I have dozens of courses under my belt, a stack of books finished each month and YouTube history full of educative content. Yet, you can’t tell if you talk to me.
Evidently, learning is just a hobby for me. Same as what other people do with Netflix. A course looked fun, I binge watched it, felt inspired and I’ll watch the next one.
In my mind, taking courses feels like a trophy of my intellect, a medal signifying my curiosity. It makes me feel good about myself. In reality, I only gain a pdf with my name on it to post on LinkedIn.
However, not all courses are equivalent to entertainment programs. What makes these courses different isn’t the quality of teaching or the length of the programs but whether I actioned on that knowledge.
Of course, the time available for action is always less than for consumption.
That’s why I’m now implementing reactive learning. Instead of being proactive and led by my curiosity, I only consume information when I need it. For example, when I was creating a content calendar for my toy store I realized that I didn’t really know my customers. I didn’t know how to find out more about it so I took a customer research class.
Reactive learning forces me to go through the courses intentionally (with speed and focus) and take action instead of just hoarding knowledge.
By filtering my consumption, I move myself to action.
As Aussie as I can get
Tried remaking Sydney’s iconic Strawberry Watermelon cake. It's the only cake that wows me, I could eat the whole thing!
Taste wise: 8/10. The cake was too sweet but everything else is similar!
Texture wise: 3.5/10. The top is perfect but the cream wasn’t set so it couldn't hold the cake together.
My first time eating (and cooking) a Kangaroo steak.
The texture is similar to beef, but it has a certain smell that’s not for everyone. I don't mind it tho!
Two productivity hacks
1. For a balanced life
Use timeboxing! Inspired by this post from Nir Eyal, I’ve been better than ever at balancing the different areas of my life (besides work).
I put time in to do the things that I enjoy (reading novels, watch movies etc), things that are important but not urgent (calling parents, spiritual time), to learn, work on my business, socialize and even for skincare routine.
Timeboxing helps makes ‘where did my time go?’ moments rare, allows me to be guilt free when I’m relaxing because I know that I’ll have time to do the “productive” stuff and keep me on track in all aspects of my life.
My initial worry that the timeboxed life would be boring was gone when I realized that the calendar is more of a guide instead of a fixed schedule. I switch things up a bit every now and then depending on my needs (e.g. last week I didn’t send this newsletter because I felt lost, so I used my newsletter writing time to redirect and refocus).
2. For when you succumb to binge watching
Double the playback speed! It’s life changing. Instead of skipping the movie forward by 15secs and risk missing out on the deets, you’ll get up to date with everything, in half the time. Basically you waste less time! Works particularly well for romance dramas that have a 2-3 mins scene of the main character staring through the window thinking about his first love from 10 years ago with 98485 different angles.