The Burst Learning Strategy

Burst learning is a term that I’ve come up with for a method I’ve been using for many years to gain a good functional ability in a relatively short period of time in almost any skill you could imagine. Before I decided to write this post I had  never called it ‘Burst Learning’, but I needed to call it something and ‘Burst Learning’ seemed appropriate. I did a google search of the term and there’s over 5 million search results so I’m sure that this idea isn’t unique to me, but I didn’t learn this method from any of those 5 million search results either. This is one of my own personal learning strategies that I’d like to share with you.

Whenever I get interested in some new skill or ‘practice’ I almost always end up using the methods outlined in this post to get a good grasp of whatever it is I am trying to learn. An example that I’ll keep coming back to is when I used this technique to learn Remote Viewing. For more about my experiences with RV you can check out that link but it’s not necessary for you to know anything about remote viewing to appreciate this post, it’s just a good example of one of the ways that I applied this burst learning strategy in my own life. Regardless of what you think about remote viewing, this method will work for any skill you want to learn.

The next thing I’m going to be using this method for is to learn Qigong, (chi kung, chi gong). I’ve recently been using it to learn all about back pain, and I feel like I’ve been using it to learn to be a better blogger but I just blog so regularly that I don’t think I could really say I’m using burst learning for that. I’ve used burst learning to study many different topics and I find it so much more effective than simply trying to ‘self teach’ yourself something in your spare time.

Fully Immerse Yourself

To sum up my burst learning strategy you could say you basically just fully immerse yourself in whatever you are studying. For however long you deem necessary you allow yourself to become completely obsessed with whatever it is you want to learn. Using my remote viewing example from above, when I began learning about RV I became completely and fully immersed in the subject.

I read pretty much every single book on remote viewing that had been published, I signed up on the best forums and websites, and I went to live workshops. I contacted several other remote viewers, some much more advanced than I was, and others who were just starting out. I looked up people on facebook, I scoured youtube for videos, and I bought several learn-at-home kits. For nearly an entire year I was completely immersed in the world of Remote Viewing. I was even invited to join in on multiple team viewing projects and was able to make many great RV contacts.

You could almost say that I was a remote viewer for a period of time. I am no longer a remote viewer, I haven’t practiced in months, but for a period of time I basically lived as a remote viewer would. As much as I could without actually being ‘a professional’ of some sort or another. I never made any money doing RV but the potential was certainly there. Whether by teaching others and holding workshops or doing individual remote viewings for money, I could have worked hard and made a living doing remote viewings, but I didn’t.

Why didn’t I do it? I didn’t do it because I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Sure it was really exciting at first, but it just didn’t seem like the right thing for me. This was only apparent to me once I had actually gone out and done the things a remote viewer would do. I never knew that it wasn’t for me until I fully immersed myself in it and gave it a real try. At first it seemed like a great idea, but after doing it for a while I realized that it wasn’t.

Do this with anything

I used remote viewing as an example, but you can use this method of completely immersing yourself in any subject you want. You can get really good at chess, start a band, or even learn to sell insurance with this method. It doesn’t matter what you want to do, if you fully immerse yourself in the subject and are just ready to absorb as much of it as you possibly can, your skills will naturally begin to improve at an insane speed.

Burst learning is more efficient than studying something ‘part time’. An hour or two a day is simply not enough practice to get good at something in any reasonable amount of time. To develop a new skill quickly your best bet is to just dive right in and allow yourself to ‘become obsessed’ with it. I don’t mean that you should let it run your life, but focus as much of the time and energy that you can spare on learning this new skill. Dedicate at least 20-30 hours a week to your new skill. This might sound like a lot, but it’s only a few hours a day if you learn something every day.

Every day!

You should spend time working on your new skill every single day. It’s an important way to keep it fresh in your mind and keep your attention focused on improving. You don’t have to practice the skill itself if you can’t manage or it’s not beneficial to do so, but you should at least be studying it or be somehow involved with it each day. If you’re trying to learn kung fu you don’t need to spar every day, but you should be reading kung fu information, speaking with kung fu teachers, or watching kung fu videos at the very least. With remote viewing I tried to do at least one session every day, plus spend time reading the latest book or online in the forums. I couldn’t always get a session in every day but I could always sneak in at least a few pages of a book, a quick video, or a few posts on the forums on even my most busy days.

Join the community

One of the best tools we have access to in modern times is the internet. I love the internet, you can get information on anything you want and communicate with anyone pretty much instantly. This means that we can learn things and get direct help from people who know much more than we do, instantly. And for free.

Don’t cheat yourself out of so much more free information by not joining the community. Hop on google and do a search for forums and communities about your particular skill. Join them, and get active on them. It doesn’t take long to build a good network of like minded internet friends who are more than happy to help each other out. This helps the learning process immensely and should not be ignored. Internet communities are some of the best places to learn once you figure out how to distinguish between good posts and troll excrement.

As long as it takes

Keep yourself immersed in your new skill for as long as you want. You might realize that you don’t want to do it anymore and it’s perfectly fine to quit if you don’t want to do it anymore. At least you gave it a real good try and learned a bunch along the way.

Maybe you’ll keep this new skill and you’ll realize it’s your calling. Perhaps you’ll be the next UFC Heavyweight Champion, or maybe insurance salesman of the year? Whatever skill you apply this to, if you really enjoy it you’ll know and you’ll want to keep up with it. If this happens to you, go for it! It could be your calling! If it’s not your calling, then at least you’re having fun, right?

If you burst learn a new skill and realize after a month or two that it’s not what you hoped for, then so be it. Move on to something else and try something new. I was fully immersed in remote viewing for a little over a year, I made really great progress in that time. More importantly, I built a ton of strong connections with other people through things like online forums and live workshops and seminars. The connections you make during a period of burst learning are often the best part of the whole ordeal, you’ll be surprised by the people you meet during time spent fully immersed in a new subject. Often you can meet some of the biggest names in the industry if you only put a little effort in.

I hope you find this strategy useful and that it helps you learn a new skill.