Learning any new skill takes time and consistent effort. Imagine someone new to stand-up paddle boarding (SUPing) who heads down to the water, rents a board, and steps into an entirely new experience. With each minute on the board, she learns a new piece—how to kneel, stand, balance, paddle, and turn. With practice, these movements gradually shift from challenging new experiences to repeatable skills. The next time she paddles, she’s a bit more confident, but a windy, choppy day presents her with new challenges in balancing. The third time, she learns to get back on the board after falling. Each attempt builds on the last, and she steadily moves from a complete novice to a more skilled paddler.
This journey from novice to skilled paddler is much like how our brain learns and masters new tasks.
Here’s how the brain works in learning new skills:
- The frontal lobe is responsible for actions, decision-making, goal-setting, and emotional regulation.
- When we encounter something new, the frontal lobe has to work hard to process information, make decisions, and build new skills.
- Over time, as we repeat a skill, it moves from a challenging task to a more familiar, automatic one, requiring less brainpower.
In college, students face this same learning process with critical academic skills like organization, time management, planning, note-taking, and writing. Each of these requires focus and repeated practice, just like paddle boarding.
For example:
- Writing a few papers doesn’t mean a student has mastered the writing process; each assignment brings new challenges.
- Academic tasks, like learning to paddle through choppy water, can put pressure on the brain to learn, adapt, and improve.
With many demands on the frontal lobe—learning, planning, processing information, and managing emotions—it’s easy for students to feel overwhelmed, leading to burnout, procrastination, or avoidance of schoolwork.
The key to managing college demands is to approach academic skills like SUPing:
- Focus on One Skill at a Time: Working on each executive function skill until it becomes second nature can help reduce the cognitive load.
- Recognize the Learning Curve: Unlike learning to paddleboard in an hour, developing executive functioning (EF) skills, such as time management and planning, takes repeated practice and patience.
- Be Patient: Building these skills is a gradual process, and students should recognize that new skills take time to master.
With consistent practice, students can transform challenging academic tasks into routines that come naturally, just like a practiced paddleboarder on the water.