Progressive overload for the mind (How to learn effectively)

Training in the gym and learning (training your mind) have many similarities and drawing from concepts of effective training with the weights we can learn how to workout your mind. If you don’t go to the gym and aren’t familiar with the concepts we’ll cover today: don’t worry I’m going to explain each one so they are understandable to someone learning them for the first time.

The first and most important concept to understand is ‘progressive overload’. Progressive overload is the fundamental driver of muscle and strength gain. Simply put, it is the process of increasing the workload (weight, reps, or sets) each workout as you adapt (get stronger) to the exercise. The body is an adaptation machine in all facets: muscles grow and strengthen to adapt to work, bones strengthen to the forces placed on them, skin gets callused where it's used, your immune system learns how to better deal with a threat after recovering from it, and your brain is the exact same way. Think of your brain like a muscle, when you place loads on it that it deems high, then it will adapt in response to that. What I just described is the process of learning.

Progressive overload exists in a cycle: 1) you do work, 2) you adapt, 3) you increase work. To progressively overload your brain ‘work’ is the information inputs + the execution of the information. Real learning is understanding from the ground up the concepts at hand, that is why you need to input information AND execute on it. Learning without execution is memorization and you will only understand the concept by executing too. The execution is where you learn the nuances and what works, it’s the foundation of your understanding.

Step 1: You do work

For this step, you need: 1) Information inputs, and 2) Execution of the information. The subject of the information inputs is going to be specific to what you are learning, but it will be the content you consume (books, podcasts, YouTube videos, blogs). Execution is putting the concepts you learn from the information inputs into practice. This part is crucial to learning because if you only read about math without actually doing it you will not have learned anything, you won’t be able to do the math problems. It is by doing the math problems failing and messing up, that you find the gaps in your knowledge, build understanding, and learn the nuances of the subject. Think of 1) Information inputs as the weight you put on the bar in the gym, anybody can put a heavy weight on the bar, but 2) execution is what matters: lifting the weight and doing the reps. As you get stronger in the lift (smarter in the subject) you can increase the weight.

Step 2: You adapt

The human body is an adaptation machine as I previously mentioned. This step is not a conscious effort but knowing about it will help you seek it. What you need to understand is that discomfort is what makes your brain adapt. That is what prompts your brain to learn because its current capacity is not enough. You should seek the discomfort and frustration of being overwhelmed by new information because that is the cue for neuroplasticity. You are supposed to feel frustrated and overwhelmed. When you feel that it is akin to the ‘burn’ in your muscle at the gym. That feeling is what makes you come back stronger, or smarter.

Step 3: You increase work

This step is simple, when you are reading a book to learn a subject (or watching content, listening to podcasts/audiobooks, or anything educational) your ability to absorb the information is in itself trainable. So you’ll find as you do it regularly that you will also be able to do it for longer without hampered learning. So increasing work could be the weight on the bar, how many sets you do, or how many reps. The weight on the bar is how advanced the subject is, or how specific it is to your life. Sets are how many content sources you are pulling from (podcasts, YouTube videos, books, etc..). Lastly, reps are how long your learning sessions go for. Make sure your technique is good (focus) or else you might get injured.

What ‘muscles’ are foundational to all training styles? Reading, writing, and arithmetic. No matter what skills you pursue in your life these 3 are foundational, and the better the foundation the higher you can build. I recommend daily reading and writing practices. Reading every day will make you just a bit wiser consistently, and will help your ‘learning’ skill in any domain. Writing is a great practice because it forces you to organize and articulate your thoughts into a coherent structure. Writing will make the ideas you have in your head better thought out, and it translates into becoming a better speaker. For your daily practice don’t stress about what you read: “read what you love until you love to read” -Naval Ravikant. As long as you read consistently you’re good. For writing, you could make a blog because you’ll be able to document your thoughts as you age, but many people don’t want to do that so a journaling practice before bed is what I’d recommend. It can be as simple as noting the date and then writing about: “What did I do good today?” + “What could I do better tomorrow?”.

Just like the gym, if you start training your brain regularly you won’t see a difference in a few weeks or maybe even a month, but after a year or two you will be entirely unrecognizable and will have grown tremendously. Consistency is one of the most valuable traits in today’s day.