5 Things Fast Learners Do Differently From Everyone Else
Welcome to A Simple Framework: a newsletter for people who want to turn their time and effort into real outcomes. I share practical strategies and mental models to help you learn faster, stay consistent, and build leverage in your career.
It can feel exhausting to be a beginner.
Those first moments when you start learning something new, even if you’ve been at it for a few months, can still feel frustrating.
It’s in our nature to want instant results.
Whether it was learning to draw in art school or writing my first lines of code as a teenager, the frustration was real. Different skills, same struggle.
The bottom line is, starting from zero always feels harder than it should.
But during those experiences, I started to notice what separates the people who become exceptional at their craft from those who don’t.
I’ve seen people go from knowing absolutely nothing to becoming the go-to person in their field.
Despite their quirks and differences, these are the 5 things they all have in common.
1. They Prioritize What They Can Control
You can’t control what other people do. You can’t always control your circumstances. But you can control your inputs.
You can control the actions you take, the time you protect, and the environment you create. That’s where most of your power lies.
There will always be distractions. Friends will want to hang out. Your partner will want attention. Your family will want to catch up. Your phone, your shows, your video games will tempt the hell out of you.
There will be time for all of it.
But fast learners carve out space for the things that move them forward.
They treat time like a tool. They know how to create the right conditions so that even when life is chaotic, their system still lets them take small steps forward.
It’s not about being perfect, it’s about returning to the process enough times that it starts compounding.
2. They Know How to Get Off Zero
You’re starting from a blank canvas.
That’s unavoidable. But fast learners don’t stay stuck at zero for long.
They find a way to get into motion, even when they don’t feel ready.
They start by getting a top-down view of the skill. They zoom out and try to understand the big picture first. Once they’ve got a rough idea of how the pieces fit together, they zoom in and start pulling them apart.
They lean on first principles, going back to the fundamentals.
Software evolves. Tools change. Frameworks get replaced. But the core ideas underneath remain the same.
Sometimes the fastest way to move forward is to go back and fix what you skipped.
Fast learners aren’t afraid to slow down and return to basics if it means they’ll understand things properly and advance quickly.
3. They Think in Systems, Not Bursts of Motivation
Fast learners don’t wait until they feel like learning.
They build a repeatable process that guarantees results.
Build or adopt a system that helps you show up regardless of how you feel.
When people hear the word system, they often think it has to be complicated. It doesn’t.
A system is just a set of things that work together. On their own, they’re not special. But when they’re connected, they create momentum.
I like systems that let me measure my progress and see how I’m improving.
I like knowing what I did, when I did it, and what I learned from it.
You can build your system with pen and paper. You can use an app. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that it makes things easier, not harder.
Systems help you break down complex topics into smaller pieces. They give you a place to store your notes and resources. They help you carve out short, regular time blocks for skill-building.
The point of a system is to help you remove all the guesswork.
Once your system is set up, your only job is to pull the levers. You show up, follow the loop, and progress happens automatically.
4. They Teach What They Learn Early and Badly
Faster learners don’t wait to be experts before teaching. In fact, they use teaching as a tool to speed up learning.
Trying to explain something, even when it’s clumsy, forces you to confront what you do and don’t understand.
Whether it’s explaining to a friend, writing something out, or asking your favorite AI to quiz you, the goal isn’t to impress anyone. It’s to expose your gaps.
It helps you clarify your thinking.
This is one of the most effective ways to build your internal knowledge base. It’s how you start forming real mental models. The kind that helps you solve new problems, not just repeat what you’ve memorized.
And the sooner you start, the faster your understanding sharpens.
5. They Practice Deliberately, Not Passively
It’s easy to feel productive when you’re watching videos, reading articles, or listening to podcasts. But none of that matters if you don’t apply what you’re learning.
Fast learners know this. That’s why they always go one step further.
They mix formats: text, video, and audio, to reinforce ideas.
They apply active recall. They test themselves. They take notes in their own words. They solve problems. They build things. They try out what they’ve just learned. And they do it consistently.
You can accomplish a lot in 40 minutes of focused effort. According to Josh Kaufman, it only takes 20 hours of deliberate practice to become proficient at a skill. That’s 30 days of showing up for 40 minutes a day.
You won’t master a skill in 30 days. But you will build a strong baseline. Most people never get there. Not because they’re not smart. But because they never get through 20 focused hours.
That’s it.
If you want an easy system to learn any skill fast, grab my Notion template for free here.