10 Ways to Learn Faster With Techniques School Never Taught You

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Yes, you can learn faster. All it takes is applying techniques school never taught you.

These include memory techniques rooted in the ancient traditions that built the Renaissance.

And they’re all proven by modern science, as you’ll see in this detailed guide.

I didn’t learn them the easy way, but you can.

See, during the first year of my PhD, I could barely read a paragraph.

Taking antidepressants to try healing my depression unfortunately dulled my mind.

Collapsed my focus.

And made me almost believe I wasn’t cut out for serious learning anymore.

But everything changed when I accidentally stumbled across the techniques I’m going to share with you today.

They didn’t help me just retain more.

They pulled me out of my cognitive fog, rewired my focus and gave me the confidence to keep going.

Since then, I’m taught at major universities.

I’ve studied languages like Biblical Hebrew, German and Chinese.  And for my personal progress and one of my most popular books, I also memorized over 100 verses of Sanskrit to learn an ancient philosophy.

But the most powerful learning technique I discovered?

I’ll share it near the end.

It will help you remove obstacles so you can learn faster than ever before.

Ready?

Let’s dive in.

10 Proven Ways to Learn Faster
(Backed by Memory Science and Ancient Techniques)

As we get into these learning processes, it might surprise you to know that in many cases, picking up new topics and skills faster isn’t about more effort.

It’s often about alignment.

And the techniques you’re about to discover reduce unnecessary effort because they’re grounded in how your memory actually functions, as I’ve shared in my full guide to how memory works.

Some of what you’re about to learn comes from ancient traditions.

Other techniques have been identified by modern memory science and research into education at large.

To get the most out of this list, here’s what I suggest:

• Try at least one of the techniques immediately
• Reflect on how it feels using pen and paper
• Stack on more techniques over the weeks and months to come

There’s no need to tackle all of them at once.

But when you apply them consistently over time, you’ll experience faster recall, deeper understanding and more joy in learning than ever before.

One: Start Every Learning Session With These Two Questions

Instead of diving into a book and scanning or skimming for facts, pause first next time.

And ask two questions used by the fastest learners I know:

Why am I learning this? And how will I use it?

Although this might seem too simple to create an effect, it’s a highly strategic learning accelerator.

That’s because when you start the learning process with a clear understanding of purpose, your brain knows how to filter for the main points.

Two: Use the SQR3 Method

It’s the same reason top learners use the SQR3 Method that I cover in-depth in my guide to effective note-taking.

In case you’re new to SQR3, it means:

• Survey
• Question
• Read
• Recite
• Review

To apply it during your next study session, glance through the book’s index and table of contents.

Start formulating 2-3 questions you want the material to answer.

If you don’t know, look for a practice exam or do some research. Identifying what you’ll have to know in advance is a major key to enjoying life as a top performer.

If you’re skeptical about this simple approach, I understand. But this study shows positive results that I’ve experienced many times.

Not only will you learn faster when using SQR3. You’ll also become a better self-regulator.

That benefit in itself will provide you with some powerful knock-on effects as you continue to grow as a lifelong learner.

And for even more results, try adding Socratic questioning to the process.

Three: Relax Your Mind and Body Before Studying
(Using My 3-Step “Magnetic” Method)

I’ll never forget one of the reviews on the first edition of my first book, How to Learn and Memorize German Vocabulary.

The person complained about how I’d included material on relaxation before sitting down to study this challenging language.

The truth?

The fastest learners in the world aren’t frantic. And they do not cram at the last minute.

They’re calm, deliberate, and tuned in.

Because they know this fundamental truth about memory:

Information flees from tension. But it’s “magnetically” attracted to relaxation.

When your brain is overloaded, stressed, or anxious, your cognitive bandwidth shrivels up.

Worse, your working memory can’t hold what it needs to process, and long-term encoding gets blocked.

But when you relax using an intentional process, your brain will absorb more information.

My Magnetic Relaxation Protocol (3 Steps Before You Study)

1. Stretch Your Body

• Just spend a few moments reaching for the sky.
• Then touch your toes.
• Roll your shoulders, open your chest.
• Shake out your hands.
• Open and close your jaw.

These simple and gentle movements signal safety to your nervous system and help prime your focus.

