Have you ever heard the term learning to learn?

Since ancient Rome, there is a consensus that the most basic subjects throughout education life are to acquire the habit of reading, learn different languages, know how to play a musical instrument, have knowledge of mathematics and improve oneself in a sport.

Because societies can control all history and geography only if they have language knowledge. When they understand music and mathematics, they establish a connection with all humanity. They also provide mental and body integrity with sports.

In today's world, we can say that one of these basic subjects is “learning to learn”.

In fact, it can be stated that learning to learn has a structure that needs to be developed systematically due to rapid technological changes.

So should we discover a way of learning from scratch each time? Or is there a better systematic way?

First of all, it is necessary to define simple principles. These principles should be checked periodically to see if they are still valid. If necessary, new principles should be determined and the obsolete ones should be updated or removed.

It is also important to blend the old and the new while determining these principles.

You can adopt the principles that have been used for centuries and combine them with the blessings of the modern world.

1- Prepare to learn

There is a term called being hungry to learn. If a person's mind is hungry for knowledge, s/he quickly adopts new information. For this reason, your brain tends to accept the first information you hear right or wrong about a subject you have no knowledge of.

In Zen philosophy, this subject is explained through a cup filled with water. When you put new water (knowledge) into the cup (your mind), the cup should not be full so that new information does not overflow.

You may have seen that this philosophy is used in most of the far eastern movies. So much so that a famous quote from Bruce Lee is: Emptiness the starting point. — In order to taste my cup of water you must first empty your cup. My friend, drop all your preconceived and fixed ideas and be neutral. Do you know why this cup is useful? Because it is empty.

2- Focus on learning

The concept of "Ichigo Ichie", which is also a part of Zen Buddhism, is actually a concept that can be translated from Japanese once in a lifetime. To be able to live fully in the moment that it is trying to teach.

The Japanese have a famous tea ceremony. The host, who makes the tea ceremony, knows that the moment s/he spends with her/his guest is a one-time experience that will never happen again, so s/he stays in the moment and tries to please the guest in the every stage of ceremony. Doing business by staying in the moment means very high concentration and focus.

In order to make this concept, which can be perceived as living the moment, a habit should be learned.

For example; it's like just eating and not thinking about anything else while eating. Like not surfing social media or reading the newspaper during a meal.

A person who adopts this philosophy can better control the thoughts in her/his mind and focus on her/his work when s/he needs to focus.

However, how hard it is to stay in the moment and learn to do only one thing at a time, when the expectation of multitasking is on the line!

3- Repeat what you have learned

The human brain is an organ whose boundaries are still not clearly defined in terms of its potential. However, it is known that long and short-term memory have different working principles.

For example; while remembering your friends in primary school clearly by name, surname and face, this clarity may be lost during university years. Because the brain tends to delete the data it learns first in the long run. 

In the short term, the brain has a tendency to record the latest data learned during the day to the first records. For this reason, you immediately memorize a piece of information you learned before going to sleep and we remember it clearly the next day.

Another method the brain uses to learn is repetition. With continuous repetition, new information become stable in memory. Thanks to today's technology, there are e-learning areas that can be used again and again. For example, you wanted to implement a scenario as part of a workflow. It is possible to make continuous repetitions by seeing your mistakes and measuring your scoring through digital e-learning systems.

In summary, with these 3 simple principles, you can set up your learning principles by preparing, focusing and repeating. In this way, if you can create your own hybrid principles by taking advantage of both the teachings of the past and the blessings of the future, you can always continue to learn.