3 Easy Study Hacks To 3x Your Learning Right Now

I just recently watched this podcast by andrew huberman (famous neuroscientist at stanford) and he's basically teaching us how to learn and study in the fastest time possible, using science-based methods.

Here's some 3 actionable tips that I learned that you can LITERALLY APPLY RIGHT NOW:

1. Gap effects

Studies show that, when you’re studying / testing yourself, if you just take a 10 to 30 second pause where you let your brain idle and do nothing, you actually allow your hippocampus to fire at 20-30 times the normal rate.

This allows you to learn something a LOT faster. This sounds really weird, but I tried it just now, and it works.

Even if it doesn't actually help me learn faster, it relaxes my muscles and fixes my posture while I’m studying, allowing for better oxygen flow to my brain.

2. Active Engagement

Huberman said that you literally had to TRICK your brain into thinking that the material is super interesting. When it's interesting, your brain wants to remember more.

Even if you're learning the most boring stuff ever (like microeconomics & math lmao) you can at least TRICK your brain into thinking it's IMPORTANT.

Think about this: 98% of information throughout the day is forgotten. Only the most interesting / shocking / impactful moments remain. Those become your childhood memories.

Solution? Trick your brain into thinking that you NEED to learn this information.

3. NSDR (Non Sleep Deep Rest)

Studies found that taking a short 10-minute Non-Sleep Deep Rest session right after a period of focused learning actually INCREASED the amount of information that was retained by the neural circuit system.

Not sure what the exact number is, but it's probably around 20-30%.

Just a 10 Minute nap = 20-30% increase in retention. Plus laser focus for the rest of the day.

There's no question that this is an extremely high ROI actionable step.

I have implemented this before, but stopped recently. Now, I'm going to implement this every day when I can. I'll probably do it right after lunch.

Guided NSDR session (by huberman as well)

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But there's one thing that Huberman doesn't mention in his podcast that I think is very important... and that is your mental health.

No other YouTuber will tell you this, but one reason why I got good grades in my A Levels is because I was able to fix my broken brain.

PS: If you want to know the exact system on how I dealt with my monkey brain that was bullying me with random thoughts, check out A* Students.

As always, may God guide us on the right path.