Remember when somebody tells you that you need to a have a clear goal in order to achieve something or get better? According to this learning technique, the exact opposite is true. One key insight to mastering a skill is to focus on the process of learning that skill rather than the the learning outcome itself - the product.
So for example if you want to become great at surfing, instead of setting a goal to become a national champion, you should focus on the process of surfing itself. The best surfers are not those that train to win a prize, but those that engage with the waves every day, because they found a way to enjoy the process - its sunny, the water is not too cold, they do it with friends.
In an often cited design experiment from pottery-making teacher split the class into two groups: the first group was to focus on making as many clay pots as they could in the hour; the second group was to focus on making the highest quality clay pot within the hour. At the end, the teacher would grade them and announce a winner. It was clear that the highest quality pot made was from the group who focused on quantity instead of those with the goal in mind to make the best pod.
Here some tips to make process learning easier:
Find a process that suits your character and learning style, so that you can enjoy the time spend studying or at least make it more bearable. There is no point to study if you feel sleepy, bored or are in an environment where you cannot focus.
Set a fixed study time in which you just focus on the material without trying to reach a certain learning goal, then stop. The next day continue. Its important to set a fixed quitting time (say after 25 minutes). This will give you a clear reward when you are done (time for fun!) and therefore increases the chance that you study again the next day.
To maximise your learning outcome, study short but often. Neuroscientist argue that synapses grow at night which means that spaced repetition, the act of regular studies with sleeping breaks in between each session, is far more effective than to study long hours on one single day.
If you have trouble to focus or tend to procrastinate (e.g. switch from doing something hard like studying math to something easy like browsing the web), try to protect you from any distraction. You might want to be at a quite place, use headphones or apply the Pomodoro Technique (a timer) to help focus for chunks of 25 minutes before you stop to relax.
Eat your frogs first thing in the morning - do tasks that are especially difficult first. In the morning you likely will have the most will power. And always remember its progress not the product of learning that will lead to success!
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