Modern Professionals
Part 1
Introduction
This is a guide for professionals who are part of the tribe of self-learners. It is for
those who embrace the possibilities that access to the world’s knowledge has to offer.
It is your map for survival in a world where disruption reroutes individual career
paths and forever changes many professions. It contains your guide to navigating a
VUCA world in which volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity have become
the norm and “people need to be radically re-skilled” to thrive.
“
Ignorance is the path to extinction…Not taking control of our own
learning opportunities (or that of our teams) is the fastest way to
make yourself irrelevant.
Throughout this guide, you’ll nd some theoretical explanations and a lot of practical
advice about self-learning, professional development, and personal growth. You’ll
discover the techniques and strategies that you can use to tailor your personal self-
learning journey.
This knowledge will put you in the driver’s seat as you advance your career and
enable you to avoid professional obsolescence.
Pooling our knowledge, sharing the best of what we discover, and exchanging ideas
are at the heart of tribal self-learning. When we work together, we all grow wiser.
I. Becoming a Future-Proof
Professional by Developing Your
Own Learner’s Lifestyle
“
Our world — especially in the technology space — has changed
and continues to change at a rapidly increasing rate. We value
people who are learning machines and are highly adaptable
(antifragile) over people who only bring experience.
The technological, societal, and economic changes brought about by the Fourth
Industrial Revolution bring with them great opportunities for those who recognize
and respond with agility but puts those who fail to upskill and re-skill at risk.
In the coming years, humans will not become obsolete but many of their skills may.
The World Economic Forum predicts that by 2022, 75 million roles may be eliminated
due to technological changes, including automation. However, other advances may
result in the development of 133 million new roles requiring new skills.
“As the types of skills needed in the labor market change rapidly, individual workers
will have to engage in life-long learning if they are to achieve ful lling and
rewarding careers,” writes IBM’s Sonia Malik, commenting on data from the 2019
Coursera Global Skills Index (GSI).
This is a shift from past employment markets in which individuals could often
acquire needed skills through formal education or professional development early in
their careers and then progress on a linear path. The half-life of professional skills is
now “just 5 years” report the editors of the Adobe blog, meaning that skills gained in
college may be obsolete within just a few years following a modern professional’s
graduation.
Students entering the professional world today are going to be a part of an “ever-
changing landscape,” Adobe's Alex Gay advises. But there is a way to meet this
challenge, he adds, “all it takes is a commitment to learning, growing, and honing
their skills to keep pace.”
In this new world order, what are those new jobs? What roles will be left for modern
professionals?
Professionals will survive by expanding their roles as critical, creative thinkers and
problem solvers and by working with newly developed technologies.
Modern professionals of all types will also need strong analytical skills as businesses
emphasize increased access to and reliance on data to make strategic decisions.
General Motor’s Chief Data and Analytics Of cer, A. Charles Thomas told the
audience at the 2019 Wharton Customer Analytics conference, that every person in
an organization should be able to answer analytical questions and extract insights
from the data made available to them.
“
The person who understands data and can explain it to the
business? That’s the unicorn. That’s the hardest skill to hire for.
A. Charles Thomas
Why Future Jobs Will Require Data Analytics Skills, Knowledge@Wharton
Professionals in creative roles will need to hone their analytical skills as well, notes
Edward Nevraumont in his upcoming book, Marketing BS. He writes that modern
marketers must see the big picture, understand which metrics matter, and identify
the strategies needed to move those metrics.
Source: Valentine Stefferz, The T-Shaped Product Manager 2019 (Part 1--Core Competencies)
In short, the modern professional cannot rely on past knowledge or expertise to carry
them into the future. Nor can they limit their skills to a few disciplines. They must be
T-shaped, with deep knowledge in their chosen eld of expertise complemented by
broader experience across several verticals.
In the spring of 2019, we asked members of the Zest tribe to share their thoughts
about the importance of learning new skills as a part of their plans for professional
growth. Their responses were assembled in the article, Tribal self-learning: Stories
from the professionals who are leading the movement.
“
College taught me some things, but I teach myself more, now that
I am in the workforce. I’ve even told people, never stop learning! I
don’t even know what I’ll be doing in 5 years, but I know I’ll
teach myself about it before then.
These professionals also told us that they didn’t wait for others to provide them with
the resources and training they needed. The Zest tribe is a tribe of self-learners. They
are taking control of their professional development and acquiring the skills they
need to advance their careers.
“
Books, online courses, MOOCs, professional development
programs, podcasts, and other resources have never been more
abundant or accessible, making it easier than ever to make a
habit of lifelong learning. Every day, each of us is offered the
opportunity to pursue intellectual development in ways that are
tailored to our learning style.
“Just being alive and adapting to the world forces us to learn constantly,” JotForm’s
Aytekin Tank observes.
However, Tank adds, to reap the real bene ts of self-learning requires more than
learning through happenstance. Effective self-learners are those who learn with
intentionality and embrace a learning lifestyle. These lifelong learners actively seek
opportunities to build their knowledge and explore new ideas.
Lifelong learners have a growth mindset and they don’t turn away from tough
challenges.
They are self-motivated and they commit time and effort to build their knowledge.
“
Life is a learning curve. Every experience is a lesson. A growth
mindset is no longer an advantage — it’s a necessity.
Cornerstone OnDemand’s Jeff Miller explains that “a growth mindset means you view
intelligence as endless: You’re always able to learn new skills.” When you have this
type of mindset, one that isn’t deterred by setbacks or struggles, Miller adds, you are
prepared to constantly gather new information. You become an “extreme learner.”
Professionals who embrace this growth mindset are able to adapt to new situations
and remain relevant, says Miller in the article, Why Your Organization Needs to
Adopt a Learning Mindset.
