Mastering Encoding: 12 Rules to Boost Your Learning Power

The Importance of Encoding in Learning

Encoding is a crucial skill for any student or professional to master. As a learning coach with 13 years of experience working with over 30,000 learners, I've found that strong encoding abilities are a hallmark of what we consider genius-level learning. Proper encoding allows you to remember more of what you learn and understand it at a deeper level.

If you have weak encoding skills, you could be wasting hundreds of hours every year on inefficient learning. The good news is that encoding is a skill that can be learned and improved by following these 12 key rules.

Rule 1: Stop Fighting Your Brain

Encoding is the process by which your brain forms memories with new information. Your brain is naturally adept at this process if we allow it to work as intended. When new information comes in, your brain wants to see where it fits within your existing knowledge structure - like placing a book on the correct shelf in a library.

When your brain can see how new information is relevant and how it connects to what you already know, that's when you feel like you truly understand something and are likely to remember it. On the other hand, when information doesn't seem to fit anywhere, you can sense that you're about to forget it.

Your brain is designed to organize information efficiently, keeping what's relevant and discarding what isn't. Fighting this natural process by trying to force memorization of disconnected facts is extremely inefficient. Instead, we need to work with our brain's encoding process.

Rule 2: Prevent Learning Debt

Learning debt occurs when you continually fight your brain's natural encoding process. If you encounter a new piece of information that seems irrelevant and you simply try to memorize it through repetition, you're creating future work for yourself.

Your brain will naturally discard this seemingly irrelevant information, forcing you to repeatedly review and re-learn it later. This cycle of forgetting and re-learning creates a debt of time and mental energy that you'll have to pay off in the future.

By not taking the time upfront to make new information relevant and connected to your existing knowledge, you create a backlog of disconnected facts that become increasingly difficult to truly learn and understand.

Rule 3: Don't Overeat Information

Learning can be thought of as a two-phase process: consuming and digesting. Consuming is taking in new information, while digesting is the encoding process that makes that information stick in your memory and become usable knowledge.

Many learners fall into the trap of overeating information - consuming large amounts of content without taking the time to digest and encode it properly. For example, sitting through a dense one-hour lecture and then immediately reading a textbook for another hour without pausing to process the information.

Instead, aim to digest information frequently throughout the learning process. After consuming a small chunk of information, take a moment to summarize it, connect it to what you already know, or create a mini mind map. This creates a snowball effect where learning becomes progressively easier as you build a stronger foundation of connected knowledge.

Pre-studying before lectures or workshops can also help build this foundation, allowing you to encode new information more efficiently during the live event. If you're unsure about your current learning system, consider taking a free learning system diagnostic quiz to identify areas for improvement.

Rule 4: Simplify Everything

One of the most powerful encoding tactics is to focus on simplifying new information rather than trying to memorize or understand it directly. This may seem counterintuitive, but the act of simplifying forces your brain to engage with the material in ways that naturally lead to better understanding and retention.

When you encounter new information, challenge yourself to express it in the simplest terms possible. For example, instead of memorizing a complex medical definition of anaphylaxis, you might simplify it to "the immune system hitting the panic button."

Even if your initial simplification isn't perfectly accurate, the mental work involved in creating it will strengthen your memory of the concept. When you later learn a more precise definition, you'll have a strong foundation to build upon.

Rule 5: Compare Everything

Your brain creates relevance and meaning through relationships between pieces of information. To encode new knowledge effectively, actively look for comparisons between new information and things you already know or other new concepts you're learning.

Force yourself to identify similarities and differences between ideas. This process opens up your existing mental networks to incorporate the new information, giving it context and meaning. Consistent comparison helps you see patterns and connections that might not be immediately obvious.

Rule 6: Connect Everything

Once you've simplified concepts and compared them to other ideas, the next step is to explicitly connect them. Look for ways that different pieces of information influence or impact each other. How does one concept lead to another? What are the implications of combining these ideas?

By actively building these connections, you're creating a rich network of knowledge in your mind. This network allows you to recall information more easily and apply it in novel situations. Strong encoders habitually examine every new piece of information, looking for ways to connect it to their existing knowledge.

