How to get the most from self learning
Learning is a lifelong skill essential for project managers—and any profession, for that matter.
“The key to success is dedication to life-long learning.” Stephen Covey
Overloaded with Information
We’ve all been there. We read or watch something, learn something new and think that we will practice it immediately. Soon we are lost at the next click to another blog or video and another new thing to learn or practice.
There is so much information out there, it’s hard to sift through and separate the wheat from the chaff. This article will give you ideas on how to go deep into learning something. It will help you by providing a process for learning a new skill on your own. It won’t give you hacks on speed reading or how to read 100 books a year. It will give you actions to be proactive in your learning journey.
Be a Producer, not a Consumer
We get bombarded with a lot of information. We subscribe to email lists, blogs, free e-learning courses, and YouTube videos. We read them find them interesting and move on to the next one. These might be useful and informative and we may learn something new. We soon forget what we read or watched a moment ago. We are consuming what others think we should know or learn. And it’s easy to find yourself overwhelmed with emails, videos and blog posts.
It feels like we are progressing and developing but we are not. Picking up a new piece of information does not mean we are learning or progressing. What we do with that new knowledge is what matters.
Take the initiative. Curate the material that you read and study. Even though you subscribe to a blog or podcast doesn’t mean you consume everything they put out. You need to focus and not spread yourself too thin.
Identify 1 blog or email subscription that you can unsubscribe. From the ones that you receive a notification, find 1 article or video that you find useful to read or watch. Delete the others.
Goals, goals, goals
What are your goals? Why is it important for you to learn this skill? How will this skill help your goals? These are important questions that will help you in your learning. Spend some time thinking about them and writing down the answers. They are hard questions. It’s ok to struggle through them. It’s ok for this to take time.
They need to fit within your goals and you need to develop a plan that supports those goals.
Identify two or three at the most. This allows you to focus on them. Using SMART goals is a great way to make your goals real. It stops it from being vague. It helps you to plan out the steps to achieve the goals.
As part of your goal setting and developing a plan, you need to identify what is the definition of done. How do you know that you have learned? To what level of expertise do you want to achieve? How will you use it in your day-to-day life? You might find that the goals need tweaking during the learning period. That’s also ok.
An important skill for your learning
There is a real dichotomy to learning. You need to be open to new things but you don't want to be a sucker and absorb garbage. Critical thinking is an important skill that helps you to work out what is valuable and how you can apply it. Carl Sagan has a wonderful process and toolkit for critical thinking.
Sagan's tools are:
Independent confirmation of facts.
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence from all points of view
Arguments from authority carry little weight.
Spin more than one hypothesis
Try not to get attached to a hypothesis
Quantify.
If there's a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work.
Occam's Razor. Faced with two hypotheses that explain the data equally well, choose the simpler one.
Start applying one or two steps to what you are reading or watching. It will slow down your reading but will enrich your learning.
Enhance your reading x10
There are many great articles on Medium on how to learn. Danny Forest has a comprehensive guide for studying.
Don’t be afraid to re-read a book more than once. You will need to do that to pick up the lessons or the point that the writer is trying to convey. You may pick up new ideas or reinforce concepts that you picked up in reading.
Marginalia is the practice of making notes in books. I was taught at a young age not to deface books, no dog ears and no writing in books. I still don’t dog-ear the pages. But now I write notes in my books and highlight the text.
Don’t be afraid to do this. It makes your reading active. Highlight sentences, write notes to connect the writer’s thoughts with your own, and write down questions and answers and insights. These are important as it’s making you think about the ideas in the book.
Transfer these notes to a notebook. Yes, that’s right more work. But hey, you are going deep. You are not churning through books to tick over your book count. Ryan Holiday has good posts on keeping notes of what he read.
Videos are fun, make them effective too
There are tons of resources on YouTube, Vimeo, and other platforms. Watching a video on YouTube or somewhere else requires a similar approach. Watch through the whole video the first time.
In later views, you will need to stop and write down notes. You can also note down the time stamp of the point that the presenter is making. I prefer a digital notebook, that way I can take screenshots and paste them in the notes.
Even for an e-learning course where the educator has provided you with slide decks and transcripts of the lecture, continue to write down notes. Use the slide as references and note down anything of significance. It may seem like rehashing what the educator is saying but it’s the act of noting and thinking that is important. It actively engages your mind rather than passively watching something on the screen.
Don't coast through it
There is a risk of being passive when listening to audiobooks or podcasts. It is easy to fall into the trap of having it as background noise as you do something else, like cleaning or commuting. You must be active in listening to audiobooks and podcasts.
Audible is a popular app for listening to audiobooks. It allows you to bookmark sections of the book. You can capture a snippet of it and write down your own notes.
Have a notebook nearby for you to jot down notes and insights from what you learn. If you are keen, you can note down at which section of the book or podcast you heard it so you can go back to it. Again it helps to transfer these notes to a notebook.
Best way to clean up your thoughts
Once you have completed reading, listening or watching, write up your notes and clean them up. This act alone will provide you with clarity and embed the ideas or concepts that the author is trying to teach. It helps you organize your thoughts and the concepts in the book to suit your style.