The willingness of those with a growth mindset to forge ahead despite setbacks is
what distinguishes them from those who have a xed mindset.
Each modern professional has the choice to embrace growth or stay xed in place
This belief that learning is possible despite any obstacles we may encounter is also
the secret to overcoming the distractions that may otherwise block us from achieving
our goals, writes Nir Eyal in his new book Indistractable. He counsels readers to
“remind yourself that obstacles are part of the process of growth. We don’t get better
without practice, which can be dif cult at times.”
“
The fastest way to learn is to act like you know nothing.
Learners with a growth mindset are both inquisitive and bold. Having a growth
mindset requires you to be open to new possibilities and a willingness to take risks.
Follow these steps to develop your growth mindset.
All of us are born curious, writes Dani Grant citing the famous observation by
Picasso. But we don’t always maintain that curiosity as we mature. Opening
ourselves to new, self-directed learning opportunities, she advises, can help us
release our thirst for knowledge. Grant encourages professionals to expand their
horizons by becoming free learners: pursuing their passions, asking questions, and
joining the broader community of self-learners.
Curiosity also helps self-learners overcome their desire to turn back when they
encounter a dif cult or uninteresting concept, explains Anderson. “Instead of
focusing on and reinforcing initial disinterest in a new subject, they learn to ask
themselves “curious questions” about it and follow up those questions with actions.
“
So many people think that by some age...18, 22, 30, that they have
to have their lives " gured out." Makes no sense. Figuring it out is
a forever game - it never ends and it constantly changes
depending on the circumstances at hand!
In an interview with The CEO Library, Blinkist CEO Holger Seim says both curiosity
and exibility are crucial characteristics for lifelong learners.
Individuals who x their minds on a single solution or believe that their past
experiences and capabilities de ne their future miss the opportunities that allow self-
learners to thrive.
“
Over the past few years, I began to realize that if I wanted
something in life that I don’t currently have (job, health,
nancials, relationships, etc.) then I would have to do something
that I have never done before. And that something would most
likely make me uncomfortable.
Learning a new skill isn’t always easy. Sometimes it is downright hard. And, you can
expect some failures along the way. What you do when you encounter those failures
will de ne your future success.
Lifelong self-learners don’t give up. They work through the problems, obstacles, and
failures they encounter and seize them as opportunities to learn.
Ross Simmonds tells his readers that to continue to grow as professionals they must
challenge themselves. He does this by intentionally putting himself into situations
that are unfamiliar and will “require new skills to come out on the other side
successful.”
“
This is how you do it.
Ross Simmonds
In fact, it is in this zone of discomfort where learning best takes place. In The 3
Zones Everyone Should Know About, Af nityBlue founder Seth Sandler explains that
most people operate in and transition between one of three zones.
In the comfort zone, we are using acquired skills but are not challenged. When you
operate in this zone, you aren’t growing. At the other extreme is the panic zone. In
the panic zone, you are being asked to perform tasks that are so far outside your
ability or your ability to learn that you cannot function and become ineffective or
discouraged.
Your best learning occurs in the place between complacency and panic
The sweet spot for personal development is in between these two zones. In this
middle zone, you must learn in order to achieve your goals but your learning goals
are achievable.
“
Staying within your comfort zone is a good way to prepare for
today, but it’s a terrible way to prepare for tomorrow
Remember to engage your natural curiosity. Ask questions that allow you to look past
the temporary pain of unknowing and see the possibilities that come with nding
answers. Accept that failure is a part of the learning process. And, remind yourself
that because you have an in nite potential to learn, your discomfort is only
temporary.
You can gain the skills you need to get past this obstacle and you will be stronger for
having done so.
“
Self-directed learning provides no clear motivation, so you'll have
to create your own.
“
I am a self-learner. A person who is not afraid to not be de ned
by one thing but pushes to learn more and something new every
day.
What’s your motivation? In most instances, professionals are pragmatic about their
knowledge building goals, explain the editors of the Shift Learning blog. Adult self-
learners seek to solve a real-life problem or ful ll some personal or professional goal
or obligation. We want to learn the skills we need to get us where we want to go and
keep our careers on track.
To maintain your motivation, it is important that you are pursuing your goals, not
someone else’s, cautions Christine Renee in The Blogger’s Guide to Preventing
Information Overload. Renee writes, “if you’re learning something new, it’s easy to
become persuaded to go down a learning path that’s not your own.”
Another way to keep the momentum going is to develop SMART goals--goals that are
speci c, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and time-de ned. Track your progress
as you work to reach your goals to gain positive reinforcement along the way.
As you experience the reward of success in applying what you’ve learned, you’ll be
encouraged to repeat your self-learning behaviors.
Self-learners commit
One major side effect of the booming advances in technology is that we are all busy.
Kids may still get bored and complain, but very seldom will you hear an adult say, “I
have nothing to do.” Unless we intentionally unplug from the frantic pace of life in
the 21st Century, there is always something to do and always several someones or
somethings vying for our attention.
“No matter how busy I am in a day I always nd 5-10 minutes for some self-learning.
I strive to learn at least 1 new thing every day to grow as a professional and to share
the knowledge,” says Needls co-founder, Michael Koral.
Thinki c’s Amanda Nagy asserts that in a world where nonlinear careers are the new
normal, taking time to focus on self-development is crucial because you won’t always
nd the growth opportunities you need on the job.
She advises her readers to “take courses online, read blogs, or attend conferences to
stay ahead of the pack. Never stop investing in yourself. Use time away from work to
focus on self-development and stay curious.”
When we asked members of the Zest tribe how they used the process of learning by
doing to grow as professionals, several of them told us that setting aside a speci c
time for learning was essential to their success. They blocked time on their calendars
and often cooperated with teammates to hold each other accountable.
Making time to expand their knowledge is how top performers achieve those results,
says Michael Simmons, describing the bene ts of time well-invested in his article
Why Successful People Spend 10 Hours A Week On "Compound Time"
"Despite having way more responsibility than anyone else, top performers in the
business world often nd time to step away from their urgent work, slow down, and
invest in activities that have a long-term payoff in greater knowledge, creativity, and
energy. As a result, they may achieve less in a day at rst, but drastically more over
the course of their lives," writes Simmons.
In Why Accountability is Your Most Valuable Asset, lmmaker and lifelong learner,
Preston Kanak writes, “Accountability is without question my most valuable asset as I
am able to grow personally and professionally, experience ful llment every day, and
get one step closer to live the life I want.”
However, Kanak isn’t talking about external accountability. Your peers can serve as a
check on your diligence, but at the end of the day it is up to you to be honest with
yourself and the efforts you are willing to make to advance your professional goals,
he advises.
Nudge theory is a behavioral modi cation technique that uses subtle redirections
that move people toward engaging in a desired behavior. Nudges aren’t coercive, the
article Nudge Theory: How Brands Can Empower Customers Through Behavioral
Science, explains. Instead, they present information or circumstance that leads the
mind toward a preferred option.
For instance, you might put healthy snacks on the center shelf in your refrigerator
while tucking less nutritious indulgences in a back corner to nudge yourself to eat
healthier. The stickers your teammates place on your shared Trello board can also
serve a nudge.
Apps that use the power of nudges to prompt you to do the right thing have
proliferated in recent years, and the development of mobile apps or “mobile
commitment devices” are leading the trend, writes Andrew Braun for Make Tech
Easier. Many tness, mindfulness, self-education, and productivity apps leverage
nudges to help users reach their goals.
The more invested you become in maintaining your self-learning routine, the easier
it will become. Transforming your commitment to learn into a habit is the best way to
keep your momentum going.
After publishing a blog post every day without fail for 11 years, Seth Godin wrote the
following:
“
Streaks are their own reward. Streaks create internal pressure
that keeps streaks going. Streaks require commitment at rst, but
then the commitment turns into a practice, and the practice into
a habit. Habits are much easier to maintain than commitments.
...once a commitment is made to a streak, the question shifts
from, “should I blog tomorrow,” to, “what will tomorrow’s blog
say?”
Once self-learning becomes a habit, you no longer have to use will power to make
studying a priority. Knowledge building becomes a part of your routine and you have
achieved your ultimate goal of having a learner’s lifestyle.
“
If we want to remember something, we need to work with our
brains, not against them. To do that, we need to understand
cognitive constraints and nd intelligent ways to get around them
or use them to our advantage.
Few lifelong learners have the luxury of spending all of their time pursuing
knowledge. For most, learning must be t alongside a number of competing
priorities. So it is no surprise that people who have a learning mindset have
developed strategies to help them make the most of each learning opportunity. Our
societal knowledge in the elds of cognitive theory, behavioral science, and
neuroscience complement and inform many of these strategies with trial and error
lling in the gaps.
In the following section, we’ll take a look at some of the theories that shape how we
learn and the practical strategies that leverage these theories to increase the
productivity of the time spent on professional development and personal growth.
“
Throughout our lives the brain retains a high degree of plasticity;
it changes in response to experience. If the experiences are rich
and varied, the brain will develop a greater number of nerve cell
connections. If the experiences are dull and infrequent, the
connections will either never form or die off.
Most scientists today agree that as you gain new experiences, your neural pathways
are strengthened.
Additionally, some scientists believe that even greater changes in the adult brain are
possible. New studies point to the possibility that not only can existing neural
pathways be improved by gaining new experiences, but that new pathways can be
constructed, explains Dr. Terry Sejnowski in the popular MOOC, Learning How to
Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects.
Further, new research points to the possibility that not only is synaptic development
possible, but also neurogenesis or the generation of new neurons to replace old or
damaged ones in the brain.
“
Through neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, it may be possible to
carve out a fresh and unworn path for your thoughts to travel
upon. One could speculate that this process opens up the
possibility to reinvent yourself and move away from the status quo
or to overcome past traumatic events that evoke anxiety and
stress.
You have the power to change your perspective, retrain your brain, and alter the way
you consume and process information.
First, as Megan Imundo writes in her article, Using Evidence-Based Study Strategies
to Optimize Your Learning, this understanding of our brain’s ability to grow and
develop supports what we refer to as a growth mindset.
With sustained effort, you have an in nite ability to gain new skills regardless of
your life stage.
Second, your behaviors and interactions with your environment can have a profound
impact on your brain. In particular, exercise and meditation may help your brain to
repair and reshape itself. Exposure to new experiences, whether traveling or learning
a new language, can strengthen your brain, too.
The chart below, based on a scienti c literature review conducted by The Centre for
Evidence Based Mangement and presented by Andrew Mawson in the article,
Improving Corporate Cognitive Performance in IT Organisations, illustrates some of
the behavioral and lifestyle factors that can affect your ability to think.
As you can see, many variables can impact your brain's performance throughout the
course of your day.
“
Learning is the addition of knowledge or skills to memory.
Megan Imundo
Using Evidence-Based Study Strategies to Optimize Your Learning
Your brain operates in two distinct thinking modes. In the rst mode, your mind is
concentrated on the information you are consuming or the problem you are trying to
solve. In the other mode, your mind is left to choose its own path with no particular
focus. Dr. Barbara Oakley refers to these two modes as focused and diffuse thinking.
Oakley also explains that while not everything is known about these two modes of
thinking, researchers are con dent of two facts.