2. Breathe With Intent

• Close your eyes and breathe in for 4, hold for 4, out for 6. Do this 6 times.
• Add a soft mental mantra like, “I’m here. I’m learning. This matters.”

This simple process will shift you from a sympathetic fight or flight state into parasympathetic calm.

3. Prime Your Focus With Movement or Mapping

• Take a 5-minute walk while reflecting on what you’re about to learn.
• Create a quick mind map to externalize your thoughts (more on how to do this below).

This clears the noise and organizes your intent.

Relaxation isn’t about zoning out. It’s about entering the zone.

Use this simple three-step protocol before each study session and you’ll enjoy:

• Faster recall
• Less internal resistance
• More enjoyment while learning

To help yourself stop forcing your memory to learn and start flowing with it at an even deeper level, check out my guide on yoga for memory. Then follow up with my guide on dopamine resetting.

Four: Focus on Less to Remember More

When I wrote my guide on how to realistically memorize a textbook, I had no idea people would find it so practical and useful.

Like Sebastian Acosta, who wrote on Facebook:

The reason Sebastian got such great results isn’t just because focusing on less helps you read faster.

It’s because using personalized flash cards provides you with a laser-targeted tool for remembering only the parts of your study materials that matter.

You’re also harnessing the power of what scientists call the chunking memory strategy.

Check out this video tutorial for all the details and 10 steps to follow:

As you read, restrict the notes you take to only the information that answers your guiding questions. Some people will freeze up at this suggestion because they think they’re leaving too many details behind.

This feeling is normal, but it’s not correct. It’s a feeling of scarcity caused by a variety of memory biases.

Let them arise, but keep focusing. Your brain will fill in the details, especially during the final part of the SQR4 method discussed above.

And that step is to recite the answers in your own words, both in writing and out loud.

As a minimalist approach, it works because it:

• Forces you to identify only the most important concepts
• Creates stronger mental links

It might help you to think of learning like pruning a tree.

When you cut away all the clutter, the healthiest branches grow stronger and the roots grow deeper.

I often use the term “rhizomatic learning” to describe this process of “less is more.”

Rhizomes make connections through their systems of tendrils without even touching each other.

And that’s how the brain works too through your synapses. What matters is that the connections are solid.

To grow them, you have to select and plant the best possible seeds. Less truly is more.

Five: Use Summary Writing to Reveal (and Fill) Your Knowledge Gaps

There’s a reason Tony Buzan told us on this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast:

“You don’t know what you don’t know… until you try and recall it.”

In other words, if you want to learn faster, you need to shine a light on your own ignorance.

And the best way to do that is to write.

Now, you might be thinking:

Hang on… how can I write about something I don’t understand?

The answer is to combine writing summaries with the Feynman technique. Scott Young, author of Ultralearning, talks about it often, and I find it useful in my own learning projects.

Except I’ve modified it. Here are the steps:

• Without looking at your notes or the source material, write a quick summary after each study session in your own words.
• Write down your questions about aspects you remember, but don’t quite understand to process in your own words exactly what you think you’re failing to comprehend.
• Make a plan to fill in the gaps in writing.
• Ask questions to help guide yourself:
  • Where can I look to get the answers I need?
  • Who can I ask to get help?

This simple technique not only reinforces what you’re learning.

It sharpens your selective attention and builds what scientists call active recall.

You’re also developing a positive feedback loop that develops continual improvement.

And the best part is that it only takes a few minutes to use the technique.

Six: Use Active Reading to Lock Information Into Long-Term Memory

Ever have that feeling that all you’ve done is moved your eyes across the pages of a book while your mind drifted in the void?

You can solve this issue by using a variety of active strategies beyond asking questions while reading in the kind of flow state we discussed above.

Here are some of my best tips:

Sit like it matters

Many people slouch while reading.

Although it is possible to read in bed and still retain information, generally your body’s physical position influences your cognitive state.

Sit upright at a desk like you see me in this photograph:

I’m deliberately “hunting” for ideas and using my body to create a physical state that sharpens my mind.

Interleave the Input

Even when I’m deeply interested in what I’m studying, I still experience topic exhaustion.

To combat it, I use a technique called interleaving.

In simple terms, it’s just switching between books and articles at regular intervals.

Follow these steps to experience for yourself the benefits of keeping active while reading:

• Read a chapter for 15-20 minutes max.
• Switch to another book or article.
• Reflect on both for a few minutes by writing a summary or creating a mind map.
• Read a third book or return to the first one.

