8 Tips for Learning new skills as an adult

It may have been a few years since you left education, but you’re never too old to learn something new – in fact, learning new things keeps your brain younger for longer. But to make the most of new learning opportunities, it’s a good idea to consider your lifestyle and how it might be affecting your brain’s ‘fitness’.

Murray Morrison, founder of Tassomai, an online learning and revision app (based on the science of learning) that helps students from 7-17 get top grades in their exams.

Here are a few changes to think about that can exercise your ‘grey matter’ and get you in the right place to take on new learning challenges with success.

Aim for varied social interactions

We are fundamentally social animals; as a species, the evolution of our brains and bodies have gone hand in hand with the development of language and our ability to collaborate. In just the same way now, our individual growth and mental development is stimulated most of all by interaction with others.

Variety is key here – we gain a great deal from the relationships we develop with our closest friends and loved ones, but we derive other advantages from working with colleagues, training with sporting team-mates and, dare I say it, arguing and debating with people we disagree with or dislike.

The more – and more eclectically – we socialise, the better we can break out of our bubbles and open our curious minds up to new ways of thinking and other activities.

Break those routines

Just as challenging conversations present an opportunity to think differently, any change to routine has the potential to help our brains power up. Think of the converse – if we always do things the same way – the walk to the shops, our morning routine – it becomes background noise; we do these things unconsciously.

Routines have tremendous power – they make us efficient, and they can help us to perform tasks with focus… but that exact property of routine, advantageous as it may be, also means that our brains are not being stretched. Just as an underused muscle will weaken over time and an exercised one strengthen, a brain that is constantly stimulated will develop the capability to think quickly and adapt.

Seek out stimulating situations

As stated above, socialising is important – but it can be stressful to create opportunities to meet new people. Consider joining a club – a beginners class at a sports club or a book group – or try volunteering locally as a way to meet new people and learn a new experience at the same time. Learning and building brain function isn’t solely about academic pursuits – developing physical or social skills are equally important.

Avoid your phone

More addictive than any drug – that little red notification dot.  It’s been suggested that each time we receive a notification, our effective brain power is temporarily reduced by about ten IQ points. Set up your phone to disable all notifications and you’ll instantly liberate your brain from a heavy burden. Likewise, keep it on silent and keep it out of sight as much as you can.

There are other things you can do to make your phone less attractive or distracting – deleting social media apps is a good start, or changing the settings to make the screen black & white helps you beat the dopamine-pushing app designers at their own game.

Don’t Google It!

Related to the phone bit – and something I find so dismaying as an educator: the attitude that we don’t need to know things because we have Google. It’s such rubbish, and it’s so damaging to our mental development and to our social discourse.

Anyone over 40 will remember that you could have an argument in the pub for hours about who won the Oscar in 1993 or which cities lie on the Danube… all trivial stuff (literally), but in the argument, we’d make a thousand mental leaps, pulling facts out of deep recesses in our psyche associated with old memories of people, places, and noises. Engaging in the process of “not knowing” and trying to work it out makes our brains more powerful. 

Googling it is so boring – and it kills the whole fun of the argument.

Read – and read eclectically

There’s that word ‘eclectic’ again – but it’s crucial. Make reading, rather than your phone, your habit. And mix up what you’re reading – alternate fiction and non-fiction; read the book of the month and read classics. Read literary fiction and airport blockbusters. Read philosophy and biography. There are quicker ways to get stories and information into your head – audiobooks, for example – but none so good for maintaining good brain health. There’s no substitute for diving headfirst into a book.

Be SMART

When it comes to actually learning a new skill, the most successful learners will do so with real intent. Rather than saying “someday I’ll learn Italian”, make a clear plan and break it up into milestones.

Athletes use the acronym ‘SMART’ for their goal-setting: basically make your intentions specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.

In this context, your first goal might be, “By December, I want to be able to say 100 different words in Italian”. A later goal might be, “By next summer, I want to spend a day in Rome without speaking any English”.

Keep a journal

One of the most powerful indicators of successful learners is ‘metacognition’ – an awareness of one’s learning and one’s relationship with learning. If you’re engaged with the process – what did you learn today, what did you struggle with and how will you overcome the next challenge – the learning itself is far likelier to stick.

Keeping track of your learning helps to keep you on top of your SMART goals, helps you to learn better and helps you to feel good about how far you’ve come.