MemoryLab

MemoryLab

How to Become an Efficient Self-Learner PT. 6/12

Jhon Franca's avatar
Jhon Franca
Aug 15, 2025
∙ Paid
6
4
Share

Today I will talk about the best study methods, but I will go beyond: I won't just mention them, but I'll make a comparison so you understand them perfectly.

By the end of this post, you will understand:

  • Why your studying is too slow to progress.

  • How to make reading into almost unforgettable knowledge.

  • The best study technique by far, because there's no competition for it.

  • Common mistakes that almost every student makes.

  • How I study and get great results.

Weekly practical exercises for self-learners who want to memorize books, articles, or even learn languages.


When it comes time to study, we usually don't make many criteria regarding the method. What matters is watching a class and that's it, right? Wrong.

In general, people who say the method doesn't matter that much are already used to the way they study and don't even imagine they could achieve much more.

I came to enlighten the minds of people who think they're doing a good job when, in reality, they're throwing all their potential in the trash.

If you identify with what I tell you, don't worry that there's something bad to change, because in it there's an opportunity to be better than you ever were.

Reading. Watching Classes. AI Explanations

If you read a 400-page romance novel, when you reach the end, can you narrate all the main events in their proper order without getting lost?

You might be able to if you didn't read it long ago, but let's say this reading happened a year ago, could you still do it?

This forgetting is normal, however, the remarkable events need to be remembered, because if not, it's almost as if we hadn't read it.

This form of study is the most basic among all, since it's the minimum that society asks of us, whether watching a class in college, reading a book, or an explanation given by an AI.

You can't achieve much if you just stick to this type of study.

It's not enough to absorb the material, it needs to stick in your mind in a deeper way.

  • Pros: Great initial exposure, serves to contextualize a subject you don't understand.

  • Cons: When someone asks you to explain what you understood, you frequently feel difficulties.

This type of learning shouldn't be the only way to study, because if so, you'll barely reach the superficial level of the content.

Writing. Explaining to Someone. Teaching Classes.

Here, it's evident that your intellectual repertoire about the subject is much more elevated.

Pay attention that the term "writing" I propose is not mere note-taking, but writing constantly, like my Substack. I would be at this level because I comment about studying far beyond the superficial.

It wasn't uncommon for me to read a book and when explaining it to my girlfriend, have difficulty remembering the events in order (she loves when I tell stories, after all, who doesn't like them?).

What happens is that, in this effort to recover the lost memories of the romance I had read, those scenes will be much easier to tell again.

After all, you don't just remember the information, but also the past explanations you've already given about it, which allows you to enter a giant depth compared to those who only read.

Pros: Large volume of knowledge about the topic, has the capacity to talk about various subjects with authority.

Cons: Precisely because you need to know a large volume of information, many things are forgotten.

In the next and last method, this problem will be solved.

Associative Study Technique

Before starting, this is my recommendation: you need to use all three of these, however, in their proper order.

  • First, you watch the class, then you use the associative study technique, and only then do you explain to someone.

Because the only flaw that explaining to another person causes is that you don't have a memorization system to remember everything when explaining, and what I'll show you now is what closes the perfect cycle.

How it works in practice:

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to MemoryLab to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Jhon Franca
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture