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3 Resources for Learning New Skills Faster (for Teens, Teachers, and Other Pros)

August 01, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

School or work can be a grind. This is true if you’re just starting out a new journey or if you’re a seasoned pro. It’s rare to be able to automate whatever you do, spend 4 hours a week working, and make a decent living doing so. But while you have to put in the time, it’s important to learn how to put in smart time, not more time into your school, job, or business.

One of the most effective ways to do that is to learn. Learn about learning, learn about working, learn about the business, the trends, the people… Learn and apply what you learn constantly and you will get ahead of the curve.

Here are the three learning resources that will help you learn quicker and make your grind easier.

1. Videos on Steroids

You know YouTube and other video platforms offer a lot of learning in the area you are currently developing more expertise in, but chances are you don’t always have the time to watch thirty, forty, or fifty-minute films. Check out the hack below you might not have thought of to save you time and speed your learning up.

Your Time-Saving, Faster-Learning Hack

Click on the Gear icon next to the CC button on the bottom right of the YouTube video you’re about to watch. Change the speed from “Normal” to 1.5x. You will still easily understand the content but receive it 50% faster. A 30-minute video just became a 20-minute one.

But if you increase the speed to 2x and really focus, you will be able to make 1-hour long videos into 30-minute learning sessions. It will sound like you’re being taught by Alvin and the Chipmunks at first and might require some getting used to, but you will reach a point at which listening at twice the speed is seamless. This is because the human brain is capable of absorbing information much faster than it usually receives it.

2. Blinkist

“Big ideas in small packages.”

Blinkist is a company that takes the best nonfiction books on all topics imaginable and turns them into “blinks” or short chapters filled with only the key content of each book. All you have to do is download the Blinkist app, subscribe, and start reading text or listening to audio that summarizes books in your field of interest in 15-minutes. Try it free for 7 days here.

Blinkist is my secret super weapon - this is how I learn about a variety of topics (but mostly the brain and learning) faster.

Listen to these quick devoid-of-fluff audiobooks in your car or while doing chores and increase the speed to supercharge your learning.

3. The Kwik Brain Podcast

Jim Kwik is a guy who survived two brain injuries, learned to read 2 years after his peers did, and struggled in school. Then, he discovered accelerated learning and started teaching his college peers how to learn faster. Now, he teaches everyone to read faster, remember better, and many other accelerated learning techniques via his website and podcast Kwik Brain.

Give it a listen at 1.5x to 2x the speed and get a little smarter in under 10 minutes for free.

Jim is a hero of mine. I learned many of the things I teach my students and write about to help their teachers and parents from him. In fact, I use several Kwik Brain episodes to teach teens how to learn more effectively in my book Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier.

And if you buy my book here before midnight Friday, August 3rd I will give you an extra copy and a gift that supports your child's learning further for FREE. Just pay $7 for shipping. This offer is gone in less than 2 days.

And if you already purchased one, or simply value the work I do, you can help me get the word out about the Crush School Student Guide to other teachers and parents of teens.

Here are the 3 easy ways you can help:

Simply tell others who can benefit from the book about it - teachers who need lessons to teach study skills and parents of teens.
Tweet. Super easy - just click: Share on Twitter below.
Share on Facebook. Easy. Click on Share on Facebook below and Copy/Paste this text: Check out this book to help teach teens how to crush it in high school. Free Bonuses Inside.
Do all three! You will have my gratitude forever :)

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Thank you and I appreciate you!

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

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Hi! I'm Oskar. I teach, write, and speak to make learning better.

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categories / Learning, Parenting
tags / teaching teens, parenting teens, deeper learning, independence, lifelong learning, simplicity, skills, success skills, learning, making life easier, kids

How to Make Learning and Life Easier for Your Kids

July 23, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

Adam: Daddy! Daddy! Did you know I can count to infinity?

Me: Really? That's great honey!

Adam: Yes daddy. Do you want me to do it now?

Me: Of course!

Adam: One, two, three, four.... one hundred, one hundred one, one hundred two.... one hundred nine, a million, a million one, a million two.... a million nine, infinity!

