Learning anything new can often be a daunting and exhausting endeavor.
However, there are steps you can take to make the process go easier and make progress as quickly as possible.
A few things to know before proceeding: all new skills and new information generally require you to be exposed to them multiple times before they really stick. And in order to remember them effectively, you often have to put those into practice until it requires little to no mental effort and instead becomes muscle memory. So while you may be trying to learn quickly, it will likely take a little more time than you had hoped, but below are some steps to help you get to a satisfactory skill level as quickly as possible.
So if you are learning a new software or skill and you are overwhelmed and worried you won’t remember everything, just remember that you don’t need to remember everything right away. You simply might need to expose your brain to that information several times before it really sticks, especially if it is a more foreign concept to you.
Here is how to quickly learn any kind of software:
1. Watch tutorials that are directly related to what you are trying to accomplish, but don’t follow along. Just soak in the information at first.
A) This is important so you don’t get bored, frustrated, or overwhelmed, and you feel like you are progressing at some level and don’t want to give up early.
B) Watching a variety of tutorials without following along will expose you to multiple teachers, and this is excellent for a couple of reasons:
1. You will find one or more teachers that just seem to teach in a way that works for you or those that are efficient and/or fun.
2. You will pick up on repeat information that is essential to understand the program.
3. This also helps you figure out what you should hone in on learning more specifically, in case you have specific goals in mind.
2. After you have watched several tutorials, you can try to follow along with a new one or one that you already watched and wanted to try.
A) Tips: pick a fun, simple, and relatively short tutorials. For instance, how to make flames in Blender. How to turn yourself into a bobble head in Photoshop. Just anything that feels like play and isn’t terribly daunting. Doing a handful of these will accelerate your learning at a quicker pace than a giant course would, and if you do decide to take a longer course, having these shorter projects under your belt makes those bigger courses easier to progress in.
3. Sometimes watching at 1.25 – 2x playback speed is useful, especially if the teacher rambles or you are familiar with similar software, but if you are completely new to a software and the concepts aren’t the easiest to pick up, it is ideal to use 1.0x playback speed and be ready to reverse 5-15 seconds either with the keyboard or the player controls at any time. Take your time, don’t rush, so you can better comprehend what is being presented.
4. With that said, sometimes it is useful to watch time-lapses of people working in software. You will be exposed to functions that you did not know existed or were possible, and that gives you a thread with which to search and follow. It also might teach you “industry secret”-type knowledge that basic tutorials don’t cover.
5. It is okay to take breaks if you’re struggling. Early on with software like Adobe Photoshop and Blender, when I had no experience with those or similar software, I would hit a learning curve that was too steep for me and get frustrated and stop working with them for weeks or months. Then eventually, I would return to the software with new determination, and because I had been exposed to concepts multiple times previously and also because my subconscious had done some problem-solving, I was able to push past those learning curves and succeed.
6. Learn major keyboard shortcuts. These reduce barriers to productivity, thus increasing speed, efficiency, and enthusiasm when working in the software, which propels you forward.
7. Actively work on projects. Once you’ve been exposed to the software generally as well as specific concepts and tools, from this point on, you can more effectively proceed with projects which will solidify the knowledge you have picked up.
And there you have it. Hopefully at least a few of these steps will help turbocharge your learning journey.
Good luck!
