How well are you utilising the power of the subconscious mind? How thoroughly do you learn a topic or skill? Have you ever considered how you choose what to pay more attention to? Are you wasting time and effort by trying to learn too many things badly, and not enough well?

In this article I'm going to answer three questions:

1. Why is it important to learn until you know something automatically?
2. How do we choose what to spend more time learning thoroughly?
3. Why should we take this process to a more extreme level?

Why is it important to learn until you know something automatically?

Look at this IQ test question:

What number follows this sequence?
4, 6, 10, 14, 22, 26, ?

How obvious is the answer to you? One reason that may make it either harder or easier is the number of steps you have to take to work it out.

I'll explain that last comment in a moment; but first, here's the answer...

The pattern is that they are prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17...) multiplied by 2. Therefore the answer is the next prime number (17) multiplied by 2 (17 x 2 = 34)

Questions with prime numbers are common in IQ tests, and they have often stumped me in the past. I'm not sure if I had a week off when prime numbers were taught at school or if there was some other reason, but I had never learnt prime numbers properly. I managed to get a basic grasp of them, I understood what they were, but I never learnt them properly. I had a couple of friends who could just reel them off, but I had to spend time working them out every time.

In those days I had no idea how important it was to know this kind of thing off by heart. To solve the above problem with only a vague understanding of prime numbers, I would first have had to randomly decide that it may have something to do with prime numbers. Then I would have to work out what the prime numbers were - something which would tax my working memory. Then I'd have to make the insightful leap that it could be prime numbers multiplied by two. Then I'd have to test my theory.

On the other hand, if I knew prime numbers off by heart I'd quickly notice the irregular pattern which would immediately suggest prime numbers, and if I knew basic arithmetic well, it wouldn't take long to make the next jump.

There is a big difference between being able to do something, and being able to do it subconsciously. When you know something deeply enough that it becomes automatic your brain will just start to recognise patterns in problems - they will just spring out at you. But if you only did the minimum learning required, you will have to consciously work it out every time. As well as slowing down your ability to do a task, this will also make it much more difficult to learn harder tasks.

This is a simpler version of the above question:

2, 3, 5, 11, 13, ?

This is simply a list of prime numbers. If you have learnt prime numbers well, this will literally be as simple as A, B, C! If you know what prime numbers are, but need to work them out every time, then it is more difficult, but you could probably do it. You are only one step away from the solution, so it is reasonably easy.

But as soon as another element is added, the difficulty increases dramatically. If you learnt the base knowledge well enough that you know it without thinking about it, you will now only be one step away from the solution instead of two.

You can quit learning something at the point when you know it but still find it difficult, and it will have limited use. Or you can keep learning until you can use it with ease. If you do that it will become really useful and will add to your intelligence.

Here are some common real world examples of this in action:

• Learn to touch type well - you can forget about typing and just place your ideas in your computer
• Learn a language well - you can stop worrying about how to say something and just say it
• Learn basic arithmetic well - you easily spot mistakes in everyday accounts.
• Learn chords and scales well - you can improvise on your musical instrument.
• Learn the meaning of jargon words well - you develop a better understanding of the topic

How do we choose what to spend more time learning?

This is all very well, but there are only so many hours in a day and you probably don't want to use all of them for studying. How is it possible to learn everything to such a high degree when there is a limit on time?

Well, first of all learning until you can do something automatically will actually save you time. A vague approach will bring you faster progress in the short term, but in the long term it will cost time because as you learn more you will have to go back and strengthen those foundations.

With that in mind, you're still going to have to make some decisions about what you spend more time on. Here are some pointers:

• Will you use what you are learning regularly?
• Will you use what you are learning over a long period of time?
• The basics are what you use most regularly so learn these even more thoroughly
• Is what you are learning really important? Have you really thought about why you are bothering to learn something? Some things just aren't worth knowing.
• Like the foundations of a house, the most important things we learn are often the least noticeable or impressive. Try to strike a balance between learning the most important things, and learning skills that give you motivation to continue.

Why should we take this process to a more extreme level?

Recently I have been exploring my habits in regard to how much time I spend learning one thing rather than another. In the past I have mainly relied on what my tutors told me or how my interests guided me. Now that I'm an independent learner, I need to take more responsibility.

I have begun spending much more time on learning things deeply. In contrast I have been spending much less time learning things vaguely.

The benefits are surprisingly large. Gradually (as my discipline allows) I'm ignoring unimportant things, and spending lots more time on really important things. In fact I'm also ignoring learning what is really good in order to spend more time on what is really great!

Here are a few examples:

• Books - I've stopped reading nearly as many books. Rather than reading lots of them once from cover to cover, I'm now picking out the best and reading them until I have memorised everything that is important. Even within a book I'm starting to skim over the pointless material so I can spend more time really sucking in the juicy parts.
• The News - I like to keep up with the news, but most of it is unimportant to my life. I have RSS feeds from a few sources and mainly read the headlines. Rather than spending an hour or so a day reading the paper as I used to, I now spend about 5 minutes keeping up with current affairs. What do I do with the extra time? I spend it investigating in-depth news in my specialist interests.
• Guitar - I've been really unfocused with my guitar learning in the past and as a result my progress has been slow. Now I spend more time learning one song really well, instead of several songs badly. I'm learning fewer chords but making sure I can transition to them easily, and I'm experimenting with them to see how they sound in different musical contexts. This is improving my fluency dramatically. Unexpectedly, not only am I able to play the chords I do play better, I'm finding it easier to learn more quantity as well because I'm much faster at learning them.
• Music - I love listening to music, but rather than listen to lots of different songs, I'm listening to fewer but in greater depth. I've started learning the lyrics of more songs, as well as subtleties in the instrumentation. When I hear a new song, I find I'm now able to appreciate these subtleties much more quickly as well. I'm also starting to remember lyrics more easily.

Those are just some common examples of how less is more. Use you time wisely. Stop learning pointless things, and spend more time learning important things. Give those important things a chance to be useful by hanessing the power of the subconscious. Learn skills and subjects until they become so easy you can do them without thinking about them.

When you can do more unconsciously, you can start doing more consciously.