According to my 4-and-a-half-year-old son, 1 million comes after 109, and infinity comes after 1,000,009 and I love it! I remember trying to explain the concept of infinity to him in the past. He would not hear it and why should he? At this point in his young life it's more important for him to be and remain curious and keep trying new things.

I love the fact that he loves counting. I love seeing him use his little fingers to add seven and two. I love that he keeps asking questions. The more he asks, the more thoughtful and surprising the questions are to my wife and I. I try to remind myself of this whenever I feel annoyed my thoughts are interrupted with a relentless string of questions.

Mostly, we do okay. My wife and I try to expose Adam to as many things as possible. We play games such as Uno, Candy Land, and Monopoly. He asks to be asked to add simple numbers as he eats, and we oblige. We play soccer or frisbee or Duck, Duck, Grey Duck (a Minnesota version of the classic). We practice writing letters, completing mazes, and other preschool activities. We go swimming and play in the sand. Last Saturday, he experienced a fireworks display for the first time.

When Adam starts something - he's all in all the time. He is inquisitive, smart, and full of energy. My wife and I do many things to give him a "good start." We want him to succeed, but I think most of all, we don't want him to struggle.

Of course we don't know what the future holds. It's hard to predict what the job market will look like in 15 to 20 years when he's ready to enter it. For now, we have one more year left to decide on where he goes to school.

The process has already started. He had to go and do an assessment. They said he did well. I guess that means he'll be ready for school when the time comes. But what does "ready for school" mean exactly? And, more importantly, how does being "ready for school" and then being successful at school affect being ready for future life?

Will my son's school education be sufficient for him to be successful as as an adult so he does not struggle to find work and live a good life?

Schools Leave Kids Unprepared

A 2013 survey of found that US teens rank 36th in the world in reading, math, and science. The exam given to 15-year-olds from all over the world found US teens doing average in science and reading and well below average in math. Arne Duncan, the former Secretary of Education summarized these problematic results as evidence that US students are not making progress while others are advancing. He cited complacency and low expectations as the main reasons for this alarming trend present in the US schools.

Knowing such statistics about the school system my son will soon enter I wonder: What can I do to help prepare him better for the future?

The 2017 edition of the ACT's annual national report The Condition of College & Career Readiness shows that only 39% of high school graduates are "ready for college coursework in three or four subject areas" (english, reading, math, and science) measured by the ACT college entrance exam. The "science teacher me" and the "parent me" has no choice but to translate this report to "unless the US school system changes drastically before my son enters it, there's a 61% chance he will not be ready for college."

These odds make me uneasy to say the least. I don't want my son to be successful in elementary, middle, and high school just to enter college unprepared and end up struggling! However, it is clear to me that most US schools fail at preparing kids for college and career.

A 2012 U.S. News article reports 60 percent of the 1.7 million high school students who took the ACT were "not prepared for college, career." Students six years ago were just as unprepared as one year ago. This points to a trend that despite the changes such as the implementation of the Common Core Standards, US education is standing still and continues to fail at preparing most of its students to be successful beyond high school.

The problem is that most parents have no choice but to put their kids' education and their own hopes in the hands of the school system. The same is the case for my wife and I. Adam is going to a public school in the fall of 2019. We can't afford to home school him or move to Finland. Plus, we like it here.

So what do we do?

Whatever. It. Takes.

This is what Finland did. The Finnish government values teachers and puts them on equal footing with doctors and lawyers. In 2010, there were 6,600 applicants for the 660 teaching positions available in Finland. Simply put, Finland has the best teachers because it is a highly rewarding profession that attracts highly talented individuals and every teacher is required to have a master's degree.

In contrast, 50% of US teachers quit within the first 5 years. And while most US teachers I've encountered are dedicated, the fact that the profession is notoriously undervalued and its teachers grossly underpaid makes it unreasonable for me to expect the level of experience, talent, and results that I would if my family resided in Finland.

The US educational system is not changing anytime soon. But we, the parents can change. We can realize that schooling alone is no longer enough to prepare our children for college and career and do whatever it takes ourselves.

Simplicity and Sensibility

There's a reason why Finnish kids have little homework - most deep learning happens in class. Instead of splitting focus across multiple topics and learning superficially, students are allowed to dive deep and experiment to learn more about one topic. This leads to "true" learning: understanding, application, and retention of what is being studied. Perhaps this is why the Fins crush the international standardized tests. They are taught how to learn and think about problems deeply not to just skim the surface at school.