Rule 7: Group Everything

As you build more connections between ideas, you'll start to see patterns emerge. Use these patterns to group related concepts together. This process of categorization helps simplify complex networks of information into more manageable chunks.

Grouping doesn't mean losing the detailed connections you've built - it's about creating a higher-level organization that makes it easier to navigate and recall your knowledge. Look for shared similarities between concepts and use these as the basis for your groups.

The act of creating, evaluating, and refining these groups is a powerful encoding process in itself. It forces you to think deeply about the relationships between ideas and how they fit into the bigger picture of your knowledge.

Rule 8: Get Used to Thinking Hard

Effective encoding requires mental effort. It's much easier to passively read a textbook or listen to a lecture than to actively engage in simplifying, comparing, connecting, and grouping information. However, this harder thinking is what leads to efficient learning and deeper understanding.

Embrace the challenge of thinking at this higher level. Over time, it will become a habit, and you'll find yourself automatically engaging with new information in these more effective ways. If you've struggled with attention, retention, or complex problem-solving, pushing yourself to think harder during the learning process is essential for improvement.

Rule 9: Do Everything Again

Encoding is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. As you learn more and deepen your understanding of a subject, you'll need to revisit and restructure your existing knowledge networks.

Be prepared to re-evaluate and reorganize your mental models as you encounter new information or realize gaps in your understanding. This constant refinement of your knowledge structure is what allows for true mastery of a subject.

Even at a micro level, effective learning involves a cycle of taking in a small amount of information, encoding it through simplification, comparison, connection, and grouping, then taking in the next bit of information and repeating the process. Each cycle may require you to adjust your previous groupings and connections.

Rule 10: Use Better Analogies

Creating analogies is a powerful encoding technique that naturally incorporates simplification, comparison, connection, and grouping. A good analogy can make complex ideas more accessible and memorable.

However, not all analogies are equally effective. Strive to create analogies that are:

1. Comprehensive: Covering multiple key aspects of the concept you're learning
2. Simple: Easy to understand and remember
3. Accurate: Correctly representing the relationships and principles involved

Balancing these three qualities can be challenging, but the mental effort involved in creating and refining analogies is itself a powerful encoding process.

Rule 11: Use Note-Taking as an Offload

While the human brain is incredibly powerful, it has limits on how much information it can juggle at once. Note-taking serves as a cognitive offload, allowing you to externalize your thoughts and free up mental resources for deeper processing.

Use your notes to:

• Jot down initial connections and groupings
• Sketch out potential relationships between concepts
• Visualize your thought process

Effective note-taking makes the encoding process cognitively easier by allowing you to see your thoughts on paper and manipulate them visually. Additionally, your notes become a reflection of your mental models, helping you identify gaps in your knowledge or areas where your understanding might be weak.

Rule 12: Challenge Your Hypothesis Constantly

Approach your knowledge as a series of hypotheses rather than fixed facts. Be willing to challenge and revise your understanding as you encounter new information or perspectives.

This flexible mindset allows your expertise to grow quickly and prevents rigid, mistaken beliefs from becoming entrenched. Especially when learning a new topic, assume that your initial understanding is likely incomplete or partially incorrect.

Regularly question your groupings, connections, and overall knowledge structure. This ongoing process of self-challenge and refinement is what separates true experts from those with static, limited understanding.

Conclusion

Mastering these 12 rules of encoding can dramatically boost your learning power. While they may not offer a quick fix or shortcut, they provide a clear path to more efficient and effective learning.

By working with your brain's natural encoding processes, preventing learning debt, and consistently engaging in deep thinking about new information, you can develop learning skills that set you apart. Remember that becoming an efficient learner takes practice and effort, but the rewards - in terms of time saved and depth of understanding gained - are well worth the investment.

Apply these rules consistently in your studies or professional development, and you'll find yourself able to learn faster, remember more, and understand topics at a deeper level than ever before. With time and practice, these encoding strategies will become second nature, transforming you into the kind of learner who can quickly master new subjects and solve complex problems with ease.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdMJcrqZuC8