9 Different Ways to Learn and Remember a New Thing

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn." Learning and remembering new things has become one of the most valuable skills of our century.

Competition in science, business, and everyday life keeps raising the bar, and the people who learn fastest tend to become the ones others turn to for advice. From the day we are born we learn by experience, by listening, by tasting, and by watching the people around us.

Later we go to school, then into a career, and the learning never really stops. This guide breaks down proven learning styles and memory techniques you can use starting today, and shows how to turn what you learn into a presentation people actually remember.

Table of Contents

• What Learning Really Means

• Why Learning New Things Matters

• Common Challenges of Learning

• The 7 Learning Styles

• Different Ways of Learning New Things

• How Remembering Works

• Different Ways to Remember New Things

• Learning Styles vs. Best Memory Technique

• Where You Can Learn New Things

• Common Mistakes to Avoid

• How to Build Your Learning Presentation with Decktopus AI

• Conclusion

• Stay Connected

What Learning Really Means

Learning is the process of acquiring new knowledge, skills, or behaviors through experience, study, or teaching, and its main benefit is that it compounds. Every new thing you learn makes the next thing easier to pick up because your brain builds on existing patterns.

According to LinkedIn's Workplace Learning Report, 89% of L&D professionals agree that proactively building employee skills is important for navigating the evolving world of work (LinkedIn Learning).

Learning is not tied to a single subject or setting. Every experience, from a new job to a new hobby, teaches us something, and some material takes deep repeated work while other material sticks after one exposure.

If you have ever struggled with a subject in school while classmates picked it up easily, it is rarely a sign that you cannot learn. It usually means the teaching method did not match how your brain naturally absorbs information.

Why Learning New Things Matters

Your brain functions somewhat like a muscle. Like any other muscle in the body, it needs to be worked consistently to stay sharp. Learning is one of the most effective ways to exercise it, and building new neural connections through learning is associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline later in life.

There is also a happiness component. When you learn something new, your brain releases dopamine, which boosts motivation and mood, and that reward loop is part of why lifelong learners often report higher life satisfaction. Some of the concrete benefits of learning new things include:

• Making your personality more well-rounded and interesting to others

• Increasing empathy and helping you relate to different kinds of people

• Building self-esteem through visible progress and mastery

• Expanding your social network as you meet others with shared interests

• Opening new income streams by building skills you can monetize

• Boosting creativity by exposing you to new ways of thinking

Common Challenges of Learning

Why do some people seem to struggle with learning while others adapt easily to the standard way material is taught? The honest answer is that there is no single "correct" way to learn.

People have different cognitive strengths, and most traditional education systems are built around one dominant teaching style, usually a mix of reading and lecture. That approach works well for some learners and poorly for others, through no fault of the learner.

The most useful first step is not memorizing more facts. It is figuring out how you personally absorb and retain information, and then building study habits around that style instead of fighting against it.

The 7 Learning Styles

Researchers and educators generally group learning preferences into seven categories. Most people are a blend of two or three, but identifying your dominant style can dramatically speed up how quickly you retain new information.

Visual Learning

Visual, or spatial, learners retain information best through images, diagrams, and layouts. If this is you, surround your study environment with color coding, mind maps, and visual summaries. If your source material is text-only, use highlighters and sticky notes to add a visual layer to it.

Solitary Learning

Solitary, or intrapersonal, learners retain information best studying alone. They tend to be motivated by personal goals rather than group energy. If this is your style, try anchoring subjects to memories or locations instead of colors.

For example, study a topic at a specific coffee shop so the location becomes a memory cue. Building a mental model of a concept, rather than memorizing isolated facts, also tends to work well for this style.

Aural Learning

Aural, or auditory, learners retain information through sound, rhythm, and music. Rhymes, acronyms set to a beat, or even writing a short rap about the material can make dry content stick. Some learners find that background instrumental music during practice sessions improves focus and recall.

Social Learning

Social, or interpersonal, learners retain information best in group settings. Study groups, role-playing scenarios, and teaching the material to a peer are especially effective here, since explaining a concept out loud to someone else exposes gaps in your own understanding.

Verbal Learning

Verbal, or linguistic, learners think in words and tend to be strong writers and public speakers. Reading material out loud, recording yourself explaining a topic, and then listening back is a highly effective study technique for this style. If you have ever felt like narrating your own notes helps more than silently rereading them, this is likely your dominant style.

Logical Learning

Logical, or analytical, learners want to understand the "why" behind a concept before they trust it. They benefit from building a list of key principles and a repeatable procedure they can apply to any related problem. The downside of this style is a tendency to overanalyze, which can create hesitation when facing an unfamiliar problem that does not fit the existing framework.

Physical Learning

Physical, or kinesthetic, learners retain information through movement and touch. Building models, drawing diagrams by hand, and physically interacting with objects related to the subject all reinforce memory for this style. If sitting still through a lecture feels unproductive to you, this is probably why.

Different Ways of Learning New Things

Learning by Testing Yourself

Self-testing, sometimes called active recall, is one of the most reliably effective study methods according to cognitive science research. Instead of just rereading notes, create flashcards with a question or keyword on one side and the answer on the other.

After finishing a section, go back through the deck from the top, and whenever you get stuck, review the answer and move on. A digital flashcard system built into a simple note file works just as well as physical cards.

Learning from a Mentor

If you are unsure whether a struggle is about the material or your study method, find someone who has already succeeded at the same thing.

Ask a senior colleague, a peer who took the same class, or an expert in the field for guidance. Learning from someone else's mistakes is often faster than making all the mistakes yourself.

Learning by Taking Breaks

Rest is not the opposite of productive studying, it is part of it. Structured techniques like the Pomodoro method (25 minutes of focus, 5 minute break) or a 40+10 split help maintain concentration over long study sessions. The key is a real break: step away from the material entirely rather than switching to a different screen.

How Remembering Works

Remembering is a distinct process from learning, though the two are closely linked. Memory researchers describe three stages: encoding, storage, and recall.

Encoding happens when your brain first registers a sensory experience, like the smell and sound of a new coffee shop. Research on memory formation consistently shows that engaging multiple senses at once, known as semantic encoding, improves retention.

Storage is the conversion of that sensory information into a form the brain can hold onto, moving from short-term to long-term memory with the help of neural connections. This stage is still one of the least understood parts of neuroscience.

Recall is the act of retrieving a stored memory when you need it. Repeated retrieval practice, such as reviewing flashcards or explaining a topic from memory, strengthens the neural pathway each time and makes future recall faster and more reliable.

Different Ways to Remember New Things

The Memory Palace Method

The memory palace, also called the method of loci, dates back to ancient Greece and remains a favorite technique among competitive memory athletes. Picture a place you know intimately, like your own home.

Walk through it mentally and identify distinct, eye-catching spots, these become your "loci." Then attach each item you want to remember to one of those spots. To recall a grocery list, for example, you mentally walk through your house and each room reminds you of the next item.

The Chunking Method

Chunking groups individual pieces of information into larger, more memorable units. It is why phone numbers are broken into groups of three or four digits instead of one long string.

Competitors in memory and pi-recitation contests use chunking extensively to hold far more information in working memory than would otherwise be possible.

Spaced Repetition

Spaced repetition is the backbone of most formal education systems, which is why certain subjects get revisited year after year.

The method involves reviewing new material after two to four days, then gradually increasing the interval, for example after nine days, then a month, then two months. If you forget the material at any point, the interval resets back to the beginning.

Sleep and Memory Consolidation

Sleep plays a direct role in how well information is retained. Sleep researchers have found that memory consolidation, the process of converting short-term memories into long-term ones, occurs largely during deep sleep (Sleep Foundation). A short nap after learning something new can also measurably improve recall of that material later the same day.

Mnemonics

Mnemonics use letter patterns or rhymes to make information easier to recall. A classic example is "My Very Educated Mother Served Us Nine Pizzas" to remember the order of the planets from the sun. Creating a similarly playful mnemonic for whatever you are studying can turn a dry list into something genuinely memorable.

Regular Exercise

Physical exercise increases blood flow and oxygen delivery to the brain, which supports overall cognitive function, including memory. That said, most researchers recommend waiting a few hours after learning something new before exercising, so the information has time to begin consolidating first.

Learning Styles vs. Best Memory Technique

Before and After: Applying a Learning Strategy

Where You Can Learn New Things

Beyond formal schools and training programs, online learning has become one of the most accessible ways to pick up a new skill. Interest in remote and online education accelerated sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained a permanent part of how people upskill (see our guide on how to organize distance learning). A few well-known platforms worth exploring:

Online Tutors

One-on-one online tutoring gives you a personalized pace and direct feedback, often at a lower cost than in-person instruction, since tutors can reach students anywhere.

Udemy

Udemy hosts thousands of courses built by independent instructors across nearly every subject. Frequent discounts make it an affordable option, and many courses come with a built-in community where learners can compare progress and get support.

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning focuses specifically on career-relevant soft and hard skills, which makes it a strong choice if your learning goal is tied directly to professional growth.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Ignoring your dominant learning style. Forcing yourself through a study method that fights your natural style wastes time and causes frustration.

• Skipping active recall. Passive rereading feels productive but is one of the least effective retention methods compared to self-testing.

• Cramming instead of spacing. Information crammed the night before fades quickly without spaced review.

• Sacrificing sleep to study more. Cutting sleep undermines the memory consolidation that happens overnight.

• Studying without breaks. Long unbroken sessions reduce focus and lower how much information actually sticks.

• Never testing your own understanding out loud. Explaining a topic to another person, or even to yourself, exposes gaps that silent review misses.

How to Build Your Learning Presentation with Decktopus AI

Once you have learned something worth sharing, whether it is a new skill, a research summary, or a training module for your team, turning it into a clear presentation is often the fastest way to reinforce your own memory of it and teach others at the same time. That is exactly the kind of task Decktopus AI is built for.

Why Decktopus AI Is Built for Learning Content

Decktopus AI generates a complete, structured presentation from a short topic description, including outline, content, and design. If you are building a training deck on spaced repetition for your team, the AI Outline Generation step lets you review and adjust the structure before any slides are created. AI Image Generation can create custom visuals for a memory palace diagram or a learning styles chart, and if you already have notes or a PDF of research, you can upload it and let Beautify's Use as a Resource option extract the key points into a new deck. If you already have an old training deck, Beautify's Redesign option keeps your existing content and structure but refreshes the visual design.

Decktopus AI vs. Traditional Slide Tools

Who This Is For

• Trainers and L&D teams building onboarding or skills workshops, see Decktopus for marketers

• Founders preparing internal knowledge-sharing sessions, see Decktopus for founders

• Educators building lecture or workshop decks, related reading: AI in education

• Sales and customer success teams turning research into internal training, see Decktopus for customer success

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Describe your topic. Type something like "A training deck explaining the 7 learning styles and how to match memory techniques to each." Or upload source notes, a PDF, or a PPT via the paperclip icon. If you have an older deck, use Beautify to either extract its content into a new deck (Use as a Resource) or keep it and just refresh the design (Redesign).

2. Choose your style. Import your brand directly from your company's website URL, apply a previously saved style, or let the AI generate a style from scratch.

3. Review the AI-generated outline. Decktopus AI produces a section-by-section outline first. Adjust titles, reorder sections, or add more before generating full slides.

4. Generate the full presentation. Once you approve the outline, the complete deck is generated with content, layout, and design in place.

5. Refine with Edit with AI or Edit Text. Use Edit with AI for prompts like "make the memory palace slide more visual" or "shorten the mnemonics section." Use Edit Text for direct manual edits through the side panel. Every change is tracked in unlimited version history, and you can restore any past version.

6. Add images. Generate custom AI images, upload your own photos, or pull from the built-in Unsplash and Freepik library.

7. Rehearse with Loop AI Delivery Coach. Practice delivering your training session and get real-time feedback, plus likely audience questions to prepare for.

8. Export or share. Export to PDF, PPT, or PNG in Standard or Compressed quality, share a live link that auto-updates with future edits, embed the deck on an internal site, or present directly in full-screen Presentation Mode. Business plan users can connect a Custom Domain for a branded link experience.

Get started with Decktopus AI and turn what you just learned into a presentation your team will actually remember.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main types of learning styles?

The seven most commonly referenced learning styles are visual, solitary, aural, social, verbal, logical, and physical. Most people are a blend of two or three rather than a single pure type.

How do I figure out my learning style?

Pay attention to which study methods have historically felt easiest. If reading notes aloud helps more than silent reading, you likely lean verbal. If diagrams and color coding stick better than text, you likely lean visual.

What is the fastest way to memorize new information?

Active recall methods like self-testing with flashcards are consistently shown to outperform passive rereading, especially when combined with spaced repetition over several days.

What is the memory palace technique?

The memory palace, or method of loci, involves mentally placing items you want to remember at specific spots within a familiar location, then "walking through" that location to recall them in order.

Does sleep really affect memory?

Yes. Memory consolidation, the process of converting new information into long-term memory, occurs largely during sleep, which is why cutting sleep to study more often backfires.

What is spaced repetition and why does it work?

Spaced repetition schedules review sessions at increasing intervals after you first learn something. It works because each successful recall strengthens the memory, letting you safely wait longer before the next review.

Can exercise improve memory?

Regular exercise increases blood flow and oxygen to the brain, supporting memory and cognitive function generally, though it is best to wait a few hours after learning something new before exercising.

What is chunking and when should I use it?

Chunking groups individual pieces of information into larger units, such as breaking a long number into smaller groups. It works well for numeric information and lists that do not have a natural narrative structure.

Are online learning platforms as effective as in-person classes?

Online platforms like Udemy and LinkedIn Learning can be highly effective, particularly for self-directed, solitary learners, and they offer flexibility and cost advantages that in-person classes often cannot match.

How can I use Decktopus AI to help me learn something new?

You can turn your notes, research, or an outline into a structured presentation with Decktopus AI, which forces you to organize the material clearly, a process that itself reinforces recall.

What is a mnemonic device?

A mnemonic is a memory aid that uses patterns, usually the first letters of a list turned into a memorable sentence, to make otherwise dry information easier to recall.

How many hours of sleep are recommended for memory retention?

Sleep researchers generally recommend around 8 hours per night for adults, since that duration supports the deep sleep stages most associated with memory consolidation.

Is it better to study alone or in a group?

It depends on your learning style. Solitary learners retain more studying independently, while social learners benefit from group study, role-play, and peer teaching.

Can Decktopus AI help build a training deck from existing notes?

Yes. You can upload existing notes, PDFs, or slide decks, and Beautify's Use as a Resource option will extract the key points into a newly designed presentation.

Conclusion

Learning and remembering are two connected but distinct skills, and both improve dramatically once you stop using a one-size-fits-all approach. Start by identifying whether you lean visual, solitary, aural, social, verbal, logical, or physical, then pair that style with a memory technique built for it, whether that is a memory palace, spaced repetition, chunking, or simply protecting your sleep. None of these techniques require special tools or a big time investment, just consistency. And once you have learned something worth sharing, whether it is a new skill for yourself or training content for your team, Decktopus AI can turn your notes and outline into a polished, presentable deck in minutes, helping the material stick for you and for everyone you share it with.

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