Snippets of learning
"I'd love to learn more but I just don't have time"
When I ask people what new thing they've learned in the last day / week / month, one of the most frequent responses I get is that they are too busy. Often they even know what it is they'd like to learn, but just don't feel they have the capacity to do it.
We lead such busy lives, and in that busyness it is easy to get stuck. To feel that taking on one more thing is just impossible.
Often there are ways to breakout of the busyness trap. A close look at what really matters to us can sometimes help to locate those escape routes. But that is a discussion for another day. Sometimes it really is just too much to take on a new learning project. And in those times, its important to try to maintain our motivation for learning. To make sure that temporarily stuck doesn't become the new normal.
If right now you are in a position where you are too busy to take on a new learning project, consider whether there are ways to add small "snippets of learning" to your day. These might be short emails that will make you think, podcasts you can listen to on your way to work, or while doing housework (or in my case while walking the dog), or even books of short essays that you can pick up and put down when you get 5 mins.
Over the years I've tried many of these and ended up with a few that give me a variety of interesting views and topics that I probably otherwise wouldn't have time for.
Pascal Finette's The Heretic - a daily (ish) email of "insights into leadership in exponential times". Normally just a couple of paragraphs, covering topics such as culture, impact, communication, customers, product, time management - all things you need to think about as an entrepreneur and leader.
Steven Dubner's Freakonomics - a weekly podcast on "the hidden side of everything". The thing I love about this podcast is it makes me look much more closely at things I would normally take for granted. With a back catalogue now of 346 episodes it covers a very wide variety of topics.
Roman Mars' 99 % Invisible - a weekly podcast on how design shapes our world.
Peter Diamandis' Abundance Insider - a weekly email looking at a wide range of technological developments that can positively influence our future or help solve global problems.
Disclaimer: Peter is Executive Founder at Singularity University where I am a faculty member
Tim Ferriss' 5 Bullet Friday - this is just a collection of 5 things Tim is thinking about or trying out that week. I particularly enjoy his "Quote I'm Pondering" which is a regular part of the collection.
I'm always on the lookout for things to add to my "snippets of learning" so if you have others to recommend please add them below in the comments.
My first experience at "opportunistic learning" was when I was in technical school after basic training in the US Air Force. I was standing in a L O N G line waiting for lunch and the guy behind me had a few books from the base library. One was on digital computing theory (this was back in the 1960s) and I started browsing through it. I borrowed his copy and read it while standing ion the chow like three times a day for weeks, renewed it in my name, and went through the book twice instead of just standing there with my brain in neutral. That led to taking college classes at night and all sorts of trickle-down changes for the rest of my working career.
The little things can make a big change and I fully agree with your "snippets of learning"!
Will
That reminds me, i must finish my diploma in H & S!!
Definitely! Having the skills to get people back safe to their families each day must be very rewarding.
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