Every day, our consciousness is in a constant battle for attention: family, friends, work, hobbies and of course… social media.

So it’s no wonder that the Oxford Dictionary ‘s word of the year in 2024 is “brain rot”, which is defined as:

“The perceived deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially as a result of excessive consumption of material (now mainly online content) that is considered trivial or insignificant. Also: something considered likely to lead to such deterioration”. – Oxford Dictionary (translated into German)

A very wordy way of flattering what it actually wants to say, namely: Social media makes you stupid.

Sounds exaggerated? Maybe, but if we are honest at this point, we realize relatively quickly that the constant overstimulation by shorts, the outsourcing of any questions to ChatGPT or the increasingly absurd TikTok trends (ever heard of affirmations during an orgasm? Welcome to the “O Method”) don’t exactly lead to positive cognitive stimulation.

Our brain works like a muscle, meaning: use it or lose it.

We can learn throughout our lives, because the narrative that at some point we stop and our brain can no longer process information has been outdated in science for decades. However, the challenge lies in motivating ourselves to learn new features or content despite the high energy consumption. Because the bitter truth is that our brain is very allergic to effort.

This little marvel, with its approx. 86 billion neurons, consumes an average of around 516 kilocalories a day, which corresponds to around 20% of our total energy and most of this is used up by forming new synapses, i.e. with increased brain power. So I can understand every person who prefers to spend the evening being entertained by their favorite streaming service or scrolling through the countless shorts and pictures rather than learning a language, an instrument or a craft.

The only problem is: if we go back to the statement that our brain works like a muscle, it is easy to imagine that briefly lifting the barbell (shorts/scrolling, etc.) as an exercise is not enough to actually get this muscle moving and make it grow. It would be much better to look at longer sequences, imitate them, try them out, make mistakes if necessary and do this until you have internalized and consolidated the process.

So instead of throwing ourselves into the next short bubble or opening the social media feed, we should learn to replace short-term dopamine with long-term, intensive stimulation of our brain and thereby strengthen our “cognitive reserve”, which enables us to remain mentally healthy, fit and capable of learning throughout our lives.

Fortunately, nowadays we don’t have to buy expensive (online) courses or go straight to university, although both are of course good options for continuing our cognitive education. Access to education is possible within seconds. There are online courses from universities such as Oxford, Harvard and Yale, for example, on course platforms such as Coursera. We can access LinkedIn Learning courses, get a library card, use language tools such as Babbel or Preply or subscribe to YouTube channels that offer knowledge about cooking, crafts, finance or education (literature, history, etc.).

From voyeurism to activism

A first step towards replacing the endless scrolling with something inspiring and getting into action is to think about what else you want to learn in life. I myself keep a list on which I have noted which languages, instruments, content and skills I am particularly interested in. Mind you, this doesn’t mean that you should acquire everything immediately in the coming years, but I always try to tell myself the following:

“Either way, the next 10 years will pass and either you will have learned the following skills. Languages, content learned or you know the latest TikTok trends, scandals and juicy gossip spread on social media.

I don’t know how you see it, but option 1 sounds a lot more attractive to me (and my brain), while option 2, perhaps also looking back over the last few years, makes me literally grimace.

If you have created an exciting list, you can of course also share your “learning wishes” with your loved ones, as learning together can become a new adventure and ultimately even help you to keep going. However, I would generally recommend switching off ‘challenge mode’ completely, because you’re not competing to become the next Olympic chef or set a new Guinness World Record.

Although I don’t think it’s bad when people think competitively, it’s quite counterproductive when it comes to learning, because this process ideally works best when we enjoy it. So try not to put yourself under pressure here and above all:

Just get started!

No, you don’t need the perfect outfit, the right pen or some electronic gimmick to be “perfectly” equipped for your learning journey. The important thing is that you manage to develop a certain dynamic at the beginning and consistency throughout the learning process. This is how empty words (“one day I will…xy…) become real actions (I started last year and am now at level xy).

Learning is a marathon, not a sprint – know your conditions

In order to get off to a good start, you should of course know how to obtain the information you need in addition to the topic. Listen to yourself beyond your previous experiences (school, job, etc.) and think about which framework conditions will put you in an optimal “vibration” so that you may even experience the famous “flow moment” while learning. Are you learning while watching (YouTube), in a group course, with a teacher or on your own? Don’t rely on stereotyped learning types at this point. As humans, we are far too complex to be easily pigeonholed. Sometimes it helps to try something out and if you find that it’s not working, change the framework conditions rather than the topic.

For me, it was the subject area “languages”, where I first had to find out which context was right for me. At school (group context), I always had problems in English lessons, which was perhaps also due to the format (memorization and a big focus on grammar) as well as the constant exams and the recurring exposure in front of all my course participants. However, since the subject was important to me, I wanted to overwrite this bad experience in any case and tried it with common self-learning apps until I realized that I lacked the discipline to do this in everyday life. In the end, 1-to-1 supervision was my absolute game changer.

I was finally able to actively practise speaking, gradually taking over my teacher’s gentle corrections without fear of embarrassing myself if I made repeated mistakes. The appointments could be flexibly integrated into my everyday working life and had the necessary significance to attend them in a disciplined manner and at the same time maintain my enjoyment of learning. This taught me that analyzing the learning environment is incredibly important in order to guarantee a successful learning process. In my case, it turned a shy student who was told she would never get good at English into a confident (albeit still very self-critical) speaker and trainer who works with international teams and companies who can only shake their heads at my initial “problems” with the language.

Time planning and contingency plan for your learning process

Of course, a realistic time estimate is also part of the framework conditions. In most cases, we throw ourselves into a subject at the beginning full of enthusiasm, only to realize that we are completely overwhelmed in terms of content, cognition and time. It helps to mark a fixed time slot in the calendar and only study in this rhythm (e.g. weekly repetition). Of course, phases of work-related stress or family vacations can always be an exception, but I would recommend shifting such a “learning slot” a maximum of 1-2 times so that you don’t lose sight of your goals.

It’s quite exhausting to constantly start all over again. If you are focusing on something crafty, artistic or sporty and are absent due to illness, for example, I recommend starting with the theory here:

• What is the history of my instrument?
• Which muscle groups support each other in the process?
• How many types of wood can be used to make furniture?

There are many questions waiting to be answered and internalized by you. Use the time your body needs to recover to keep your mind in the process. As a result, our “muscle brain” (keyword: mind-muscle connection) will remember the task with new synapses when we resume the activity and, “fed” with new perspectives, will perform it even better.

The TEC rule

If you know your topic, the time frame and your “learning framework”, but still need that crucial tip to get you started, I recommend the TEC rule, meaning:

• Text: A non-fiction book, a blog, a newspaper or a (reputable!) YouTube channel, which form the basis for the knowledge learned. The more differentiated these sources are, the better.

• Expert: A person whose explanation you can follow well, but who does not present themselves as all-knowing (and gives off weird “guru vibes”) and whose knowledge you can use as additional inspiration.

• Community: A group (analog or digital) that is in constant exchange on the topic. This can be a group consisting of experts, a study group or even friends (e.g. a book club that devotes itself intensively to analyzing a work on a monthly basis).

You don’t need 10 different sources from each area, 1-3 are completely sufficient here so that you don’t overload yourself with information. It can also help to change the “basic sources and experts” after approx. 6-12 months so that you are not tempted to take out any subscriptions or subscribe to more in-depth courses whose knowledge would actually be freely available from other sources. I’m not saying that you should get everything for free, on the contrary: further education has its price and that’s right, but if you want to learn an instrument, it might be worth looking at 2-3 other online examples before you book an intensive learning course that you may not even be ready for yet.

Have I learned enough? Find out with the Richard Feynman technique

Sometimes we are in the middle of the process and ask ourselves when the next stage has been reached. Do I still need practice or can I move on to more difficult challenges? Have I really consolidated the learning content or will I forget it again after two weeks? The technique by Richard Feynman mentioned in the subheading is quite simple and I am 100% convinced that you have already applied it. It reads:

Explain your learning content to a child in simple terms. If you can do it, you have understood it, if not, you need to intensify your learning process again, because as the saying goes:

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius-and a lot of courage-to move in the opposite direction. – E.F. Schumacher

This is by far my absolute favourite technique, because even at school I understood complex issues best when I wrote them down, visualizing, repeating and reducing the complexity, only to then present them in my best “lecturer’s voice” to a non-existent audience.

Motivational hole when learning – how do I keep at it?

My final recommendation revolves around the topic of “consistency in the learning process”. At the beginning, the goal often seems incredibly far away and involves a lot of effort, which is why many people don’t even start and procrastinate instead. The inner critic and perfectionist are already peeking around the corner with a cheeky smile and pointing to the streaming service or social media timeline mentioned at the beginning. They remind us in a pleasant way that there are easier ways to spend (aka waste) our time.

You can only escape this “seduction” by asking yourself the honest question of how important the new learning content really is to you and hey, it’s no big deal if your answer is: “Not so important”, as long as there is an inspiring alternative that you can otherwise “feed” your brain with and allow it to grow. No one can keep up an activity that is not enjoyable and whose meaningfulness is constantly questioned in the process. In any case, be self-critical, open and honest with yourself, because this is not “giving up”, but a strategic “readjustment” of your actual subject matter, for which you feel more passion and on which you should focus.

For generalists, like myself, perhaps a little “warning” about the so-called “shiny object syndrome” would be appropriate at this point. This is the opposite of procrastination and often manifests itself in exuberant actionism. I am also one of those people who enjoy learning a lot of new things, but have to be careful to put what they have learned into practice at the end.

If you also belong to this group, which has many areas of interest and would like to learn as much as possible, here is my tip: focus, plan and implement. Ideally, these should be done step by step and one after the other rather than at the same time. I always plan one “project” for my professional life and one for my private life. If I’m lucky, the two may even overlap and I can expand my focus without getting lost in ever new “glittering” topics.

Another way to maintain motivation in the learning process is to fill the repetition sequences with exciting questions. For example, if you want to develop your culinary skills, you can ask yourself during the process:

• What happens if I use pasta instead of rice at this point?
• How does the following spice affect the overall taste?
• What consistency can I expect if I leave the dish to cook for longer?
• What alternative ingredient can I use if I don’t have the one I want in the house?

Experimenting in the learning process is completely normal and is virtually a scientific ethos that has already led to groundbreaking findings.

Remember:

“Curiosity helps you to reflect on and internalize information, but curiosity specifically supports you in leaving the beaten track and turning your learning content into your very own learning journey.”

One last tip at the end: regular inspiration boosters

With my last tip, we are building a constant bridge of inspiration into your learning future:

• Subscribe to a newsletter on the topic
• Save a video that you haven’t seen yet
• Enter a suitable event in the calendar
• Mark an interesting blog post that you would like to read.

All these markers, saved media and events should be on your to-do list or in your calendar and, as in the famous Mario Kart game, serve as a “booster” on the “learning track” to remind you, even months after you have started your learning process, that there are so many exciting posts, videos and people who can inspire you and accompany you on your path and help you grow, because one thing is certain:

“Once you have experienced the magic of learning, you will find it again for the rest of your life.”