If asked to describe the process of learning, most of us would probably cite examples
of focused mode thinking such as reading a book, studying our notes, working a math
problem, or watching a video lesson.
During focused mode thinking, you are ideally giving your full attention to the
problem, concept, or task in front of you. When you are learning in focused mode,
you are using your working memory to collect data and transfer it to your long-term
memory.
The instances when your brain is working in focused mode are also when you are
most likely to be using familiar thought patterns and previous knowledge to solve a
problem or understand and process new information.
Diffuse mode thinking can occur while you are awake or sleeping. During this
thinking mode, your brain is still working even if you are not. It is preserving and
applying the data that has been input into your long-term memory. Your mind may
drift into diffuse mode while you are showering or taking a walk.
Diffuse mode thinking is not as controllable as focused mode thinking. You can’t
always will your mind to wander. However, researchers have recently found that
regardless of the task you are performing or what is happening around you, your rate
of diffuse mode thinking will uctuate throughout the day.
By paying attention to your brain’s rhythms, you may be able to optimize your study
schedule to take advantage of your peak diffuse and focused modes.
Much of the behind-the-scenes work of learning takes place while you are sleeping
and a lack of sleep can have a profound in uence on your cognitive performance.
Various studies of the impact of sleep on learning and memory have separately found
that sleep is essential for memory consolidation and that memories are reactivated
during sleep.
Additionally, sleep has been found to improve the performance of motor skills and
reduce forgetting of language-based skills.
The bene ts of sleep aren’t limited to just overnight rest, either. A 20- to 60- minute
nap can improve your memorization skills, sleep researcher Dr. Sara Mednick tells
The New York Times.
The chart below demonstrates the results of a study examining the effects of napping
on recall.
Dr. Oakley notes that Salvador Dali and Thomas Edison were both said to have taken
naps as a means of accessing diffuse mode thinking and spark their imaginations.
Each of the men had a different strategy to wake themselves as they began to drift off
so that they could quickly jot down the ideas that came to mind.
To capture some of your own greatest hits, keep a notebook and pen near your bed or
even next to your shower. You can also use an app to record your diffuse mode
thoughts.
Speaking with NPR, neurosurgery professor Dr. Maiken Nedergaard explains that
during sleep, the ow of cerebrospinal uid in your brain increases, ushing away
the neurotoxins that build up between your brain cells during the day. This is an
energy-intensive process that can’t occur while you are awake, Dr. Nedergaard adds.
If you don’t get enough rest, your brain won’t be able to operate at peak
performance.
Have you ever enrolled in a course, signed up for a webinar or purchased a book with
the best of intentions but never quite got around to consuming them? Do you have a
deep backlog of “saved to reads” stored away in an online app or le somewhere?
You may think that the reason all these knowledge-building resources have gone
unused is because you lack suf cient time to give them your full attention. That’s a
reasonable assumption. We are all busy. But, most of us--left in our natural state--
are also procrastinators.
Procrastination is your brain’s response to something it thinks you don’t want to do.
Whenever your brain thinks that you are planning to do something dif cult and thus
cognitively painful, it attempts to head you off at the pass, through misdirection. It is
your brain’s desire to avoid discomfort that causes you to tell yourself that “just
checking your email real quick won’t hurt anything.” You are also more likely to
procrastinate when you feel anxious about the outcome of whatever you have
planned. After all, you can’t fail if you don’t try.
How can you put procrastination behind you and achieve your
professional learning goals?
Overcoming procrastination will not only help you improve your productivity but also
help realign your mind and dump this negative behavior. Use the following tips to
help you put an end to your procrastination habit.
1. Get to the root of the problem. Pinpointing the reason why your brain is trying
to take you off task can help you eliminate that reason, recommends Steve Spring in
his article, How to Stop Procrastination From Ruining Your Life.
For example, if you are putting off beginning a project because of physical or
cognitive fatigue or burnout, then the solution may be to take a break. If your delay is
caused by anxiety or disinterest in the topic you are planning to study, a different
tactic might be needed.
Dr. Oakley advises changing your focus to the process of what you’ll do, rather than
what you’ll achieve by doing it. So, instead of telling yourself that you have to study
until you have mastered a speci c concept, commit to giving your full attention to
studying for a 20-minute period.
Journalist and creative strategist Charlotte Lieberman recommends that you shift
your perspective by reframing a dreaded task and looking for its positives. Remind
yourself of a time when you completed a project that turned out better than expected
or visualized the positive outcomes you expect from completing the current task, she
says.
3. Tell your brain when it will be over. Which would you prefer, being asked to do
push-ups until someone tells you that you may stop or being asked to do a single set
of 10 push-ups?
When it comes to performing unpleasant tasks, your brain prefers a known endpoint.
So give yourself a break and establish the boundaries for your focused-learning
session in advance.
Use the Pomodoro Technique to manage tasks in blocks while allowing yourself breaks
Source: Global Nerdy Joey deVilla's tech/mobile blog
Use a method such as timeboxing or the widely popular Pomodoro Technique to set
de ned limits.
What does a tomato have to do with time management? Named after the kitchen
timer that looks like a tomato, the Pomodoro Technique involves setting a timer to
ensure that you complete 25 minutes of focused activity which you can then follow
with a 5-minute break.
Whatever method you choose, setting prede ned study intervals will give your brain
reassurance you aren’t going to be doing push-ups forever.
For example, he explains, if your goal is to learn to play guitar, keep your guitar
within reach not stored away in a case at the back of a closet. Preparing your
materials and your learning environment in advance are simple steps that you can
take to improve your personal-development conversion rate.
5. Just do it. Sometimes the best way to get past the mental roadblock that your brain
has erected is to plow through it.
Your thoughts when anticipating a task are often worse than the reality, counsels Dr.
Timothy A. Pychyl in the article, How to Stop Procrastinating, NOW. After
researching individuals’ perceptions about avoided tasks, he concluded that once you
“get started” your perception of a task will often change for the better.
If you still struggle to start your next learning project, break it down into smaller
tasks by asking yourself what steps you need to take next to keep the project moving
forward, says Dr. Pychyl. Make sure each step is concrete and actionable as this will
increase your likelihood of getting it done.
The Spacing Effect describes the cognitive theory which states that by reviewing
information at carefully timed intervals, you can better retain the knowledge you
consume.
The Spacing Effect is the reason most self-learners and learning experts recommend
that you spread your learning across several sessions and allow your brain time to
process the information you’ve attained in between each one.
Your brain retains more when your learning is divided into bite-sized pieces
For example, if you plan to spend 5 hours each week upskilling, don’t try to complete
all 5 hours in a marathon study session. Instead, break your learning tasks into
smaller periods. Practicing for one hour a day, or if you do need to t all your
knowledge building into a single day or two, give yourself plenty of breaks.
By separating your practice sessions with intervals of rest, you give your brain time
to do its work, consolidating memories and building a strong neural network.
Researchers haven’t uncovered everything there is to know about the Spacing Effect.
However, most agree that both neuroplasticity and diffuse thinking play a role.
As you study, you move data into your short-term or working memory before
transferring it to long-term memory. Only after the information enters your long-
term memory can your brain begin forming deeper neural connections. This process,
called consolidation, is essential to the creation of stable, long-term memories
explains University of Texas at Austin’s Professor Alison R. Preston.
More recently, in the article Spacing Repetitions Over Long Timescales: A Review
and a Reconsolidation Explanation, Christopher Smith and Damian Scarf report that
researchers theorize that each time you access a memory (as you would during each
spaced review session), that memory is altered in a process called reconsolidation,
making it stronger and more resistant to being forgotten.
Without repeated exposure to new information, you’ll soon forget it almost entirely.
Studies of memory and recall have found that unless your brain does the work to
form a lasting memory, 42% of the information you acquire will be forgotten within
20 minutes. After the passage of a month, 79% of new information is lost.
This phenomenon is illustrated by the Forgetting Curve which was developed by Dr.
Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885, reports Inkling’s marketing manager Rachel Flood.
The Forgetting Curve explains why cramming may help you pass a test but it doesn’t
contribute to your long-term professional growth. However, you can counteract the
Forgetting Curve’s steep decline by taking advantage of the Spacing Effect.
How? By using spaced repetition to revisit information and reinforce your memories
of it.
Calling the Spacing Effect a “wildly useful phenomenon” Farnam Street’s Shane
Parrish writes “we can leverage this effect by using spaced repetition to learn almost
anything...The effect cuts across disciplines and can be used to learn anything from
artistic styles to mathematical equations.”
As illustrated in the graphic below, over time, spaced repetition straightens the
forgetting curve.
When you engage in spaced reviews of the information you want to retain, each
repetition solidi es your existing memories stopping their deterioration.
Perhaps at this point, you are wondering how you’ll possibly nd time to learn
anything new if you have to keep revisiting past knowledge. The key lies in right-
timing your review sessions.
Research indicates that deep learning takes place when we challenge our brains.
Known as “desirable dif culties,” challenges in this discomfort zone enhance the
strength of our neural connections.
For reviewing information, this means that we best remember information when we
revisit it shortly before the point of forgetting.
“The greater the drop in retrieval strength, the greater the increase in learning when
the memory is accessed again,” writes College Info Geek’s Thomas Frank, citing the
work of How We Learn author, Benedict Carey.
But how do you know when you are almost at the point of forgetting something?
Using the Forgetting Curve, researchers have developed several formulas to help you
gure it out, Frank shares in his article, How to Remember More.
So, you see, after you make it through the rst stages of memory stabilization, it may
take only a quick microlearning session every few months to keep the knowledge
you’ve gained.
How can you remember when and what to review? Frank recommends using an app
such as SuperMemo to calculate your repetition schedule for you. Or, if you prefer an
analog solution, using the Leitner System.
Use this system to prioritize review of the information over which you have the least mastery
To use this system, you’ll need to create a set of ashcards each of which holds just
once piece of information and a method for keeping the cards for each recall level
separate. The ashcard app, Anki, employs an algorithm similar to the Leitner
System to cycle the cards presented to you during each review session.
Regardless of what methods you use to gain new knowledge and review what you’ve
learned, making sure that you’ve given your brain the space it needs to work will
maximize your productivity.
“
Mindless activity is the enemy of deliberate practice. The danger
of practicing the same thing again and again is that progress
becomes assumed. Too often, we assume we are getting better
simply because we are gaining experience. In reality, we are
merely reinforcing our current habits—not improving them.
In the book Peak: Secrets From the New Science of Expertise, the authors describe a
form of self-improvement and study they call deliberate practice and outline its core
principles which include setting speci c goals, making continuous improvement, and
employing dynamic feedback loops.
The term deliberate practice has since been adopted more loosely by self-learners to
de ne the kind of deep learning that leads to performance increases and long-term
knowledge retention. Other self-learners use the terms studying, deliberate learning
or focused learning to describe the process of upskilling with intentionality.
No matter what you choose to call the time you spend learning a new skill, to
maximize your ef ciency, you should study with deliberation.
Here are the strategies expert self-learners recommend to make that happen.
Do you want to improve your performance as an SEO? Are you planning to add public
speaking to your skillset? Or, maybe you’ve been told that you’ll need to gain
management skills to take your career to the next level.
Once you have chosen the skill you want to learn, you’ll need to deconstruct that
skill, identifying each of its core sub-skills, directs Josh Kaufman. Then, develop a
plan for learning the most critical sub-skills rst.
