Neuroscientist Explains the 2-Step Process to Learn Anything

Step 1: Intense focus. Step 2: Intense rest.

We learn by improving our neuroplasticity.

In layman’s terms, neuroplasticity is all about how the brain reorganises new connections in response to learning something. Or as Dr. Celeste Campbell puts it:

“It refers to the physiological changes in the brain that happen as the result of our interactions with our environment. From the time the brain begins to develop in utero until the day we die, the connections among the cells in our brains reorganize in response to our changing needs. This dynamic process allows us to learn from and adapt to different experiences”

I’ve been fascinated by learning and focus since discovering Dr Andrew Huberman and his work at Huberman Labs. Most of the information in this article is directly from his mouth via podcasts and Instagram.

Andrew explains that from the age of 0–25 we are extremely able to adapt, make neural connections and learn new things.

You might have heard the phrase “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”This might be true in a sense… it is much harder for someone over the age of 25 to learn an instrument or a new language, but it’s not impossible.

With a few simple strategies outlined in this article, you’ll understand how to learn whatever you want more effectively.

Huberman breaks learning down into a 2 step process.

1. Intense Focus
2. Intense Rest

You need both of them to learn effectively. We’ll discuss both in detail below.

There are some big terms in here that I’ll try to simplify down as much as possible. Bear with me, it should all make sense in the end.

Intense Focus

Urgency and focus trigger plasticity.

If you want to learn as an adult, there needs to be a high-level of engagement. You need to be curious. You need to be interested. You need to be self-directed.

When you’re interested in a task, the pupils dilate — creating something Huberman calls a “soda straw” focus. This is a concept similar to that of “deep work” by Cal Newport.

When you start learning something new, you might feel agitated or slightly stressed out. That’s okay and it’s actually necessary. The is the noradrenaline kicking in. The purpose of noradrenaline is to nudge us into movement. It forces us to act.

From this aroused state, we need to take the energy and focus it. Acetylcholine is key here.

Don’t be scared of this big-ass, fancy-sounding word. Acetylcholine is a neuro-modulator (oh great, another big word…) that research has shown is important for learning and memory.

Basically, it marks which neurons in the brain need to change and which ones don’t. The ones associated with learning that particular task, are changed, the others aren’t.

The brain doesn’t want to change all its connections, all at once. It’s very specific and very efficient in where it allows change to take place.

Acetylcholine is that spotlight that triggers plasticity in the specific location we need it to.

Basically, noradrenaline and acetylcholine set yourself up to learn, but this doesn’t mean learning will take place.

The period of intense focus should last as long as you can maintain that intensity, plus a little bit more. This “little bit more” helps the brain learn how to focus for longer periods of time. It’s almost like learning how to learn.

Intense Rest

To guarantee that you will learn and change your neural connections you need this period of intense focus to be followed by a period of intense rest.

Intense rest includes states of a deep sleep, naps, relaxation or any states where you’re not focused on learning.

Deep sleep is the best for this. The slow-wave sleep states allow the neural networks to wire together. But any time you purposefully decompress is also useful.

You can think of acetylcholine going through and highlighting all the areas of the brain it wants to change. Then during periods of rest and deep sleep, your body puts the necessary changes in place to ensure learning takes place.

Most people in today’s climate have more trouble down-regulating and relaxing. We’re constantly caffeinated and glued to our phones. We take our work home with us and never decompress. So, we’re getting less of these extended periods of rest and recovery.

While it’s important to be hyper-focused putting in the effort to learn something, it’s equally important to rest afterwards.

I’ve always been a big fan of naps as a recovery tool from training or when I slept poorly the night before. Using a 20-minute nap or purposeful decompression after any period of intense focus to boost the learning process is beneficial.

Hypnosis and meditation are also options that can push you into these states where learning takes place.

How to Learn

You might be saying, all this is great in theory, so what do I do?

Simply put, put yourself through bouts of intense focus followed by intense rest.

We’ll go through focus in a second, but first, it’s important to understand the role dopamine plays.

Dopamine

First of all, you need to be actually interested in what you’re learning. You need to make learning exciting and enjoyable. This releases dopamine — a key driver in the process.

Most dopamine is actually released when you’re en route to rewards. When you’re mentally or physically focused on something external. This gives us energy. It convinces us to follow that path.

Dopamine pushes down our levels of noradrenaline and raises our threshold for quitting. So cracking a joke, attacking your leaning with humour and a sense of play, will give you a sense that you’re on the right track.

I like how Huberman talks about dopamine:

“When you hit a milestone, you need to reward yourself mentally… you eat an elephant one bite at a time but you reward each bite… each bite has got you on the path.”

Don’t think about the task as one long piece to learn. If you’re trying to learn a new language or an instrument — and you think about all the work it’s going to take to become fluent or produce your own songs — it’s overwhelming and your adrenaline will quickly drop out.

You need to set small wins and smaller milestones and feel good about hitting those smaller things. Instead of thinking about becoming fluent, think about learning a word. Instead of focusing on playing a song, focus on learning the note.

