By Leo Babauta
This month we have focused on (fairly short) daily learning sessions, to build up the habit of learning. We’ve talked about some effective learning methods and if all has gone well, you’ve incorporated a few of them in your learning sessions.
So how has this month gone for you? I’m guessing that if you’ve been relatively consistent, you’ve learned something. You haven’t mastered it, but you’ve made progress. And you’ve started to develop (or improve) your learning skills.
And what’s next?
I highly encourage you to take this challenge beyond the 30 days of this month, and continue your journey. The learning has only just started, to be honest, and that’s an amazing thing: we get to explore beyond this starting point! We get to go deeper, to go broader, to take our skills and understanding to a new level. Wow. We are lucky people, no?
Here’s what you might consider:
- If you are happy with how things have been going, just continue your learning sessions. Expand them to 20 minutes per day if you haven’t yet.
- If you want to take it to the next level, expand to 30 minutes a day for this coming month, then 45 minutes if your schedule allows.
- Get a learning partner (seek one on the forums if you don’t have any candidates you can think of) and have fun learning together, holding each other accountable for your continued learning.
- Keep a learning journal. Learn from your mistakes. See where you need to improve. Be ecstatic at your progress.
- Teach your learning to others. Your learning only deepens and becomes reinforced when you’re forced to teach what you’ve learned to beginners.
- If you want to move on to other things, space your repetitions out. For example, if you’ve been learning French, but don’t want to keep up your daily sessions … do weekly or twice-monthly reviews so you don’t forget what you’ve learned, and take occasional opportunities to speak what you know to other people. This way you don’t forget everything you’ve learned, but the review time can be minimal.
Whatever form your journey takes beyond this month, I encourage you to not just drop what you’ve learned. At the least, maintain what you’ve gained by revisiting it monthly, and when the time and interest allows, go deeper now and then.