As a parent, how can you provide those experiences for your kids knowing the schools they attend focus on testing what they memorized and not what they understand or how they can use it?

Lifelong Learning

"No big fuss. This is what we do every day, prepare kids for life,” says Kari Louhivuori, the principal of the Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School in Espoo, Finland when thanked by a former student who's now an owner of a car repair firm and a cleaning company. The Finnish student spends less time in the classroom than his American counterpart but leaves with more life skills and a love of learning.

As a parent, how can you provide your children with the experiences that help them learn transferable skills they can apply in many professions and how can you cultivate the love of learning knowing the schools they attend focus on grades not on lifelong learning?

Independence

Imagine the youngest elementary students walking the school hallways without adult guidance, serving themselves hot food at lunch, and leaving the building on their own. Does it remind you of any school you attended? How about open-ended projects in the classroom? How often were you allowed to pursue learning what you wanted and not what the teacher said you had to learn?

Teachers do this sort of thing in Finland and it seems to develop creativity and critical thinking skills. They don't spend time testing or "teaching to the test." Rather, they guide students in developing independence and skills they will need in work and life.

As a parent, what can you do to help your students practice creativity and critical thinking which are skills that are highly sought after by employers but rarely needed in American schools that standardize curricula and tests which forces compliance?

Making Learning and Life Easier for Kids

The good news is that making learning and life easier for our kids is not all that difficult.

There are things anyone can do to become more creative.

Critical thinking is a skill that is learned best when an individual is asked to solve a problem she cares about.

Communication can be taught explicitly and furthered by asking a child to describe, explain, and present what he learned to peers.

Love of learning and lifelong learning can be fostered by teaching kids how to learn efficiently and showing them how to apply effective learning principles when learning about the things they care about and schools require.

There are resources online you can use - media kids enjoy - such as videos, graphics, audio, and short readings. I recommend TED Talks and TED Ed especially as they are created to be engaging.

After reading my recent article for the Entrepreneur my wife asked me: Will you teach Adam all the things you write about in your books and your blogs?

I will do Whatever It Takes because I love him and I don't want him to struggle figuring it all out by himself. This is why I do what I do and write what I write.

This is why I wrote Crush School Student Guide: Learn Faster, Study Smarter, Remember More, and Make School Easier, which is my newest book. And while it says "Crush School" it's about skills needed to succeed in more than just school. It contains 65 skill-building lessons and 3 projects that promote faster learning, deeper understanding, and long-term application of information. You can get it here.

I promise you that it will make a huge difference in the way your child approaches learning and school. But whether you decide to buy a copy or not promise yourself to go beyond school in ensuring your children's success. There are many ways to do that. My book is just one of them.

Check out this FREE sample lesson on Mastering Difficult Concepts to get an idea for how the book is structured.

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

Resources:

Coleman, Megan. "New survey ranks U.S. students 36th in the world - How do we improve?."

Sheehy, Kelsey. "High School Students Not Prepared for College, Career."

The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2017. ACT.

Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful? Smithsonian.

The Simple Strength of Finnish Education. This is Finland.

Hi! I'm Oskar.

I teach, write, speak, rant to make learning better.

BOOKS & TOOLS

Buy on Amazon

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categories / Learning, Parenting
tags / teaching teens, parenting teens, deeper learning, independence, lifelong learning, simplicity, skills, success skills, learning, making life easier, kids

3 Things Parents and Teachers Can Do Better to Help Teens Succeed

June 27, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

“Conscious parenting is not about being perfect, it’s about being aware. Aware of what your kids need from you to reach more of their full potential.”

— Alex Urbina

Parents look to teachers to help their kids make sense of the world and use information in beneficial ways. But a parent's role is similar. We don't just take care of our kids - we want them to be happy and we want them to succeed in school, work, and life.

I often think about the things I want for my 4-and-a-half-year-old son. Most of all, I hope he lives a fulfilling life - a life in which he seeks the opportunities and has the skills and drive to pursue the dreams he dreams up. I want him to develop concern and care for our planet. I want him to be mindful and compassionate. And just as every parent, I want him to be happy.