One reason interleaving works is that your brain experiences contrasts that lead to deeper encoding.

You’re also experiencing diffuse thinking, a process recommended often by the learning expert Barbara Oakley.

For more on active reading, I’ve written an entire tutorial for you. The additional details are worth checking out, so long as you read them actively.

Seven: Using Mind Mapping to Speed Up Comprehension

Mind mapping can do a lot of things for you.

One of them is to engage more parts of your brain so you process information faster.

In some ways, it’s like creating a visual summary, rather than using prose.

And it’s powerful because it lets you organize information in space while engaging your focus.

That’s why I often incorporate a bit of mind mapping as part of the interleaving process.

You don’t have to make mind mapping just about comprehension for learning either.

Look at the mind map pictured above.

I was trying to “comprehend” what would make the best possible YouTube video about retention.

So I used the mind map process to speed up the process, triggering many associations in my mind.

The Core Principles of Effective Mind Mapping

To use the technique yourself:

• Start with a central image or keyword
• Use branches that extend from the central image to develop related ideas
• Use color generously
• Add additional images throughout

I sometimes also mind map after reading to recreate what I’ve learned in as non-verbal a manner as possible. As you can see in this mind map, there are no words at all:

As with active reading strategies, mind mapping as you learn gets your body involved.

And it utilizes more of your mind, leading to deeper absorption and longer recall.

Eight: Optimize Your Schedule for Maximum Learning Retention

Even if you could create more hours in the day using AI tools, you don’t need them.

You need to use the best hours of your day better.

Rather than study whenever you can squeeze it in, make time for it.

For example, I’m studying Neigong and Neidan at the moment. When I merely jam in a bit of learning here and there, my results aren’t very good.

But when I stick to a defined morning and evening session, I enjoy more understanding and very powerful outcomes.

Those are the times that work best for me. But you will need to work out your own schedule. Here’s how:

Observe When Your Brain is Naturally Sharp

Over the next few weeks, deliberately read at different times of the day.

In a journal, jot down when your summaries were the most accurate.

And when you actually enjoyed the process most.

As you keep track of your best times of day, you’ll learn to avoid:

• Studying during energy dips
• Cramming when you should be sleeping

Soon, you’ll find that you’re getting a lot more value from the time you spend learning.

Protect Your Learning Environment

A lot of people study in situations of chaos.

Rather than let the randomness of life slow you down, check out my list of the best study places.

Having boundaries and locations you can trust to be clutter-free and quiet will ensure the time you set aside is much more useful.

Nine: Learn and Apply Memory Techniques that Actually Work

Memory techniques saved my life.

As I wrote in The Victorious Mind, I almost lost my life to depression.

But as this research on using one particular memory technique shows, memory training helps resolve mood issues.

It can help eliminate symptoms from PTSD too, as my student Nic Castle shared on this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.

Why am I mentioning this history of suffering?

Because nothing slows learning down more than having to deal with poor mood and negative attitudes.

And if there’s a technique that both helps you feel better and remember more, wouldn’t you want in on it?

There are many memory techniques that work well, but here are the main ones I suggest for learning at faster speeds:

• The Memory Palace technique
• The Pegword method
• The Major System
• The PAO System

Although it can take a week or two to learn them all, each of the guides I’ve linked you to above will help you take advantage of your mind and memory at much higher levels.

Start with just one of the techniques.

Give it your best and then come back for more. Rack ’em and stack ’em, as I often like to say.

Then, once you have the foundational skills sorted, check out my full tutorial on the Memory Palace technique for studying.

Ten: Turn This Key So Your Brain Learns What It Expects To Learn

Did you know that your brain does more than simply react to the world all the time?

It actually predicts the future quite a bit. And then it makes its predictions come true.

That’s the core of what Andy Clark discusses in The Experience Machine, one of my all-time favorite books on learning.

I’m telling you about it because many people learn less than they’re capable of because they tell their brains that learning will be hard.

And that’s exactly what the brain delivers to you.

According to Clark, this process is called predictive processing.