What are the key elements of the SEO marketing specialty? How do you become a
better speaker? What are the traits of a good manager?
“If you practice the most important things rst,” Kaufman advises, “you’ll be able to
improve your performance in the least amount of time possible.”
In a time when we have more opportunities than ever to take control of our careers
and career development, we sometimes suffer because we have too much of a good
thing. There’s too much information from which to choose. ~Yam Regev, Zest
This step is critical. Poor resources or having to pour over too many resources will
result in poor results and wasted time.
One of the best ways to ensure that you are learning from accurate and timely
resources is to rely on your network of fellow self-learners.
In Prioritizing Content Consumption, Fred Wilson wrote that he looks to his network
of trusted friends to source the information he consumes. Yam Regev created the
following graphic illustrating how he prioritizes content consumption following a
similar plan.
But you don’t have to limit your content search to only recommendations from your
immediate circle. You can also look to the larger tribe of self-learners for support.
Many self-learners are happy to share their knowledge and make suggestions via
social media and online forums.
Before choosing which materials you’ll study, research the opinions of other self-
learners, read reviews of the courses or books you are considering, and familiarize
yourself with the industry and topics you plan to study. Your objective in this step
should be to gain enough knowledge about your chosen learning goal to be able to
recognize quality resources and screen out materials that are low-value or stale.
Finally, choose content formats that t your preferences and schedule but also mix
things up. Exposure to the same or similar information in different formats will help
you form stronger neural connections.
Unlike Scott Young, the author of Ultralearning, you probably aren’t planning on
studying 11 hours a day to develop a new skill. That’s okay. You can still work
upskilling into ow of your life. Decide what you want to learn. Then, set goals that
are attainable within the time you plan to spend.
How long will it take you to learn a new skill? Ben Franklin is said to have spent one
hour each weekday deliberately learning. Josh Kaufman says that you can acquire a
new skill in just 20 hours. That means if you dedicate one hour a day to professional
growth, in less than a month you will have added a new skill to your skillset.
If going from zero to 60 minutes seems like a stretch, start with 15 minutes of
dedicated self-learning time. Then, as you build your concentration threshold,
experiment with longer intervals, advises Young.
Spend just 20 minutes each day on focused learning and you’ll gain over 2 hours a
knowledge each week.
Before information can be encoded into your long-term memory, it must be absorbed
into your working memory. But your working memory is limited. When you overload
your brain with too much information at once, the information won’t be retained.
Researchers believe that the maximum load that your working memory can handle is
four pieces or chunks of information.
Four chunks may not sound like much information, but with exposure and practice,
your brain will begin to assemble small pieces of information into schema which
then are treated as a single chunk.
For example, when learning a new phone number, you group the data into two or
three chunks rather than using a separate working memory slot for each digit. With
suf cient prior knowledge of a concept, a single chunk can consist of a sizeable
amount of information, says cognitive theorist Ted Young.
“
Learning agility is swift, continuous learning from experience.
Agile learners take knowledge from one concept and apply it to
another. They experiment and forge connections across different
disciplines.
Your ultimate goal when studying is to be able to remember and apply the knowledge
you’ve gained. You need to be able to recall information and connect it to the
problems you are trying to solve or the goals you are trying to achieve
The more active your process of studying is, the more likely you are to successfully
encode and recall what you have studied.
Here are some ways that you can engage your brain to deeply encode the knowledge
you consume.
1. Make note of what you want to remember. Fast doesn’t always mean ef cient
when it comes to learning.
If you listen to a podcast at 3x the normal speed but can’t remember what was said a
week later, you’ve gained no advantage. When you read, listen to, or view content,
your objectives should be to consume the information at the fastest rate that still
allows you to retained the key takeaways.
One way to do this is through note-taking. Taking notes forces you to slow down and
concentrate on the information you are consuming.
In Rethinking ASAP: The Magic In Going Slow At Just The Right Moments, Ann
Handley describes her experience taking handwritten notes as a cub reporter. She
observed that when she used her reporter's notebook and a felt tip pen,
“I captured nuance: how things were said--not just what was said” and “I somehow
got a better grasp of the key points and main thrust of the interview.”
Making written notations when reading is a more active way to engage with the text
than highlighting or underlining. Your recall will be even better if your notes
summarize what you’ve consumed in your own words rather than just copying
portions of the text, recommends Shane Parrish.
Additionally, the notes you record while listening to a podcast or reading a text can
be used later for your review exercises.
What if you are consuming information on the go and can’t stop to take notes?
Write down what you remember as soon as you get the chance. This step will help
ensure that you are truly gaining and retaining the knowledge you desire.
2. Diversify your neural connections. The more context you can include when
consuming knowledge, the better your retention and recall will be.
“
There’s more than one way to absorb information. If you can do it
by processing deeply...you’ll retain more.
When you consume knowledge, your brain doesn’t just take the pieces of information
you’ve selected and place them on a memory shelf for later use. Instead, your mind
absorbs all the details of the experience--including sights, sounds, emotions, and
other sensations--explains Nick Stockton in Your Brain Doesn’t Contain Memories. It
Is Memories.
This process is continuous and happens almost instantaneously. “Your brain’s ability
to collect, connect and create mosaics from these milliseconds-long impressions is
the basis of every memory,” Stockton writes.
Each stored memory isn’t just one memory, but a network connecting these myriad
inputs. This is why a familiar song can remind you of a past relationship or the smell
of a summer breeze can remind you of a childhood trip. This is also why the more
variety you incorporate into your knowledge-building experience, the stronger and
deeper your memories will become.
To vary your inputs, try studying in a different location or at different times of day,
use a mix of resources and formats to study each topic, and don’t be afraid to
experiment by adding background music or other sensory elements to your study
environment.
