If only I had known a little bit more about accelerated and effective learning when I was still a student myself! That would have saved me a lot of frustration and, most of all, precious time.

Fortunately, learning and learning to learn well, will always be one of the most valuable skills in your personal and professional life. My point is to start building these skills as soon as possible, preferably when you are still a student.

Fast and effective learning is a skill for life and I could talk about it for days. However, to get you started I will give you 5 powerful tips on how to learn more, how to learn well and how to learn effectively.

1. The foundation: a productivity system
Let’s face it, without a solid foundation there is no way you can expect to build new skills and form new habits. My first tip therefore is to adopt a productivity system (like GTD). You need to develop the habit of consistent and effective note-taking, you need to have a clean, uncluttered desk to study at, you need a system for storing reference material and tracking your (learning) projects. I strongly suggest following this important tip, because it will make everything else (including learning) more efficient and effective. Speaking from my own experience: GTD by David Allen has provided this much needed foundation in my life. Read more here: 10 Simple Tips to Start Getting Things Done.

2. Speedreading
You probably need or want to read a lot of offline and online material as well. But you only have so much time to do it. This is where my second tip comes in. Practice speedreading to read smarter and faster, while improving your comprehension! I have written about speedreading extensively but it boils down to: get to “know” the material you’re about to read, decide which parts of it you are going to read, and when you are actually reading: keep your eyes moving at a steady, perhaps increasing, pace without stopping at every word and definitely without ever rereading a single phrase. These tricks alone should double your reading speed very soon.

3. Think and work on paper
There is no question that pen and paper are the most underrated productivity and learning tools around. My advice is to always think and work on paper. It will get things off your mind and make room for more creative thinking. Use your own shorthand and notational system to highlight important facts and actions in the material you’re learning. Condense, memorize and review the material you’ve learned by creating mindmaps. Forget about trusting your mind or your computer, think and work on paper to learn better and effectively.

4. Use multisensory techniques
This tip is all about discovering your preferred learning style and leveraging it to make learning more fun and more effective. You have to figure out for yourself if you are more of a visual learner, an auditory learner or a kinesthetic/tactile learner. Information will be absorbed by your brain much quicker and much more effective if you use your preferred learning style. To enhance your learning experience even further, combine your preferred learning style with the other ones. For instance, writing things down combines the visual and tactile learning styles. Reading things aloud to yourself combines the visual and auditory learning styles.

5. Allow your brain to absorb new stuff
Everybody has a certain learning rhythm. Some learn best in the early hours of the morning, others learn best late at night. Figure out which rhythm and time frame suits you best and use this to maximize your learning ability. However, you must frequently give your brain time to absorb the new stuff that you are learning. The best way is to “sleep on it” and the second best way is to take frequent breaks and do something completely different.

如果在我還是學生時就多知道一點有關高效學習的知識，那將會使我減少很多挫折，最重要的是，節約很多寶貴的時間。

幸運的是，學習和學會更好的學習，將永遠是你個人和職業生活中最寶貴的技能之一。我的觀點是，盡可能早地開始建立這些技能，最好是從學生時代開始。

快速而有效地學習對生活來說是一種技能，我可以好幾天都講這一件事。不過，為了讓你開始，我會給你5個非常有效的技巧，讓你學得更多、更好、更有效率。

1、基礎：一套有效的系統
我們得明白，如果沒有一個固定的基礎，你根本別指望能建立新的技巧，形成新的習慣。因此，我的第一個小竅門是，讓自己適應一套有效的系統（比如GTD）。你需要養成不斷并高效地做記錄的習慣，你需要一個干凈整潔的桌子學習，你需要一套儲存相關材料和檢驗你學習效果的系統。我強烈建議你跟隨這個重要的竅門，因為它能使其它的每一件事（包括學習）更有效。以我自己的經歷來說：戴維.阿蘭的GTD給我的生活提供了這個非常有必要的基礎。想了解更多與此有關的內容，請參閱：10個簡單的竅門開始完成每一件事。

2、速讀
你可能需要或想要離線和在線閱讀很多資料，但你沒那么多的時間。這就有了我的第二個小竅門。練習速讀，從而能讀得更聰明更快速，同時提高你的理解力。我已經寫過大量和快速閱讀有關的文章，歸根結底就是：“知道”你將要閱讀的材料，決定你將會閱讀哪個部分，當你實際閱讀時，保持你眼睛移動的速度，或者逐漸加快，不要在每個字上停留，絕對不要重復任何一個單獨的短語。只是這些招數就能很快讓你的閱讀速度提高一倍。

3、把所想所做的寫下來
毋庸置疑，紙和筆是在我們身邊最被低估的生產和學習工具。我的建議是，無論何時都把你想到做到的寫下來。這樣做能使你將一些事情從腦子里移出來，從而為更具創造性的思考騰出空間。運用你的速寫和筆記系統突出顯示你所學材料中的重要事實和行動。忘記相信你的大腦或電腦，把你所想所做的寫下來，你就能學得更好更有效率。

4、運用多種技術
這個竅門幫你發現自己偏愛的學習方式和工具，從而使學習變得更有趣和有效。你得清楚自己到底是屬于視覺學習者，聽覺學習者，還是觸覺學習者。如果你運用自己偏好的學習方式，大腦就能更有效地接收信息。為了進一步加深你的學習經歷，你可以將自己所偏好的學習方式與其它方法結合起來。比如，運用視覺和聽覺學習方式的同時，把事情寫下來；或者，結合視覺和觸覺學習方式，大聲地讀出所寫的事情。

5、讓你的大腦接收新知識
每個人都有自己獨特的學習節率。有些人在清晨時學習最有效率，有些人則在深夜學習最有效率。明白自己最適合的學習節率和時間框架，借此來最大化你的學習能力。不過，你必須經常讓你的大腦有時間去接收所學的新知識。最好的方法就是“帶著剛學的知識睡覺”，第二好的方法就是經常休息去做一些完全不同的事情。