Don’t chase something that’s too far out of your comfort levels either. If you’re trying to learn something that is far ahead of your current understanding or skill level, your noradrenaline will pump too high which triggers the “quit” response. You’ll be too stressed and you’ll crash.

You aim is to keep the noradrenaline right below the “quit reflex” and continually push it down with self-rewards.

Charging Up

In order to get into a state of extreme focus, we can charge ourselves up by releasing more acetylcholine.

My two favourite ways to do this are through breath work and cold exposure — two methods I have used for years to get “in the zone” for learning or deep work. Huberman recommends you do the same.

You should do these before any time you are trying to learn, not afterwards.

Breath

There are plenty of breathwork strategies out there but Huberman recommended high-intensity or Tummo style breathing on the Joe Rogan Podcast recently.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of the “Ice Man” — Wim Hof. He’s popularised Tummo breathing in recent years with his “Wim Hof Method.” This is a combination of super ventilation and breath holds. The Method itself raises levels of acetylcholine and can help you focus.

It is very intense and stressful if you’re not used to it but here’s how to do it:

1. Take 30 full inhales followed by relaxed exhales where you focus on letting the air go (no force).
2. On the 30th breath, fully exhale and hold your breath for as long as you can.
3. When you reach your breath-hold capacity, take 1 deep breath and hold for 15 seconds.
4. Repeat 3–5 rounds.

Here’s a video demonstration from the man himself.

Cold Exposure

Huberman also recommends using an ice bath or cold exposure before learning as this has a similar effect on our acetylcholine.

There are a few ways you could go about cold therapy.

1. Cold showers: the simplest and most accessible way to get involved in cold exposure is finishing your shower on cold. All you need to do is turn the knobs to cold for the last 30 seconds to 3 minutes — whatever you can manage.
2. Ice baths: a more intense version of cold exposure that involves filling up a bathtub or chest freezer with ice and water, then jumping in. 3–5 minutes in an ice bath is plenty.
3. Cold plunge: you might prefer to dip into a cold body of water. If you have a swimming pool, lake or beach near your house, this may be more accessible. You could do this for 5–15 minutes depending on the temperature of the water.
4. Cryotherapy: I’ve never done this before but it involves standing in a machine that exposes you to ultra-low temperatures. It’s expensive but might be available to some of you. They usually last around 3 minutes.

Any of these methods will sufficiently charge you up ready to dive into a deep state of focus.

Chill Out

This section is going to be individual from person to person. You may have experience meditating, you might be used to foam rolling or enjoy walking. Whatever helps you relax will be great (no, alcohol doesn’t count here).

Here are a few options if you’re struggling to think of something:

Meditation

Meditation is a fantastic way to drop into a relaxation state. It doesn’t matter what form you decide to use, as long as it relaxes you.

I like the Headspace Meditation app for its simplicity (and who am I kidding, the animations are freaking cool).

Breathwork

While you can use the breath to charge yourself up, you can also use it to calm yourself down. Box breathing or apnea breathwork would work here. Something where you are exhaling longer than you’re inhaling works best.

I like to take all the thought out of it and use the State: Breathing App. It has options you can use such as “Fall Asleep” or “Feel Calm” to wind down. The visual and auditory cues really relax me.

Self-massage

A massage is an obvious form of relaxation but it might be expensive or impractical for you to use every day. A simple tool you can buy for under $20 is a foam roller.

I like to use a foam roller, particularly on my upper back and quads after long periods of sitting and deep work. I’ll spend 15–20 minutes unwinding on the roller most days.

Warm showers or baths

Spending 15–30 minutes in a bath before bed can help you relax and enhance sleep quality. Obviously there’s not always time for that so a hot shower will have to do most days.

Sleep

Sleep is king when it comes to relaxation and consolidating learning. Aim for 8 hours every night. Try and sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room. Make sure you take the time to decompress before bed without tech and other stressful activities.

I like to avoid heavy meals, caffeine and alcohol before bed. This allows me to get into deeper sleep states.

If 8 hours isn’t an option. You might be able to squeeze in a 15 to 20-minute nap during the day. I like to use these naps immediately after a period of intense focus too.

Final Thoughts

The ability to toggle between intense focus and intense rest is key for learning and getting better over time. So while it may be hard to “teach an old dog new tricks.” It certainly isn’t impossible.

As adults, we have the ability to focus on one thing for extended periods of time. We need to use this to our advantage by exploring areas we’re curious about and interested in.

This will ramp up our noradrenaline and push us to act. The heightened state of awareness puts us in a slightly agitated state that’s needed to trigger plasticity.

After a period of extreme focus, we need to balance it out with extreme rest.

Deep sleep is the most important thing you can do to consolidate your learning, so if you’re struggling to learn something, look here first.

You can also get similar benefits from purposeful decompression such as naps, meditation and hypnosis.

Don’t forget to attack your learning with a sense of play and curiosity.

Good luck and happy learning.