolerating boredom.

Our dedication to learning can be the secret weapon to conquering the world. Think of it this way: we all have the same time to solve common problems. The difference between you and the next guy is how well versed are you in the skills necessary to solve the problem and in the long run what will matter the most is how best can you acquire those skills. The one most efficient at that will win the race.