How to automate your Learning to become a better Engineer
When you're in University, you have courses to follow, training material and you're guided. Our career though is 40 years long. How can I keep myself updated when I start to work?
Hey folks! Alfonso here :D
Today I want to talk about something I’m really passionate about: Continuous Learning. I’ll not try to tell you why it is important, you already know that.
I’ll try to tell you how I manage my learning process/tools/resources. If you follow my advice I can guarantee you three main things:
You will never be out of things to study
You will learn the right things to progress in your career
Your learning will be guided by a process, not motivation
Do you know that sensation ”Alright, now I will pick that book I bought three months ago and I’ll not go to sleep until I finish it!” and right after 5 minutes and 2 pages read, you just put back the book on the shelf.
The main problem here is that you’re coupling your learning to your motivation. Since motivation goes up and down, your learning will follow.
We need to change Motivation with Discipline (and today I’ll tell you how to do it in the context of learning!).
Image from https://addyosmani.com/blog/motivation/
What
First of all, we need to define what we want to study and why.
I usually take a multi-timeframe approach. For example I decided that this year I want to learn more about managing people, building systems at scale and managing complex projects. Sounds like a lot, right? Also, you will probably need to learn new things for your job (let’s say you’re now using a new JavaScript framework, you need to learn the basics of it).
So in the end, what you have to learn next will be a blend of what you want to learn based on personal goals/hobbies and what you need to learn to succeed in your job.
Now, you will decide what to learn on multiple sources (books, YouTube videos, courses, whatever). The first important thing for me is to keep a single source of truth. Personally it is on Notion.
How
You can create a Notion Database with the resources you want to learn and also a Kanban view to keep track of the status. Thanks to this you will have a full backlog of things to learn and every time you want, you can go back to the backlog and pick something.
A super useful extension for Chrome is the Notion Web Clipper. This allows you to save links on the Notion database. Let’s say that Chris, your new colleague sends you a link on Slack. You open it and feel that it’s interesting! Unfortunately, you have to jump in call and you don’t have the time to read it. So you just click on the Notion Web Clipper and the article will be automatically added to the backlog. Useful, isn’t it!
This also works for interesting courses, videos and so on! Keeping everything in a single place literally changed my approach to learning.
Thanks to this approach, we also have another big advantage for free. Every link in the Notion Database is a page. In the page we can then write a few notes on the resource.
I’ve noticed that, at least for me, writing a few bullet points, increase a lot my long-term retention of the resource I’ve studied. To do so you can just split the screen, keep the Notion page on the left and write as you read/listen
You don’t like taking notes this way? Not a big deal. Choose the method you want, but make learning an active process instead of a passive one. You need to put effort, not just scrolling/watching.
When
“I don’t find the time“. That’s a lie. We all have the same amount of time. You don’t miss time, you miss planning.
You can choose your own recipe, but this is how I manage my calendar. Each gray box is blocked for learning. Every morning at 7:30 (right after a generous breakfast) I start to study. What to study? Easy! Just continue from the item in “Doing” in the Kanban board, or pick another one from the “TODO“ column.
If you have an high-level plan and a set of resources you want to study, blocking time on your calendar will make a huge difference!
Anyway, this is just an ideal calendar. My real calendar is way worse unfortunately - but I’m working to make it better -.
As a suggestion, you can schedule your learning time at the start of the week, and then at the end compare with what you actually did. This will help you evaluate wether you’re sticking with your plan. Of course, plans will change, but at least you will be aware of what’s happening.
The secret weapon
Are you really reading until here? Wow, I wasn’t expecting this! Alright, you deserve something unique :D
Let’s look at this equation => Things I learn = Time I spend * Quality of the learning material * Study Method.
If I invest more time, I’ll learn more. If the quality of the resources if better, I’ll learn more. If I have a better study method… yeah you got it.
Since they are multiplying factors, I encourage you to work on this factor: Study Method
How? Look at these resources, invest time in studying them. You will thank me in the the future :D
https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
https://www.amazon.it/Learning-How-Learn-Spending-Studying/dp/0143132547
https://www.amazon.it/Limitless-Upgrade-Anything-Faster-Exceptional/dp/1401968716
Learning how to learn better changed my life and I’m sure will drastically improve your too.
In case you want more content about learning, drop a comment or write me on Linkedin!