Sometimes you just finish a book in a record time and you can't put it down. But weeks later, when someone asks you 'what happened in it?' you can't quite remember!
According to Julie Beck, a health psychology writer, it is because the information we are taking in is only held n our working memory, also called short-term memory, which deals with immediate conscious decisions.
To retain any piece of information properly, we must engage a conscious effort to metaphorically move it not our long-term memory.
Why to slow down the learning process?
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast
Tim Larkin, a self-defense coach and self-protection advocate, has discovered how starting with slow learning will lead to fast skill execution later, and why trying to Ruch your learning won't help you.
Whenever Tim was learning about specific and high-stakes topics in the military, the teaching was calm and slow, and accuracy was more important than speed. This was the exact same idea that was in the heart of the book "The Talent Code".
If you try to add speed and velocity before you have mastered the foundational skills, you will be self-critical,“I’m not doing it right". Starting with slow deliberate training leads to fast skill execution later.
You can watch a kid how he learns to walk to the first time. At the outset, the only thing he does is crawling. As he masters this stage of learning, he moves on to walk and then to run. This is pretty much the same thing when it comes to learning how to speak. You can apply a slow learning methodology to any skill set.
Our mistakes
"The mistakes you make as you’re slowly deliberately doing training are gold because that’s where the learning is taking place." - Tim Larkin
You should be happy about mistakes because it means your body is saying “I didn’t get what I wanted, let’s make an adjustment”. You’re learning at a rate where you can make those decisions, rather than trying to go too fast and not understanding when you’re making mistakes.
The problem which issues every time we are learning something new slowly is the self-accusation. We tend to think, "I'm a slow learner" and then we get frustrated and give up immediately.
Embrace the frustration while you are learning. Clean the slate, set your ego aside and learn as if you’ve never done the task before.
Slow Deliberate Practice
People think they have to jump right to full speed execution of everything. Mainstream media has fooled people that everything should go really fast since the world is living in an era of technology revolution and fast pace. When you talk to experts in playing chess or tennis or any other skill, you will find they have learned through some version of slow deliberate training.
We have to regulate ourselves—even if you’re doing something slowly, you’re probably going 40% too fast. Dial it back and make your skill execution almost comical.
This is also how dance moves are mostly taught in dance classes. It involves breaking it down into smaller steps and learning the foundational skills part by part.
Rather than thinking you have to do a high volume of high-speed work, think about the quality of your work. Mental training can be just as effective as physical training.
How to practice slow
Break your task down into chunks and practice each part slowly and accurately.
Don’t add velocity until you have the foundations down.
If you try to move forward but find your accuracy is slipping, drop back to slow execution and refocus on accuracy.
Using slow practice is a universal principle that can be applied to anything you are learning.
This article was inspired from Jim Kwik's conversation with Tim Larkin.
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