A System For Managing Career Learning Andy Warren

Everything About This Topic Is Hard It’s hard to know what to learn It’s hard to figure out how to learn it It’s hard to know if you’ve learned it well (or well enough) It’s hard to find time to do the learning We feel like we’re falling behind (or at the least, that we’re not in control) So, we start with acknowledging that it’s a hard thing to do well

Can We Do It Better? Most of us believe in patterns and processes and calendars and plans - because they work Can we borrow from that, adapt that to this problem? It’s doesn’t have to be deep requirements gathering, a daily standup, or a project plan. It needs to provide enough structure for you.

Maybe Calling It a System Is Ambitious! First, I kinda hate being prescriptive. I think what works for me may not work for you. On the other hand, starting with a blank page is hard. So, the compromise. Take my system, try it, and then change anything you want until it works for you.

Quantified Self As you see where we’re going you’ll realize that there are other data points you might track. If you can sustain it, good! Does it add value, even if the value is just making the ritual more fun (colors, stars, tags, whatever)? Good! Be wary of getting lost in the details though.

The System Journal. Use a journal to get it all in one place Backlog. Maintain and groom a backlog Task. Describe the learning in more detail Schedule. We are calendar driven people! Track. Log incidental and sustainment learning Summarize. Write a monthly summary Sustain. Keeping up requires a little bit of time daily or weekly. Celebrate. It’s what you do that matters.

Journal Recently I rediscovered the simple joy of pen and paper. It might work for you. Trello is an interesting approach if you want it online. Use tools that work for you. This isn’t a blog. It need not be pretty, or spell checked and more importantly, you can’t spend time editing it. Write it and move on! The value is two parts: It creates a ritual where you celebrate steps on the path It allows you to pick up where you left off, no matter how long ago that was

Backlog Keep a list of things you MIGHT want to learn, or get better at. Be cautious about adding other attributes that make adding to the list expensive. Some things on this list will never get done and that’s ok. Can you tell me, right now, what you want to learn in the next year? How about today?

Task It’s a little bit of work to go from “I want to learn X” to learning it. We need to break it down: How much time do we want to spend on this? An hour? Weeks? When will be done? Is it time boxed or task based (mastering skills, passing an exam, etc) For tasks bigger than a few hours split it out and detail that first unit of work. Imagine the task is “learn Powershell”. What would that look like? Defining DONE is huge. Done <> mastery. Done = doing what you set out to do.

Schedule If I could get you to do ONE thing, it would be to schedule learning time on the calendar. Blocking out time works! You’ll get to the point where you’re cancelling that reminder every time. Happens to all of us. What should you do then? Build a ritual for your learning time. Maybe it’s your favorite coffee shop, or time of day. Maybe it’s your leather covered journal and fountain pen. Use those to get you into that mindset faster and to make you feel good about doing it.

Track Tracking isn’t hard. At the end of every learning session, log the date, number of minutes, and a couple sentences/bullets on what you learned and any notes to help you move forward the next time you open the journal. If you’re using paper, take a look at bullet journaling. No, you don’t have to track everything you learn. Track your learning sessions, and anything else that you think is worth capturing.

Sustain Most of you probably get various newsletters or check blogs when you get some free time. That’s good! You can log those like planned learning, or you can have a “habit tracker” where you check off tasks by the day, week or month. The key to these is to scan, invest a few minutes, then backlog items that seem worth more effort. It’s not a fail if you don’t get to them all. If you never get to them, what should you do?

Summarize On the first session of each month take 5 minutes to summarize the previous month. How many hours? How many learning iterations/notes? Then...comment on the month. Stop and think, is this working for me? Do I need to take a break? What could I do different?

Celebrate After scheduling, this is the thing I hope you take home with you. Celebrate what you’ve done and don’t worry about what is not done. It’s a journey that will stop and start and detour and have a few wrong turns. That’s all ok. It’s different from work where we have that pressure to deliver, to make the deadline, to show the boss how reliable we are. That’s not our game here. Flip back through your journal or your trello cards or whatever. Think about how it makes you feel to have done those things!

Secrets of Success Reserve time to learn Find a pattern that works for you Make it a mindful ritual. You’re building a mountain one pebble at a time. Recover from interruptions

How Much? I bet you’re all wondering, how much should I be learning? Would it surprise you to hear me say “it depends”?

It’s Still Hard Having a system will help. How much it helps depends on you figuring out the system that works for you. The work is still in the learning, as it should be. This is just scaffolding. Useful, important, but it’s an enabler, not a goal.

Thanks for Attending! https://www.linkedin.com/in/sqlandy Definitely drop me a note if you find it works or you change it so it works for you.