What will YOU Learn this Year? (Use my 5 Point Plan for Learning)

It’s back to school, you can feel the excitement in the air and see all the pictures on Facebook of kids returning to school for a new school year. Pencils are sharp, notebooks are empty,  teachers and students alike have learning goals set and lesson plans designed. I don’t know if you love it like I do but it always stirs up in me a new inspiration for learning and new routines. Do you take the time to sign up for a class, set learning goals or intentionally learn new things?

When it comes to learning, the information and resources available to us in every possible area are seemingly unlimited. Whether we want to learn to surf, grow vegetables, or find out the latest tricks in Outlook. The ways we learn also seem limitless, do we signup for an in-person class, login via zoom, buy a book, listen to a podcast, watch YouTube videos, all of the above? I don’t know about you, but sometimes it’s all a bit overwhelming, the amount of information coming at us at any given time. The overwhelm can quickly turn into paralysis, at least for me. Although the amount of information offers so much opportunity, how do we decide what to pursue and what to let pass us by? As a lover of learning I am equally excited and overwhelmed by the possibilities. This information age requires both discernment and discipline as learners.  The many choices we have need to be harnessed by us so we can use our time wisely and not just become numb to the constant noise and competitors bidding for our time, money and attention.

So where do you start? How do YOU best learn? What’s your personal learning style? What will work best in your current phase of life and schedule? What should you take on and what should you save for later? Although sadly, there is no one-size-fits-all answer or a quiz that will spit out your results, there are some ways to help break down the information and make some decisions on what, when and how to choose what to learn this year.

Step #1 – Brain Dump

Take a sheet of paper and a pen/pencil (not on your computer or phone) and set a 1 minute timer and write down in a one column list, as many things as you can think of that you want to learn. Nothing is off limits. Be specific. This includes all categories of life. Ready...go....

Step #2 - Grouping

On the same paper, next to what you wrote down, write a category/group. Find common groups and use colored highlighters. C'mon, I know you have some left over school supplies like me and it makes it seem a little like we're in class, right?  Are there any major areas in your life missing? These groups/categories will be specific to you. If so, add some items, categories.

Personally, I like to try to learn something new in each of the areas of my life. Although these may vary for you – here are mine. These overlap my areas I use for goal setting and dreaming as well.

• Faith
• Personal Growth
• Health/Wellness
• Family/Marriage
• Professional Development

Step #3 – Find your Why?

This is one of the most important steps for learning. Understanding why you want to learn something.  This will help you create motivation and accountability and will be directly linked to your success. Next to each of the things you want to learn, write why. Here are some examples. Remember you can have other reasons too.

• Proficiency – some efficiency may have surfaced and you realized you were lacking in knowledge. Maybe you needed to organize data in Excel and someone said you need to use a pivot table and you realized you don’t know how to create one. Maybe you found out you are gluten-sensitive so now you need to learn to cook without gluten.
• New App or New Version – Maybe you got a new phone and you don’t know how to use it. Maybe you have a new job and your company is using Teams and you’ve never used it before.
• Competence – maybe with your promotion, you need to prove your competency with certain apps. Maybe you’re looking for a new job and you’d like to get certified or you need to pass some type of competency evaluation.
• Interest/Curious – sometimes you just want to learn something because you’re genuinely interested. Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn to make Norwegian lefse or how to day trade.
• Change – I want to learn something because I think it will change me for the better or it will make my life better. Maybe you want to become a better friend or learn to study the bible.

Step #4 – Priority/Timing

Now go through your list and prioritize these. Maybe some will fall off the list or others rise to the top and others be saved for another time. This can be done anyway you want. I like to do it also by category and assign a 1-5 value, then assign one or two learning goals each month (through the school year). For example, September might be learning Microsoft Teams and cooking chili. Now if you are an Outlook calendar user or use a paper planner, take the learning goals you identified and the month you assigned them to and enter them on the first day of the month and commit to taking action on these. 

We are all lifelong learners and we have all been in classes or seminars where we are supposed to learn something but we don’t. The most common adage around this is when kids are learning advanced math and they just don’t know when they’ll ever need it. Surprise, they are not interested or motivated to learn it.  The same holds true for lifelong learners, if you don’t know why you want to learn something or how you might use it, you won't be motivated to learn it or remember it. When I’m creating training, I always try to make this my underlying theme – why would you want to know this and how would you use it.

Step #5 – Make a Plan

One of the best things about lifelong learning is that we get to choose what we want to learn (to an extent). There are some lessons though in how we learned in school as kids we can apply to help our learning be successful. Here are 5 things to include in your learning plan.  Each learning goal from step 1 you commit to ideally should have it’s own learning plan.

5 Point Plan for Learning

1. What will you learn?
   This will come from your list but be specific. Define what you will learn. For example, pivot tables in Excel, Mastering Outlook Inbox etc.
2. How will you learn?
   This is multi-faceted. You will need to think about how you have learned best in the past. Self-paced, in-person, coaching, YouTube, etc. The ease and availability of self-paced training is amazing but the downfall is many people don’t follow through.
3. What’s the Time Frame?
   Sometimes this means you’re just signing up for a class, other times it might mean ongoing commitments to self-paced learning. This might also need to take into consideration when learning might need to be completed by. Sometimes it might be committing to reading and viewing weekly learning prompts.
4. Accountability.
   This is one of the most important things. Additionally, it is one of the things that is hardest about any type of self-paced learning. It may be linked to your why, because if your why is strong, your accountability may be built in. For example, you need to learn Excel for your new job starting in October. You probably won’t need much accountability for this. But if your why is more vague, I want to become more proficient at Excel, you may need to get more specific and link it to a specific outcome and time or build in accountability like one-on-one coaching, attendance to a live class or an assessment.
5. Practice and Application.
   Whether you are taking swimming lessons or committing to learning Outlook, factor time in to apply these skills. If you are doing self-paced training, this means scheduling the training on your calendar and committing to it like you do a meeting or a class you sign up for and then also scheduling time to “use it”. If you are learning how to set rules in Outlook to control your inbox, the learning does no good if you don’t find or commit to any time to apply it to your inbox.

How to apply the 5 Point Plan to my courses on LearningwithKari.com 

1. What will you learn:
   Choose from the specific, easy to digest topics to learn on my website learningwithkari.com. These are concise and specific courses so you have clear objectives and can pair them to create and accomplish specific learning goals.
2. How will you learn?
   On my website, you can purchase courses and login and everything you need is in one place. These are self-paced courses.
3. What’s the Time Frame?
   Since they are self-paced courses, you can determine the time frame but our recommendation is to set aside time consistently and ahead of time to commit to learning and going through the course.
4. Accountability.
   Since we are committed to helping you, at the beginning of the course you will send us your course plan and we will personally follow up with you based on your accountability plan.
5. Practice and Application.
   We will help you with give you specific things to practice and apply before the next course and include built-in follow up questions/assessments before moving on.