It will allow you to link different concepts and analyze them. It helps to improve your understanding of the concepts and ideas in the material. You can use mindmaps or simple note-writing. There are many resources that you can look up to find out the best way to take notes. Experiment on what is the best way for you.
Note down each concept of the book or video in the order that’s produced. Write a summary and list key concepts. Next, write your thoughts and assessment on it. Write down the bits of text you highlighted.
The best way of learning about anything is by doing — Richard Branson
The hardest step
Now you have the notes and a deep understanding of the skill you would like to learn. This is where you practice it and try to embed it in yourself. By taking notes, summarising and highlighting you are making your reading active, and you have gained knowledge. Taking action and practice will turn it into a skill. This is the hardest part.
A lot of people struggle with this. It’s hard. You are going from knowing you suck at it and trying to get to a place where you are unknowingly good at it.
Taking action requires you to understand what you are looking to achieve, how will you achieve it and measure it. You must take daily action, no matter how small. Work the process. As explained by Ryan Holiday, the process is breaking down the complex into simple components. Do what you need to do right now, in the present to the best of your ability. Once it’s completed, move to the next task.
The secret sauce
Deliberate practice is an approach that is hard but effective. It’s not an easy process to follow. It’s hard, it’s uncomfortable but will give you great outcomes in the long run.
It requires you to be:
- motivated
- breaking down your goals into small specific measurable components
- be out of your comfort zone
- be consistent and persistent
- get feedback; and
- have time to recover
Read the articles on deliberate practice. Then start putting the steps into play.
Gaining clarity
Journaling is a good technique to help you with the learning process. When you journal, you are engaging both sides of the brain. It allows you to crystalize your thoughts, ideas, and emotions. It helps you unpack the challenges and obstacles that you face. It helps you identify ways to overcome it.
Don’t be afraid to write the same thing daily. Changing behaviours and embedding techniques takes time and practice. Sometimes, you will be writing about the same mistakes you are facing over and over again. This helps your mind to understand it and solve it.
Start with a short journal entry each day. Identify what skills you want to practice, how you will practice them and the challenges you face. Conduct a review of your practice. You can write down how you practised, how successful it was, the challenges that you faced and how you can make it better or improve the next day.
Mindset
You will find times when you struggle through the learning process. You will hit roadblocks, a plateau or a wall. You will wonder why the hell you are doing it in the first place. This is where your mindset comes in. This is where your routine and habits that you have built will save you. Motivation helps part of the way. During the hard times, it’s the discipline that will save you and keep you going. Developing a growth mindset is critical to help you progress.
Embrace the discomfort and the difficulty of the situation. Fall back on the process, the habits and the practice you have developed. This is where growth happens. Not when it is easy but when it is hard.
Look back at the times that you quit something. Understand and work through why you quit and the behaviours that led you to quit. Take one thing that you will change or stop doing this time around. See how that goes.
A beacon to lead the way
Learning a new skill is hard. Learning a new skill on your own is even harder. A teacher does help in keeping you on the right path. Someone who has done it before and has been where you are now.
Finding a teacher or mentor is not easy. It takes time and a bit of a trial to see whether you fit. With technology, you can get online coaching from someone on the other side of the world. Even if you cannot find someone, there are plenty of books, videos and online resources available.
Work out what you are looking for in a coach or mentor. Look at the people you know that is where you want to be in the skill that you want to learn. Approach them to have a chat about how they built up that expertise.
If there is no one that you know that can help you, look for books or videos that can help you. Use those resources as a mentor.
The process
This is a slow process but it will help you to go deep. Immerse yourself in it. Understand as much about it as you can. It will develop your interest into a passion. Progress is not linear, there will be good days and bad days. Days where you are crushing it and days where you are just bashing your head on the wall.
Don’t give up, you will find that all the effort is not wasted. One day you will realize how far you have come and how much you have learned.
Practice
For this newsletter, the practice is to improve your learning. Take one of the actions above and practice it for 2 weeks, every day. Whether it’s how you take notes, deliberate practice or journaling.
Drop me a note on how it has changed the learning process for you.
Quote
“Somebody who reads a book and doesn't apply it, they're at no advantage over someone who's illiterate.”
Jim Kwik
And the book does not have to be non-fiction, there are plenty of wonderful lessons from fiction.
Next time you read fiction, go deep into the story, the background of the author and the period and location.
What lessons can you uncover?
Resources
I’ve recommended this book before but it’s such a good book, I’ll recommend it again.
Such a great book for teaching you how to learn, read and improve your memory. I’ve read it once and let it simmer before re-reading it again.
My Resources
Below are some of my free resources if you’re new to project management.
Paid Resources
Simple and Effective Project Risk Management is for those new to project management, the accidental project manager and experienced PMs wanting to learn something new. It will teach you what you need to know and get you started quickly. I’m running a promotion where the first 10 people who buy this get a discount, pay only $19, and can book a 30-minute coaching call with me.