And though I am happy with his preschool, for a version of the future I envision for Adam to take place, my wife and I have to take on a more active role in his education and try to fill in the gaps of the present day school system. Those gaps are mainly a result of how the Made in the Industrial Era schools teach and what they don't teach.

And while I'll continue to push the educational system I am a part of to change to fit the times we live in, I realize that the change is not happening fast enough. It is up to me then, to help my son learn the skills he needs to live a good life - skills that are common sense but not common practice in school.

Adam spends 8-9 hours a day at his preschool and I trust his teachers to help him figure things out and give him plentiful opportunities to learn. They are good people and care for Adam. He's happy there and my wife and I are happy he's there.

But guess what, Adam messes up sometimes. He'll play with his food or spill his "monkey yogurt" on purpose sometimes. Then he'll get a time-out. And time-outs don't work - they're punitive measures that isolate children after they misbehave but rarely work to modify future behavior. We struggle with similar behaviors at home too. This kid has boundless energy - the Energizer bunny runs out of juice long before Adam is ready for a break! So, my wife and I had to find a different way.

I'll tell you what the imperfect-but-good solution we're seeing progress with is at the end but now let's focus on how we can apply the business world ideas Charles Duhigg describes in his book Smarter, Faster, Better in helping our kids do better at school.

Increasing Motivation

One of the best ways to increase an employee's level of motivation is to empower him with a sense of responsibility and control. In a neuropsychology study Duhigg mentions in his book, brain centers associated with motivation consistently "lit up" during brain scans when subject were given choice rather than just told what to do.

In schools, teachers complain of students lacking motivation. If choice helps motivation it seems plausible to give students more choice in school. Too often high school teachers rule with an iron fist and feel like they're doing something special when they relinquish some of this control and let kids make choices. We over-control and predetermine our teens lives and then wonder where it all went wrong.

Consider the "normal." Normally, teachers, and often parents tell students what to do and how to do it. Then we say they need to be responsible and make the right choices. But the truth is we've already made most choices for them and we expect blind compliance.

Years of school conditioning have desensitized some kids from school and it may be a tough road back to motivation but we must start somewhere. While we might not see immediate results, we are sending a message to our teen students that they are responsible for making their own decisions now. Sure they will screw up but if we raise good people they'll eventually get it right. And, they will learn more in the process.

So here's the deal: To be motivated, kids need to think for themselves and feel their life is made of the choices they, not someone else made. It is up to us, the adults in their lives, to teach them right from wrong and then trust that our teens will make the best choices. These choices cannot be isolated, "benevolent" events bestowed on teens by elders either. Rather, teens especially must be empowered to make and live with their choices daily - the more the better. The days of helicoptering must end.

Personal Empowerment

In Smarter Faster Better, Duhigg discusses how company culture affects it's workers well-being and performance. One people management model, Commitment culture stands above the rest. It focuses on building a culture that puts people first. This might slow the company's initial growth, but leads to long-term benefits. In the commitment culture model, employees become committed to the company - they tend to stay on because they're trusted to make important decisions, they feel valued and respected, they have more paid leave, and they are given other generous growth opportunities.

A study by Baron and Hannan of Stanford found companies that valued their employees (and customers) above profit were the fastest to go public, were most efficient and profitable in the long run, and had the ability to predict and respond to market shifts. The commitment model outperformed all other management styles in almost every meaningful category (Duhigg 149).

Turns out empowering people with trust and choice and investing in their well-being not only motivates them but leads to their and the organization's success as well. There is no reason each household or each classroom cannot become such a place.

This again calls for parents and teachers giving up (at least some) control and giving teens the tools needed to make their own decisions. We're not talking anarchy but the type of education that empowers our soon-to-be-adults to think for themselves; perhaps the type we often shy away from.

Honesty is a good approach. Let's talk about our own biggest and baddest and most embarrassing teen screw ups so someone else can learn from them. Rather than fearing our children will do as we did, let's paint a complete picture of what we were thinking then and the painful consequences our thinking and actions led to. Let's trust and see and believe because prevention and prohibition and other fear-based measures don't work at work and even less at school or home. Forbidden fruit always tastes better.

