Why the 12 rules of learning?

This might seem like a weird thing to start with. I am known for being very focused on giving practical advice for how best to learn. After all, that is what will really matter. Does it help to have a 14 page thesis paper written on how someone learns and going into brain imaging technology trying to map the different nerves involved in learning? Maybe. But how does that help the individual student actually get the stuff they need out of the textbook and lecture?

I find most of the academic stuff, and useless. In light of that, I set out to figure out how I could study as little as possible and still make good grades. This is a subject that has been near and dear to my heart for many years now. But to truly understand what would make someone invest thousands of dollars and 8 years of their life to this we need to start from the beginning. This means going back to second grade.

Why second grade? Because that is when I started school. No. I was not some prodigy who was so smart I skipped kindergarten and first grade. In fact, I had failed out of kindergarten before I started being “homeschooled.” I put that in quotes because what really happened was napping and cartoons. Then my parents got divorced when I was supposed to enter second grade. This meant I was back to public school.

Do you see the problem? I hadn’t even learned the alphabet yet. I was suppose to be reading at a 2^nd grade level. So the school called in some people to test me. They came back with several learning disability’s and told my parents I would never pass second grade. God bless my teachers because they stood up to these people and fought the system. They moved mountains for me.

Having said that I still had to do most of the work. I was studying so much and under such stress form it that it did negatively impact my health to this day. It was brutal and lasted, 3 years. 3 years of starting every day by being quizzed. Having verbal quizzing during breakfast, after breakfast correcting my homework my dad had checked, followed by more studying in the car to school. Then school. After school the teacher would tutor me, followed by private tutoring followed by homework where I finally got to have a bedtime story… only I had to read it instead of it being read too me.

The summer was even worse. Then it was all studying. When I got out of that cycle and was in the most advanced classes my school could offer I swore to myself, “never again. Never again would I have to skip recess. Never again would I have to work that hard just to catch up. Never again would my life be ruled by school.” And for many years I never had to worry about that.

Then I graduated from high school. Due to a few unfortunate problems I found myself unable to pay for college. I rolled up my sleeves, and got to work. Once I had a few jobs and had cut expenses to below poverty levels I started to do some math. It would take me 3 years to get enough money to pay for college (I don’t believe in debt and have never had any) but only if I was working a crazy schedule.

I would have about 10 hours to study every week. 10 hours. According to common wisdom you need to spend 2 to 3 hours per credit hour of class per week. That would mean between a minimum of 24 hours studying. If you doubled the amount of time I had to study I still couldn’t do that. So I tried to find out how long it would take to get 24 hours I could study a week. It was something like 8 more years. Clearly I was not going to do that.

So I did the only thing I could think of to do. I figured out how to learn faster. I spent 3 years developing a system. And the results were better than I could have hoped. During my freshmen year, I only had to study about 8 hours every week. And I kept getting better from there. By my senior year, I was taking multiple classes were 10% of the class would fail only studying about 1 hour a week and pulling straight A’s.

So what did I learn? Well for starters there is a magic formula. One that works and keeps working better the longer you do it. I also discovered that you need to become a lifelong learner. If you stop learning after college you are taking some very dangerous gambles. If you look at the average millionaire the read 1 non-fiction book a month. The average billionaire reads 2. The average person in poverty reads none.

So in light of that, (and other problems I found) I made the 12 laws of learning. These are all simple laws that greatly accelerate not just the rate at witch you learn but how well you learn too. Here are the 12 laws of learning:

1. 10% of your income goes to learning
2. The 1 hour rule
3. The 10,000/1,000 hour rule
4. Get good sleep
5. Take care of your health
6. Do something once a day for fun
7. Have a mentor
8. At least once a year go to an immersion class
9. Teach what you learn
10. Focus on what will be used
11. 1 Thessalonians 5: 21
12. Get both sides of the issue

So there you have it. The 12 Laws of Learning. As you will notice you can tell when your doing them and you can tell when you are not. They are all very practical and simple. Yet most people don’t them. I challenge you to not be like them and instead shoot for following all of them. To find out more about them click the button bellow to go to the next one.