How to learn in a self-taught way? 13 tips

Some key ideas for self-taught learning without wasting time.

How many times have we wanted to learn something on our own? Whether it's speaking a language, playing an instrument, drawing or playing a sport, there are many things that can be learned at our own pace and interest.

The problem is that sometimes we don't dare to start or, once we have taken the first step, we are not constant and what seemed like a great learning project becomes something else that we never get to finish.

That is why today we are going to look at some key tips and ideas for effective self-study learningWe will start with a good motivation and being aware that in order to achieve our goals we must put the maximum effort.

How to learn in a self-taught way?

In this life there are many things that can be learned by attending formal and regulated education (school, university, academies...), but there are many more things that can be learned in a self-taught way. What is needed is to know how to approach the learning process without falling into procrastination and abandonment. For this, the following tips are useful.

1. Do not be afraid of the new

Historically, fear, based on ignorance, has always been an obstacle for human beings to expand their knowledge. An example of this is that in the Middle Ages, for fear of the unknown, no one dared to find out what lay beyond the Atlantic Ocean.

Although over the centuries we have overcome this belief that the unknown is necessarily bad, learning is not without fear, learning is not without its initial fearsespecially of things that conflict with well-established beliefs.

If we want to learn hiking, we should not be afraid to go to the mountain and try it for ourselves. We may be afraid that something is going to happen to us, but if we don't check, how will we really know if there was something to be afraid of?

2. Do an introductory reading

The first step to start learning something on a self-taught basis is by documenting yourself about what you want to master.. Doing an introductory reading is always essential, since it allows us to see, at a glance, how extensive is what we want to learn.

By way of brainstorming you can search the Internet by putting the phrase "how to learn ...", "what is ...", "how to start playing/playing/speaking ...".

In this way we will become familiar with the names of experts in the field, we will see the names of websites or books that are considered useful for what we want to learn, and we will know of other useful resources to start with.

3. Selecting the best sources of information

Once the first initial reading has been done, we must select what is best for learning the desired topic. It is very important that the self-learning process starts off on the right foot, prioritizing quality over quantity.

We can search the Internet by putting "What are the best books on...", "The best blogs..."

We can also turn to YouTube tutorials from people who have a large following or who are experts on the subject.

4. You can learn from your mistakes

Many people are afraid of making mistakes because, in many occasions, in the most classical education, it has been suggested that the error is synonymous of failure..

Learning in a self-taught way allows us to see that no one is perfect, that each person learns in his or her own way and that we can make mistakes, from which we will always learn something useful.

Making several mistakes should not be seen as a reason for frustration, but as an opportunity to reflect on why we have made those mistakes, to see if they are common and to understand why something is different from how we thought it was.

5. We need discipline, but the good kind

The word discipline may sound a bit strong and even seen as something negative. On many occasions, and especially when talking about the learning process, discipline is understood as a synonym for punishment or penalization.

If we want to be good self-learners, there is no doubt that we must be constant, and for that we need discipline.And for this we need discipline, but understood more as a personal trait than as a penalizing action.

We need discipline, but the good kind: we must give ourselves fully and rigorously to the study and practice of the subject we wish to master. This is the only way to achieve success.

6. Share what you have learned

During learning, whether self-taught or in a classroom context, we do not take an exclusive role of learner or an exclusive role of teacher. These roles are not like oil and water; they can be combined.

Mastering a subject is not done by reading like a possessed person hundreds of manuals without contact with other people. It is the interaction with other human beings that allows us to build up our knowledge.. For example, by discussing our doubts we can expand our knowledge and, at the same time, we can explain what we already know in order to debate it, fostering a context that will always be beneficial for all participants.

This advice is especially useful in language learning. It is clear that learning the grammatical rules is useful to understand how the language is structured, but without sharing what we know by conversing in that language with other people, we will hardly be able to make progress and know what mistakes we are making.

7. Do not limit yourself to a single source of information

Whether in the nearest library, in bookstores or in the vast and extensive world of the Internet, the topic we have decided to address can be explored in depth from various resources..

Although it is appropriate to start with a single source of information, in order to have a first contact with what we want to master, we should never be satisfied with resorting to a single point of reference. We may find a free online course that is quite complete, but this does not mean that it has all the information we are interested in.

The spirit of the autodidact is characterized by never being satisfied with what they have already learned: they always want more. Even experts are constantly looking for new information, new articles, books and blogs.

8. With effort everything is possible

There is a widespread belief that intelligence and talent come innately and therefore cannot be changed. Actually, this is not entirely true, since an important factor in the improvement of our skills is effort and the creation of habits that favor the development of our abilities.reation of habits that favor learning and do not allow our energies to be wasted..

