If knowledge is power, then the speed at which you acquire that knowledge, is essential.
For freelancers and entrepreneurs, keeping ahead of your competition by “outlearning” them is crucial. It can make the difference between being the very best in the business, or scraping the bottom of your bank account every month.
(As a freelance copywriter myself, I can attest to how important this is – it’s hog-swagglingly important.)
Think about this
How many more books would you read if you could finish reading a book in 2 hours, instead of 4 or 8?
How motivated would you be to study (and complete) a self-study course, if you could do it over a weekend instead of 2 months?
How many empowering interviews and talks would you listen to, if you could zip by them at twice the speed, while still absorbing 100% of the valuable information shared?
From personal experience, I’d say that being able to learn something twice as fast doesn’t mean you’ll learn twice as much – you’ll probably learn 4 to 5 times as much.
Why?
Because of… the power of motivation
If there’s one thing that stops most folks from even starting a book, watching a TED Talk or listening to that expert interview you really want to learn from – it’s that discouraging feeling in the back of our minds that goes, “This is going to take soooo much time, I probably won’t finish it anyway.”
So we snap back to our senses, wonder why on earth we ever entertained the thought of reading that book/watching that presentation/listening to that interview in the first place… and give up on the idea.
Then we proceed to spend a few hours that same day doing much more productive activities, like checking our Facebook wall and tweets. (Did I say productive? Sorry, I meant comfortable.)
BUT… just knowing that we can finish this life-changing book in just 2 hours, suddenly makes it a very possible task. And because we can see myself accomplishing it, starting that book feels like a natural thing to do.
So we do it.
(Yay!)
And if you think about it, investing a mere 2 hours to learn skills or gain knowledge that could potentially change your life is… really appealing. (And exciting!)
Heck, I’ve had lunch breaks that have been longer than 2 hours. (And all I got from those days were a bloated stomach and especially sleepy afternoons. If you know exactly what I mean, I feel ya.)
Enough talk, what’s the secret already?!
Ok, I’ve teased long enough. So what’s this “one simply trick” to learning 2x faster?
Speed.
By simply doubling your reading and listening speeds, you can and will learn everything at twice the speed you currently do.
The best news? Doubling your reading and listening speed is really, really easy to do.
Here’s how.
How to absorb audio/video material 2x faster
Podcasts:
If you love listening to podcasts, but wish you didn’t have to spend hours listening to a single interview (even if you got a few gold nuggets of wisdom from it), listen up.
Just about every podcast (and audio) player available today comes with a “speed” function.
Simply change the speed up to listen to interviews at 1.5x, 2x or even 3x your normal speed.
I’d recommend starting with 1.5x to begin with.
After you’ve become accustomed to listening to people banter at that pace, dial it up to 2x, 2.5x and beyond. Listening to anyone talk at twice their normal speed may seem odd at first, but you’ll be surprised at how quickly your ears (and brain) adapts.
In fact, it took me all of a week to push my audio listening speed to 2.5x and be perfectly fine with it. (Though my favourite listening speed is 2x. This seems to be the sweet spot taking between hearing natural sounding conversations, and taking in information at lightning speeds.
Video:
Whether you’re viewing your videos on YouTube, Windows Media Player or a Mac video player, almost all modern video players (and video streaming sites) have a speed function.
Simply dial up the video playback speed to 2x (or you can start at 1.5x and work your way up from there) and you’ll be blasting down your list of “to watch” videos in a jiffy!
How to read 3x faster than ever in just 20 minutes.
Before we start, let’s have a bit of fun.
If you’re interested in finding out your current reading speed, you can take a simple-to-use reading speed test. (Just Google "Reading speed test" and picky any one.)
Got your current reading speed? Now, let’s learn how to read faster. Much faster.
Throughout this article, you’ve heard about how doubling your reading speed can make a tremendous impact on your learning capacity and motivation – but why stop at just doubling your speed?
In this short video, Tim Ferris breaks down how you can triple your reading speed within the span of 20 minutes.
With practice, you can go even faster.
In conclusion, it’s all about speed
So that’s it. The biggest secret to learning faster is to simply take in information at a faster rate. It should come as no surprise that many of the most successful people in the world today, are also some of the most vicarious readers and learners.
And now you can be one too.
Give speed learning a try for the next 7 days and see how it’ll change your life!
(Then let me know what you think, I’m really interested to hear your story.)
For more articles on copywriting, SEO and living the life of a freelance copywriter – subscribe to my mailing or Facebook page. (You can click on the handy buttons/icons at the top of the screen to do so.) See you soon!