How to Learn And Practice Skills in the Most Effective Way

Written by Leon Ho

Founder & CEO of Lifehack

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When it comes to learning something, there are several other skills involved that we don’t always notice. Things like studying skills are important in how we gather and retain knowledge for example. The main way to developing your skills is to practice those skills.

There are many ways where you can practice and apply what you learned, but there are some methods that are much better to use than others.

Below, I talk about some of the most valuable ways to practice skills that I’ve used in the past. These continue to be my go-to practice methods whenever I learn something and want to apply it right away.

1. Deliberate Practice

As the saying goes:

“It takes exactly 10,000 hours of practice to be considered an expert at something.”

Over the years, many people have echoed this quote as a measurement for how much one should work on something. And while there are many angles that you can analyze that quote, it represents one key and often overlooked concept: deliberate practice.

Anders Ericsson was the first to uncover this phenomenon and has explained in his book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, how deliberate practice can be leveraged and how many authors who explained this in the past are misguided about their interpretation.

Deliberate practice is the method to overcome learning plateaus with rapid and quick bursts of continued improvements, Ericsson explains.

Another way to look at it is through the progression from naive practice to purposeful practice and finally to deliberate practice. Generally speaking, there are three key elements needed for deliberate practice:

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There is the discipline necessary to get things done but also finding meaning in the task by making goals around it and having a personal investment in it.
The field you’re practicing in has to be in a well-defined field. For example, you won’t see deliberate practice in things like gardening, consulting, or most hobbies. You will see it in competitive settings, musical arts, sports, and chess to name a few.
You’ll also need a teacher or mentor or something equivalent to that. The equivalent would be finding someone already skilled at what you wish to learn, study their techniques, and apply them in your own life. This allows you to create a feedback loop as you have a point of contact or information if things didn’t go as planned.

Some other methods to help with deliberate practice are things like:

Breaking a skill down into different parts
Having a schedule that keeps you motivated
Having a coach (Even though you can learn without one, it’s better to have one.)
Seeking feedback online

2. Spaced Repetition

One of the big flaws with deliberate practice is the fact that it’s very niche in how you can apply it. For example, I’m unable to use deliberate practice to improve my stretches or workout regimen at all as I have no desire to compete. All I’ve ever wanted from it was to relieve various aches and pains from sitting at a desk and working. It’d be a whole other story if I had plans to run marathons with a competitive attitude.

Instead, what would be more applicable to me and for many other people is spaced repetition. It’s a technique that is overlooked by schools—among many other learning techniques—but is very relevant to how we learn. In fact, it’s the perfect method to retain information, practice skills, and grow meaningfully as we get older.

As the name suggests, spaced repetition is all about encountering certain pieces of information regularly. The more often it shows up, the less often you’ll need your memory refreshed on it.

But another contributing factor to this is the gradual increase of these occurrences. The book Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio is one of my favorites, but simply reading it once per month might not be enough for me to retain certain passages. If I wanted to memorize the entire book front to back, I’d have to be reading through the book constantly and reiterating the passages in my head daily.

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When it comes to practicing something more worthwhile than memorizing words from a book, there are two key things to keep in mind:

The amount of information you’re retaining;
And the amount of effort that’s needed to retain that level of information.

Putting those factors in mind, how you can use spaced repetition in your own life is as simple as following these four steps:

Review your notes. Within 20-24 hours of the initial intake of information, you’ll want to make sure the information is written down and reviewed. During the reviewing process, you’ll want to read them and then look away to see if you can recall the key points.
Recall the information the next day without the use of your notes at all. Do this during periods where not much is going on, like when you’re sitting down, going for a walk, or relaxing in general. You can also increase efficiency through flashcards or quizzing yourself on concepts.
From that point on, every 24 to 36 hours, recall the information over the next several days. They don’t have to be lengthy recalls. Merely remember the session and what was discussed. At this point, check your notes, but try not to rely on them all the time.
Finally, study it all over again after several more days have passed. If you’re studying for a test, make sure it’s done a week before that. A week gives your brain enough time to reprocess concepts.

3. Feedback Loop

Another popular method that I use to learn skills is a feedback loop. This particular method is similar to deliberate practice in that you’ll be looking for feedback through some point of reference.

However, the feedback loop takes a slight turn in that you’re the one who’ll be giving yourself feedback.

Another way to explain it is that it’s the process where a learner appreciates the information about their performance and leverages it to optimize the quality of their learning methods or style.

Creating a feedback loop for your learning pursuits is simple if you follow this 6-step process:

First, establish goals and definite outcomes—everything from the goals to the level of proficiency you want and when you want to gain competencies in that area.
Second, begin with the basics of the basics before delving into bigger challenges. Simple information creates the foundation and becomes a crucial element to taking on bigger challenges.
Third, test yourself. To see if you’re learning—or wasting time—you’ll need to find some way to test yourself. This can be through in-depth discussions on the subject or taking some kind of test online. If it’s a skill you can apply, you can base it off on the number of positive reviews on a job that demands that skill or the efficiency in performing the task now compared to before when you first started.
Fourth, teach other people. If all is going well, then step up the skill by teaching it to others. Even though you’ll be improving as time goes on, teaching people now is another way of reinforcing concepts and getting new perspectives.
Fifth, reflect. Self-reflection is the ultimate way of getting feedback as you can look at your progress and make self-assessments. Are you progressing enough? Are you satisfied with the results? If the answer is no, then ask how can you move to a higher aim or proficiency.
Lastly, look for a mentor. Even though the feedback loop can be done by yourself, having a guiding hand can help you with being a better learner. It’s a new perspective and can allow you to grasp concepts faster.

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4. Teaching What You Learn

While those methods above are wonderful in learning and practicing your skills, I’m a big fan of learning-by-teaching as well. Several studies revolve around this method as a way of retaining information, understanding concepts, and ultimately being better at the skill or subject.

One study that comes to mind is where researchers uncovered that teaching improves the teacher’s learning as it compels the teacher to retrieve information from previously studied subjects.^[1]

This makes a lot of sense as I often do research for these articles. Even though I’m well versed in the topic I write about, I still make a point of researching these topics. New information is constantly rising to the surface and from that, you could learn some new things.

When it comes to practicing skills efficiently using this, you simply need to create a teaching atmosphere. Some things that come to mind are things like:

Writing articles on the subject and making a point of showing research to prove points or statements
Tutoring individuals
If you’re going to school, you can always propose to your teacher for future lessons to have them organized by students themselves and teach your peers.

5. Seeking Help

The final way to improve your efficiency to practice skills is to look for help. This can be very difficult to do as we think when we need help, it means that something is wrong or broken.

In this case, we think that seeking help to improve and practice our skills means we’re broken or we’re wrong. Most people never want to admit that and see this as negative and that looking for help is a sign of weakness.

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In reality, it’s the opposite.

How I got to this point in my life was by reaching out to other people and doing things that I wouldn’t normally do. I got back into reading and started to read some self-help books that gave me some valuable lessons that I could apply in my own life.

With that in mind, I see looking for help as a sign of strength in that you’re accepting your weaknesses and doing something about them. Those changes will take some time. But by seeking help, you’re speeding up the process in how quickly those changes and improvements happen.

Similar to the feedback loop, you’re able to get new perspectives and insights that you otherwise wouldn’t have thought of. So, don’t be afraid to be looking for help in various ways.

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Final Thoughts

As long as you are willing to practice skills, you have multiple systems that you can tap into to boost the efficiency of learning and growing in any field you like. Applying these will be challenging at first, but if you’re passionate enough about improving yourself in particular fields, these are good upgrades to consider.