30 DAYS OF LEARNING

Learning is going to be a lifelong journey. The time to get started is today.

Look back at the last week of your work and ask yourself a couple of questions – what did I learn new this week ? did I spend time on developing a new skill or learning some new knowledge ?

If you are like most smart, successful people the answer is likely to be “not sure, not much, don’t know, maybe…”. Lost in emails, meetings and updates, most people do not consciously spend time on skill development and learning. It’s hard to take out time for courses and everyone knows that once the course is finished, you are back to your routine, losing most of the learnings you had.

Yet no one can deny – you don’t learn the new skills in your industry, you are going to be irrelevant very soon. The hottest new jobs in most industries did not even exist a few years ago.

So whats the solution ?

 I got this idea from the legendary management guru Peter Drucker who pick a new subject to learn every 2 years and did so all his life and from the founder of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, who was still at 90, was learning mandarin every week !

I am going to try an experiment and I suggest you try a version of it too. At the start of this month for 30 days, I will aim to learn one new thing everyday. For me it’s going to be focused on digital marketing. 

Everyday I will spend between 20-60 minutes, depending on the schedule to learn a new topic in digital marketing. Here’s how we can do massive amounts of skill development without disrupting our busy schedules

  1. Day 1 – Pick a Subject that matters to you or your work – This can be digital marketing, a new technology in your industry, basics of a language, dance moves or anything else that will massively benefit you.
  2. Day 2 – Make a list of learning topics – Go online, browse a little and start making a list of the sub topics you want to learn about. For instance for me the list will be – search engine marketing, paid social media, facebook advertising, creating youtube videos etc. You can refer to course outlines on university websites or the content page of a book on the subject or the list of topics on a top blog
  3. Day 2 – Define a 30 min learning zone – When will you learn best – in the morning when you wake up or when you are in the commute and are free or in your lunch break. Block of this time every day in your calender for 30 days. Don’t worry if you miss a few slots but keep at it
  4. Day 3 – Get started – Pick up the book or the blog on the first sub topic you want to learn about and start studying it. Write the top summary learnings in bullet point format in a diary or a note online and store
  5. Day 4 onwards – Do the same every day and keep writing and recording. Check if there is some kind of a test or a certification that you can do which will assess your skill level in the area that you are studying
  6. Celebrate – When you finish a week, start dazzling your friends with your new found skills or language. Share and practice as much as possible

I will post an update on the experiment as it goes along and see how much I end up learning. I encourage you to do the same. Learning is going to be a lifelong journey. The time to get started is today.

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