Generosity - the right type of it - can make all the difference. Sharing power is generous but often hard. We fear they will take it the wrong way and make the wrong decisions. And sometimes they will but that's how they learn best. But it can be done with subtlety too. We can be more flexible and thoughtful in how we communicate and approach our teens. Just because we do things a certain way doesn't mean it's the right way. Maybe there's another right way or multiple ways to get to the same place or result we're not seeing? Let's ask and really listen.

Parents and teachers can ask for and apply the suggestions our teens give us. We might get anxious as they push us out of our comfort zones and into the unknown. But the kids won't be the only ones who grow from this. Sure, we're investing in them, but we also see at work the universal law of the more you give the more you receive and we grow ourselves.

Being Part of the Team

It's funny how you can write hundreds of words about one thing without realizing or even naming it. Feeling safe, valued, respected, and cared about are the necessary ingredients to effective teamwork.

Writing about effective teams, Duhigg names "willingly giving a measure of control to their teammates (p. 70)" as the ultimate team norm. But the author also recognizes that strategy only works when people trust and feel safe with each other.

I often catch myself pushing my 4-and-a-half-year-old toward a decision to expedite it but that's wrong. Of course he's too young to think rationally all the time! And I'm too old not to and yet doing the above - pressuring, trying to speed up Adam's thinking - is irrational. I've gotten better at it, but just last morning, in the morning rush out of the door I let my anxiety-induced impatience take over and I put my son's feelings second to things that matter less.

How often do we get annoyed and lack patience with our kids? It's part of the parent condition, so let's not beat ourselves up. We do the best we can in the moment and we can choose to reflect and learn and do better next time. We can continue making the home team better.

Same goes for the classroom team. We can evolve together by teaching collaboration and communication explicitly rather than leaving it up to chance. Rather than hide from conflicts pretending nothing happened, we can normalize dealing with them in the open. We can give our students voice and genuinely listen and respond and ask questions and react with care. We can help everyone belong. It takes time - yes, time away from english, math, or science - but if we build it they will come, right?

The Path

Today, Adam earned tally marks 9 and 10. My wife and I started a simple behavior chart - an idea borrowed from neighbors who have 2 boys - a chart that focuses on positive behavior only. Each time Adam does something pretty great (and he's pretty great all the time) like resolve a conflict with words instead of hitting or kicking or plays well with friends or listens to his preschool teachers, he can draw a tally mark on the big sheet of paper we taped to out fridge. Once he has 10 tally marks he gets to pick something special he can do with mom or dad such as ice cream.

Today, he picked ice cream. Chocolate. His favorite. I'm taking him after school. He can't wait. Me neither.

I'm sure there are experts out there who would disagree with our approach but we're just a work in progress. We do our best. If we say "because we say so" when we get annoyed, we find the capacity to try something else and learn to do it better the next time. When we need to, we apologize and look for a new path.

I think it's important to keep reminding ourselves that there are many paths - maybe an infinite number of them, many yet to be discovered - and to keep looking for them.

Perhaps Duhigg did not intend this, but a path can be drawn from Empowerment (Choice and Trust) to Motivation to Commitment to Effective Collaboration, Communication, and Success. And those are skills anyone can use anywhere.

Duhigg did not intend to write Smarter Faster Better for teens or compare teens to 4-and-a-half-year-olds. That's all me. But it doesn't matter if the human being is 4, 14, or 40 because anyone can choose to walk a different path tomorrow. A new path. Perhaps a smarter one but hopefully one a little better than today. We just have to draw it in our mind.

Draw the path. Then show it to your kids. But don't make them walk it. That won't work. Show them how you walked it first. Then, help the walk their own.

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

Last week, I wrote this post on using lateral thinking to grow people and organizations inspires by Shane Snow's book Smartcuts. I also told you a story to which the lateral thinking answer is: You give the car keys to the friend who's helped you out in the past and brave the rain with the woman (or man) of you dreams.

Hi! I'm Oskar.

I teach, write, speak, rant to make the world better.

BOOKS & TOOLS

Buy on Amazon

CONTACT ME

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categories / Learning, Parenting
tags / focus, productivity, teaching teens, parenting teens, brain, sharpness, clarity, brain rules, neuroscience