Art of learning
Learning in itself is a skill.
There are 2 ways of learning,
> Learning by repeating the process
> Learning by understanding the concept
Here is a simple example,
Say you want to create a social media post like this.
Step 1: Learning by repeating the process
You can try to re-create it as it is without understanding any design concepts like typography, color theory, layouts, etc.
Once you’ve replicated like around 50-100 posts then you would probably be able to design a good looking post.
This is because your brain would have remembered some of the nice font combinations, color combinations, layouts, etc.
This would just happen automatically without you understanding the reasoning behind using such combinations.
Step 2: Learning by understanding the concept
You can create the same post from understanding the design concepts.
When you learn the fundamentals of design, basically trying to understand the ‘why’ part… you will have more clarity as to what you would be doing.
So trying to understand,
Why was this font used here?
Why was this color combination used here?
Why were these elements used in this manner?
I learn only when I understand the concepts.
So figure out what kind of a learner you’re and start learning.
Now that you know about different ways of learning, let us see the best way to learn a skill.
This is my blueprint to learning any skill faster.
> Pick a skill that you want to learn.
You need to have some motive towards the skill that you choose else it will not be a fun ride.
> Take up a project that requires this skill.
- You could come up with one or find a real project to work on.
- Real projects work the best because you can't slack off.
> Find some crash courses on this skill.
- There are loads of free tutorials on almost all of the skills, find 1 - 10 min tutorials that give you an overview of the skill that you want to learn.
- This gives you a broad understanding of the skill.
> Break down the project & tackle one requirement at a time.
- Breaking down the project gives you an idea of what topic you need to learn from that skill.
- Look up tutorials just for that part and implement it.
> Repeat the above two steps often
- Learning a portion of the skill & implementing it right away helps you learn the skill faster rather than just binging tutorials.
- Watching lengthy tutorials along with this gives you more clarity on the skill.
This is how I learn a skill.