You can also mix things up by alternating between study topics during your spaced
sessions.
This process, called interleaving, helps your brain to form connections between
diverse skills and concepts. Using interleaving techniques when studying leads to
longer-lasting memories and improves critical thinking skills, reports Steven C. Pan.
Finally, adding an emotional element to your studies will also strengthen your
memories. This is why storytelling is such a powerful instructional method. As you
study, engage your emotions by thinking about how you’ll apply the knowledge
you’ve gained and how it will impact your work.
3. Put your knowledge into practice early and often. Experiential learning is the
ultimate form of active learning. Through “repeated practice, constant
experimentation and inevitable failure” knowledge becomes expertise, writes Brian
Peters in Why Learning is My Only Career Plan.
As you begin to study a new topic, look for ways to apply what you’ve learned, say the
self-learners who contributed to the article, Balancing learning and doing for
professional growth. Create actionable checklists, conduct small experiments, test
your assumptions, and begin using what you’ve learned to solve real problems as
soon as possible.
Put simply, the Illusion of Competence means that you do not know what you think
you know.
Sometimes this illusion arises from overcon dence. Other times, you may develop a
false sense of security by relying on study methods that don’t rigorously assess your
performance, warns Megan Imundo.
For example, if you re-read the same section of a text over and over until you can
recite it almost verbatim, you may believe that you have achieved mastery. But if the
information does not become a long-term memory and you cannot apply the
concepts you have learned in real-world settings, you have only mastered the ability
to memorize texts.
One of the best ways to ensure that you understand what you have studied,
recommends Shane Parrish, is by using the Feynman Technique.
To assess your knowledge using the technique, write down on a piece of paper
everything you know about a subject. When writing your knowledge, use language
that would enable a child to comprehend the concepts. Using this explain-it-like-I’m-
5 method ensures that your understanding goes deeper than just remembering the
jargon from your lessons.
Once you’ve written down everything you can recall, you should then be able to
identify any remaining knowledge gaps.
The feedback you gain from this and other types of assessments will allow you to
correct mistakes in your understanding of the topics you are studying and to adjust
your learning strategies as well which will improve your overall learning ef ciency.
After all, it is certainly better to discover that you’ve made an error in your notes or
misunderstood a concept during the rst week of review than after 6 months of
spaced repetition.
Gain deeper understanding of the information you consume with these steps.
“
In the attention economy, the ability to maintain focus and
concentration is every bit as important as technical or
management skills.
For most of us, nding time for diffuse mode thinking doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Focused mode thinking, on the other hand, is increasingly hard to achieve. Humans,
it seems, are easily distracted.
Everyone’s mind wanders from time to time. In fact, according to a study conducted
by Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, your mind is wandering 47% percent of
the time that you are awake. The same study found that this lack of focus on what we
are doing makes us unhappy.
This unhappiness may stem from the fact that we are missing out on what is
happening in the moment or because our minds often wander to unpleasant
thoughts. Researchers note that our minds tend to wander less when we are engaged
in social activities.
For instance, Killingsworth says that people aren’t paying attention 65% of the time
when showering or brushing their teeth. This is prime diffuse mode thinking time.
But, survey respondents also reported that their minds were wandering 50% of the
time when they were working.
Allowing distractions to govern your schedule comes at a high cost to your personal
and professional productivity.
In the article, How Distractions At Work Take Up More Time Than You Think,
Atlassian’s Blake Thorne reports that it takes workers an average of 23 minutes to
regain their focus following an interruption. Citing the research of University of
California, Irvine’s Gloria Mark, Thore adds that these interruptions may take place
as often as every 3 minutes.
Smaller distractions or ones closely related to what we are working on may not take
us out of the ow. But contextual switches, de ned by Mark as changes of “work
sphere” which require your brain to abandon one type of task in favor of another, are
a different story.
For the workers that Mark studied, complete contextual switches took place every
10.5 minutes, she told FastCompany’s Kermit Pattison. At that pace, every 10 minutes
on focus may cost you 30 minutes of total time. And, after recovering from a
distraction, you may not even return to the original task but move on to a new 10.5-
minute project.
Only 30% of professionals using RescueTime reported >1 hour without an email or IM interruption
Here’s the kicker though. Half the time, we lose our focus because we choose to lose
our focus.
The top 5 sites that users of RescueTime’s app blocked in order to reclaim their focus
were Youtube, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and Amazon. RescueTime’s analysis also
found that 17% of users were unable to work for more than 15 minutes without an
email or IM interruption.
Beyond choosing to switch tasks as a delaying tactic, your brain may also prompt you
to interrupt your studying to complete other tasks because they are stuck on your
mental “to-do” list. Blocking your time allows you to assign a space for these pending
tasks outside of your study time. Set aside time for focused learning and for
distractions such as checking your email, says Thorne.
Intentionally schedule your time to ensure that all of your priorities are met
To completely clear your mental queue, take a moment at the end of your day to write
down your to-do list. By planning time for distractions, your brain gets reassurance
that the tasks will be done and you can focus on developing your skills.
“
This rst step requires an active attention and noticing. If you are
distracted or multitasking, you won’t be aware enough to bring
that new information into your short-term memory.
You can limit the number of distractions that interfere with your focused learning
time through awareness: recognizing when and why distractions occur and taking
active steps to reduce these events.
3. Face your frustrations and get to know them. If your distraction comes from a
source of pain avoidance, resistance may be futile, advises Nir Eyal. As you attempt
to overcome your avoidance behavior, your brain may double down on the urge to
escape discomfort and the eventual relief you feel once you give in to the distraction
may serve as a habit-forming reward.
