Think time

When learning we often expect ourselves to understand everything quickly. Immediately we want to understand a new concept, even if it’s a field that we’re incredibly uneducated and uninformed in.

That’s not the case.

You won’t pick up everything quickly. Even if it’s a field you’re familiar and well educated in, you won’t pick up everything quickly, and expecting this of yourself won’t help you learn more quickly. If anything it’ll cause stress when you can’t learn quickly, and will probably cause you to learn more slowly.

Give yourself think time.

Think time is time to process what you’re learning. In the classroom that might mean giving the students about 30 seconds before you ask the class a question. And then giving the students a minute to think of an answer to that question before calling on students for answers. While learning by yourself it might mean giving yourself a few minutes after learning a new idea to process and think about the idea before moving on.

It might mean taking a break while practicing or working on something. Giving yourself a break to process what you were working on and rest from concentrating.

Think time can change a lot about the learning process.

ISJ