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A Johns Hopkins Study Reveals the Scientific Secret to Double How Fast You Learn

Making one small change to the way you practice can make a huge difference in how quickly you gain new skills.

Inc. | Jeff Haden



Photo from Getty Images.

When you're trying to learn something new — like, say, making that new sales demo really sing — you need to practice. When you're trying to gain expertise, how much you practice is definitely important.

But even more important is the way you practice.

Most people simply repeat the same moves. Like playing scales on the piano, over and over again. Or going through the same list of vocabulary words, over and over again. Or, well, repeating anything over and over again in the hopes you will master that task.

Not only will your skills not improve as quickly as they could, in some cases, they may actually get worse.

According to recent research from Johns Hopkins, "What we found is if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master, you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing multiple times in a row."

Why? The most likely cause is reconsolidation, a process where existing memories are recalled and modified with new knowledge.