Read The Screen; Like a book. One line at a time, from left to right, top to bottom. Read it like a book may seem like an “obvious” description of Read The Screen but I can tell you that after teaching thousands of people how to use their software; that is NOT the natural tendency of humans. What my eye doctor taught me about training Salesforce.
I finally graduated to bifocals in my quest to see life clearly. Maybe it’s a matter of age or the time that I spend in front of a computer screen; either way, I now have the privilege of wearing a single pair of glasses to see near and far.
Why do I bring that up in this post about how to learn your new Salesforce software? Because you must understand how your biology affects your learning and how my strategy of R.T.S. will help you overcome a common barrier to learning new technology.
You have a natural tendency to SCAN your environment in a random way, much like a fly zips around the room. Your eyeball has a small focal point and that small circle of focus is whipping around the screen and picking up bits of information and mapping it onto your brain. That natural behavior is unconscious behavior and if you’re not aware of it, you will find that you are MORE STRESSED.
By practicing the discipline of reading the screen (RTS) like a Book, you give your “conscious brain” time to process the new information along with the “controlled SCAN” that you already know how to do from all those years of learning to read books.
So, IF you want to GET FAST at learning Salesforce, then you have to SLOW DOWN and Read The Screen like a book.
Here’s a bonus tip: Breathe. When you feel the tension and you want to slip back into your “natural tendency” of random scanning; just stop and breathe and remember to tell yourself to Slow Down and Read.
You will learn the software and you will get faster.