The Best Learning Technique You Never Heard Of

I’m in the middle of one of the biggest challenges of my life: self-studying a physics undergraduate degree in under two years.

It’s hard. Very hard.

The most difficult aspect of it is coming across a complex topic for the first time. I’ll sit down to read a textbook chapter on thermodynamics or electromagnetism or special relativity and very quickly it feels overwhelming, like my mind is overflowing with information.

This is a problem. Instead of absorbing new ideas like a sponge I’ve been absorbing them like–erm–a rock…?

So I decided something had to change, which is why I’ve recently spent hours doing research on study methods that could make my life easier.

Along the way, I’ve found a technique not many people know about, one that radically changed how I learn difficult topics: chunking.

What it is:

Try this: say your phone number out loud.

How do you split it up? Think about the rhythm of how you’re speaking.

If you’re like most people (and statistically you probably are), you divide your phone number into three or four parts.

There’s a reason for that. We can only consciously think about four groups of information at a time. So we break down a 10-digit phone number into smaller, more manageable pieces. Within each one, we can include another four pieces of information, making remembering the phone number as a whole much easier.

In other words, we use chunking.

We can also use this tactic when learning something new. Through chunking, we develop the ability to handle far greater amounts of information. This hijacks the limitations of our short-term memory so we learn complex and chunky (pun intended) topics much faster. We just need to focus on grouping the information, starting with the big ideas.

How to use it:

Let’s say you’re reading a non-fiction book and your goal is to learn as much as you can. Here’s how chunking can help:

Step 1: Find the book’s 3-4 big ideas. Do this by either skimming or reading a summary or both. This is important: don’t go over four concepts! If you do, there’s a good chance you’ll forget several of the big ideas. So synthesize things down to the four big ones that best represent the book. Make sure you understand what the relationships between them are, which helps you learn more effectively by attaching meaning and causality to the concepts. Draw these ideas in a diagram or visual to make sure you really understand them.

Step 2: Go one level down (still by skimming and reading summaries). Within each big idea, what are the main 3-4 sub-ideas that make that one up? How do they relate to each other? How do they relate to the bigger picture? Draw these out as well.

Step 3: Go one more level down. Repeat step 2, but with the sub-ideas of the sub-ideas, and this time by actually reading the book.

Step 4: Test yourself. Challenge yourself to draw a mind map summarizing the three levels of information. Do this without referring back to the book (only use it to check what you missed at the very end of the exercise). Test yourself several times in the long-term (and ideally never stop doing it). This will help you remember all of the information. Forever.