Daniel Bourke describes this process in his review of the Coursera Learning How to
Learn MOOC. In habit theory, the cue is the event that triggers your subsequent
actions. If you have a habit of checking social media accounts each time you pick up
your phone, your phone is likely the cue that is triggering this behavior.
Modifying any step in the habit loop will break the habit
Remove the cue and you’ll stop the cycle, says Bourke.
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The rst step is to be passionate, the next step is to ask a
question, and then the last step is to nd a community where
nding the answer is encouraged.
“
Scalable learning requires harnessing the power of a large
network of peers to learn faster than we could ever hope to learn
on our own.
Mike Rustici
Scalable Learning Will Be the Strategic Differentiator in the 21st Century
Access to others’ experiences will minimize the time you spend gaining new skills,
advises the CEO of Notejoy, Sachin Rekhi. Calling the process “leveraged learning,”
Rekhi says that gaining insights from “other people’s doing” and from “thought
leaders and experts in the elds that you are looking to grow in” is the key to ef cient
skill-building.
Working with someone who can provide you with instant, personalized feedback
such as a tutor, mentor, or guide enables you to quickly correct performance errors,
notes Dojo founder Dion Stewart.
How can you leverage the wisdom of the tribe and learn from the experience of
others?
“All you need to do is ask,” counsel Reid Hoffman, Chirs Yeh, and Ben Casnocha in
the article, Learn from People, Not Classes. When faced with a challenge, “talk to
people who have faced similar situations,” they advise.
“
Recommendations from people I trust are by far the most
important lter for me because I know my friends’ and
colleagues’ tastes in certain genres and so can be quite sure that
a certain recommendation from a certain person is worth
pursuing.
There’s a lot of content out there and it’s no secret that not all of that content is the
best that it could be. Previously, we recommended that you use the wisdom of the
tribe to help identify the best resources for learning a speci c skill.
In a world where disruption is the norm and industries change fast, it can be dif cult
for one individual or even one team to keep up with every new development. To
discover what you should be learning next, what’s changed since you last reviewed a
topic and which content is worth your time “be part of a community,” writes
Klipmunk founder, Apurv Sharma.
You probably already have access to learning communities that can help you
accelerate your learning. Zest members who shared their self-learning experiences as
part of the #MyOnlyCareerPlan project note that their colleagues, friends and fellow
community members are some of the best sources of knowledge and support.
“In the information age we have such an over ow of information how can we
effectively choose the right and valuable content for us?” asks Mike Silberg, founder
of The IS-CL Network.
“The answer is we have to tap into the collective wisdom of our colleagues in order to
invest our time where it is worth it. Only with a community of experts will you be
able to grow to be the best version of ourselves,” he concludes.
Learning has always been a social enterprise, a tribal practice. Knowledge is shared
through communication. The ow of knowledge is maintained by people who tell
stories, demonstrate actions, write instructions and serve as teachers, mentors, and
guides to one another.
Creativity, too, is social notes Michael Simmons quoting the work of Joshua Shenk.
“Many greats made a habit of conversing in large ritualized groups,” writes Simmons.
Modern learners often make use of social media to continue this tradition of
knowledge sharing.
Content Mavericks founder Chris Von Wilpert told us that after he gains new
knowledge, he takes action on that knowledge--learning by doing. Then, whether
the result of that action is good or bad, he makes a post about it on social media so
that his audience can learn from his experience.
Von Wilpert isn’t alone in his willingness to share the good and the bad on social
media. Many professionals have come to rely on social media as a means of quickly
distributing the latest industry news as well as sharing their insights and advice.
Social media platforms and forums also serve as a meeting place for self-learners.
“Using social media,” advises Alexandra Samuel in Using Social Media to Build
Professional Skills, “will not only strengthen your professional skillset; it will also
help you broaden your network.”
Optimize your professional growth by tapping into a diverse global network of tribal
self-learners.
A team that has embraced a learning culture is a powerful force. The rapid
proliferation of information in today’s world means that no one can manage to keep
up with everything they need to know on their own. Your co-workers and team
members can serve as a source of information, encouragement, and feedback for your
self-learning journey and you can do the same for them.
“As complexity increases and more and more problems are at the intersection of
different disciplines rather than squarely in one or the other, teams will become the
central currency of innovation,” predicts Autodesk Visiting Research Fellow Mickey
McManus.
A strong team is one that works together to ensure that each member has the
knowledge they need to contribute to the success of the whole.
The Zesteam has a designated Slack channel for sharing knowledge. On our
#learning channel, we share articles, links to webinars, and other resources aimed at
helping one another expand our knowledge.
“
When you share something new and interesting with colleagues
on these platforms, don’t just paste a URL. Help people
understand why you’re sharing, unpacking the what-it’s-about
and why-it-matters aspects of a content piece.
As you engage in this explanatory process, you’ll also deepen your understanding
and retention of the knowledge you’ve shared, making this strategy a win for
everyone.
The world is undergoing seismic shifts that affect how we all work, learn, and grow.
Traditional careers and career paths have been upended. In this world, survival
belongs to those who are best able to adapt, adjust, and evolve.
The choices you make will determine your future. Will you embrace growth or
become extinct? Will you develop your own learner’s lifestyle?
In this rst part of The Anti-Extinction Roadmap, you’ve learned how to combat two
major roadblocks to professional growth: procrastination and distractibility. You’ve
also learned about the simple power of sleep and the importance of maintaining a
positive mindset.
Using these techniques and strategies, you can become an ef cient and effective
lifelong learner and future-proof your career.
Speaking of the future, as we continue this series, we want to include you. We’d like
to explore with you the many types of knowledge-building resources that are
available to modern learners, more strategies for optimizing your professional
development, and how you can work with your organization to build a powerful
professional development culture.