Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara, the famous Japanese doctor who studied longevity, shared that if you want to do well after the age of 65, you don’t have to retire. “And if you must, retire much later than age 65”, says the doctor, who himself worked into his 100s.

Staying busy with something that you love is the key to staying young longer. Learning new skills that you find useful and interesting is also a way to stay sharp, happy and motivated to keep building and growing.

The development of new skill, however, might be kind of frustrating, especially if you struggle with grasping the main principles from the very beginning.  The following five hacks will help you to learn faster and more effectively when you put them in use.

Start small

Learning a new skill requires time and patience. Start small and give yourself enough time to learn the fundamentals. Start with understanding the simple concepts before jumping into the deep water of complicated studies or projects. The key to mastering a skill is to understand its essence, to establish strong foundations and to build on them.

Create a routine

Turn the process of learning this new skill into a habit. Include learning hours in your daily routine and don’t make excuses. If you channel the power of routines, you will become better at learning. Create a learning schedule and stick to it. Knowledge builds up over time when you are consistent in your efforts. So, keep building!

Efficiency over time

The amount of time you spend practicing the new skill is not that important if you don’t spend that time effectively. In order to do so, you need to eliminate distractions and be fully focused on the learning process. 20 minutes of focused studying beat 2 hours of studying, while your mind is somewhere else.

Mix things up

Don’t stick to only one method of learning a new skill. Better chose a variety of resources to incorporate in your learning process – read a text, listen and use video content. Being exposed to information from different channels helps your brain to retain it much longer. This approach is fun and will help you to keep your interest alive longer.

Join a study group

Learning a new skill is easier when you have the ability to practice with others, who are also learning. You have the opportunity to share your experience and struggles, to exchange ideas and learning methods. Along with getting new perspectives, joining a study group is a source of great motivation as it helps you beat procrastination, to avoid getting bored by studying on your own and to put your skills to ‘practice’.