It is possible that we want to learn to paint and we see that there are people who in a few attempts are already able to do still lifes, while we are still at the very basics, this does not mean that we will never paint well, it is just that we need to dedicate more time to it. With effort everything is possible, success is something that will come sooner or later.

9. Discard the trivial

It is good to try to know as much as possible about a subject or to watch many tutorials where we are taught several ways to do the same thing, whether it is painting, playing a song on the guitar or learning a language, but we must know how to discard the trivial.

We will find many things that we have already seen before, and others that we don't really need to know. Spending time on unnecessary things will waste our time and make it seem like the road to the goal is something titanic..

But this should be done with care. If we are beginners, it is better not to take any risks and try to absorb like sponges all the information and useful advice from experts in the subject we are interested in. This way we will be able to have a good background at the beginning.

10. Measuring progress

Measuring progress is extremely necessary to make sure we are on the right track. It often happens that, no matter how much we want to do it, by not writing down what new achievements we have made, we get stuck and, in the long run, we become frustrated..

Although there are self-learning resources that make it easier to write down what you have achieved, especially language applications that tell you which lessons you have done and which ones you have not, in other situations you are responsible for writing down everything you have already seen.

It is highly recommended to write down in a diary or agenda what you have been doing, to have a more or less meticulous record of how the session went and, if possible, to set weekly goals.

11. Define the best format for learning

Learning on your own can be done in multiple ways, and this is the main advantage of self-learning.. The problem lies in knowing how to choose the most appropriate way to do it.

Video tutorials are perfect for skills related to music or languages. They are also useful for learning how to use a program, draw, perform a physical activity without injuring yourself...

Written articles, both in blogs and specialized pages, and other resources can touch on various topics and be very useful to go deeper into them. A good way to know if an article is good to learn something is that it has at least about 1,500 words, and accompanied with images.

If you are one of those who prefer the physical format rather than the computer screen, it is a good idea to buy a specialized book.. There are all kinds of books, but those with solved exercises to help you understand what you are trying to learn are especially useful.

There are also audios, which are ideal for those who have little time. to stand in front of a computer screen or table and read. They can be listened to while on public transportation or exercising.

12. Define our time and place of study

We do not always have as much free time as we would like, which is why, in order to study something that interests us, we need to define our time and place of study.

This should be done in a very thoughtful way. We are interested in choosing a time of the day when we do not have distractions and that the place where we are going to study is a good learning environment. If we are one of those who find it difficult to start or we have the feeling that this new hobby takes time away from other priorities, we can begin in a very soft way, dedicating only one hour a week to it..

Once we see that an hour a week is something we can cope with, we can increase the number of sessions and their duration until our study time has become a habit for which we always have the desire and time.

13. Practice makes perfect

Finally, and as something that seems quite obvious, the idea that practice makes perfect must be fulfilled.

Without practice we will never learn what we want to master.. We must be patient and constant, and be aware that with effort, time and desire one day we will have reached our goal.

Main habits to avoid

Finally, let's discuss three habits to avoid to ensure that the self-taught process flows in the best way.

1. Repeating mistakes

As we have already seen, you should not be afraid of making mistakes, as long as you see this as an opportunity to understand what you have done wrong and how you can improve it. What you should not do is to assume that making the same mistake over and over again is inevitable, and not devote any energy to avoiding it.and not to devote any energy to avoid it.

This is what we would call a vice, something that we do out of inertia and that, even though we know it is not right, we keep doing it over and over again trusting that all the good things we do will compensate for it.

It may be true that we do everything else so well that the vice is not a big problem, but it may not be so. It is necessary to try to solve it, because perhaps not solving it will determine the quality of the rest of the learning.

2. Being disorganized

In a world where social demands are many, disorder does not help.. If we want to dedicate ourselves to learning something on our own, to ensure that we succeed we must take the bull by the horns and establish an order.

Not recording progress, having distractions nearby, having a table full of papers... are factors that hinder self-taught learning. Learning becomes chaotic and doomed to failure.

3. Losing perseverance

Without consistency, there is no learning. It is as simple as that. We cannot start learning whenever we feel like it because, if we do, between sessions, the time between sessions will be too long for us to be able to establish our new learning, the time between sessions will be too long for us to be able to establish the new learning well..

Perseverance is difficult to maintain, but it is necessary. It is true that we will lose motivation progressively and we will even feel some wear and tear and we will have the feeling of being stagnant, but this does not mean that we should stop dedicating ourselves to what we want to learn.