In the video below, I explain everything about how this feature of the brain can either harm or help you:

To make predictive processing help you learn faster, do this before your next study session:

• Decide on the positive outcome you want and then form an image of yourself achieving it.
• Imagine yourself remembering what you’re about to learn, and continually practice building this identity.
• Stop yourself every time you catch yourself thinking about learning slowly or otherwise negatively about learning.
• Replace the negative thought with a positive one.

This isn’t fluffy self-help nonsense. It’s neuroscience and we know that the brain can be rewired.

In simple terms, I’m saying that having a positive attitude towards learning, including learning boring topics, will make every study session easier.

There’s definitely a trick to it, and it does take a bit of effort. But I’ve devoted my life to turning this key ever since I discovered its benefits.

I even gave this TEDx Talk about it that discusses the power of predictive processing even before I learned the term from Clark’s book.

Use this technique and your brain will soar.

My Favorite FAQs About Learning at Top Speeds

Having taught accelerated learning techniques for over fifteen years now, I’ve fielded a lot of questions.

Here’s a list of the best with my rapid-fire answers.

What’s the fastest way to learn something new?

A combination of active recall and proper spaced repetition.

Your learning sessions should follow deliberate practice principles, which involve focused sessions that are scheduled and distraction-free.

How can I improve my memory and concentration?

In addition to completing courses like the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass, make sure you:

• Get regular exercise.
• Meditate or engage in a mindfulness practice.
• Sleep for better memory.
• Eat a balanced diet focused around memory improving foods.

Is it better to study for a long-time or in short blasts?

It really depends on the person.

Dave Farrow, an incredible mental athlete with two Guinness Records for memory, told us in this episode of my podcast that he learns in rapid-fire study sessions.

Myself, I like to use interleaving so that I can study for long hours, but avoid topic exhaustion.

A lot of people ask me about using timers and the pomodoro technique, but I avoid setting alarms for one simple reason:

I don’t want to condition my brain to expect interruptions.

Remember predictive processing. It’s much better to carve out time and space for studying without interruption.

That way, whether you study in short blasts or prefer longer sessions, you’ll maintain high levels of motivation and focus.

How can I stay motivated to learn when the going gets tough?

One thing is to simply acknowledge that things are tough and then choose a better mental framework.

To help make this possible, always:

• Set clear goals
• Track your progress
• Reward real accomplishments

I use the term “real accomplishments” because sometimes people confuse activity with accomplishment.

For example, they’ll say they read a chapter and then reward themselves with an hour of playing video games.

But reading is the activity.

The accomplishment is accurately writing in your own words the information you studied. Reward that and your motivation will grow.

Are digital tools effective for learning?

Yes, but they need to be used wisely.

Apps that support spaced repetition can help, but I suggest you optimize how you use them.

To that end, please check out my guide on using Anki from the perspective of a memory expert.

How can I overcome procrastination when studying?

Tim Ferriss used to talk a lot about “planned procrastination.”

In other words, he means using procrastination as a reward.

I think that’s useful, but also would suggest making sure that you’re breaking your study tasks down into the smallest steps possible.

If you have to read an entire book, focus on just one chapter.

When you set up and follow a study schedule, you’ll already know how much time you have. And when you’ve optimized that schedule so you’re studying during your best hours of the day, you’ll know that you’re going to have an easier time.

This point returns us to predictive processing. So many people find study difficult and slow because they aren’t optimizing all the elements that allow you to feel excited.

Simply making learning a more positive experience will make future study sessions positive and fun as well.

Can I improve my learning speed as an older adult?

Absolutely.

The brain adapts throughout life and engaging continuously with learning helps prevent deskilling.

The key to adopting effective learning strategies is to put concerns about age aside.

Focus on goals, systems, strategies and techniques.

They work for everyone who wants to learn quickly.

Ready to Learn Faster for the Rest of Your Life?

Now you have a powerful set of techniques and my “call to adventure” for you to start using all of the techniques we discussed on this page.

But reading about them isn’t enough.

To truly transform your memory and teach yourself anything, you need memory techniques above all.

That’s why I created this free course you can register for now:

Inside, you’ll learn:

• How to develop and use a Memory Palace for learning step-by-step.
• The key principles of lasting memory formation.
• Simple daily practices that make forgetting difficult to do.

Join tens of thousands of others who have used these techniques to learn and check out some of their Memory Palace examples in this course.

Your brain is ready.

Now it’s time to make it “magnetic” so everything you want to learn simply sticks.