Scheduling Learning Time In An Already Busy Schedule

Learning is the most important aspect of your career/ skill because without learning there is no growth. It’s an investment in yourself to set aside some time everyday to learn what is necessary to your improvement.

I’m about to go into an entire week of learning C++ for the majority of my days so in that spirit I thought why not share how I manage to schedule learning time when my schedule is packed. Not only learning to improve in programming, but learning to become a better writer and learning an entirely new language.

Have a plan

It’s always good to start with a plan. Identify a time that’s best for you; whether it’s early in the morning, the afternoon, every other day… find that time and schedule it in your to-do list. For programming I have two hours a day which I will split into 2 parts; an hour in the morning and an hour at night. I find it easier that way because it doesn’t get too overwhelming and I sometimes save the easier tasks for the evening when my brain is almost already running on fumes. For instance, if I’m working on a project, I will spend coding time on it in the morning and spend the night on the theory part of that day’s lesson. It  could be reading up on the book I’m using or doing simple exercises that do not require a lot of brain power and/ or creativity.

 

Have small daily goals

Start small and be gentle. Set a daily goal of either learning how to use a concept or fixing a single bug, reading half a chapter and doing the exercises…. whatever goal you set, it will be easier to achieve it when it’s small and reachable. When you do this multiple times a week, by the end of the month you will have achieved a mammoth of a goal. What would have seemed impossible otherwise. I find that this helps me because my work tasks take a lot of my time and having a huge personal project/ learning goal will only discourage me. I try and write a page or a draft of an article good or bad everyday. Sometimes, I look at what I wrote the next day and delete everything but it’s never a waste of time because I am training my writing muscle.

It doesn’t matter how small a goal is, it’s still a good enough goal. What matters is the consistency in achieving them.

 

Use your free-time

I know this sounds disheartening, but hear me out. Somedays get really busy with the responsibilities that need your immediate action so you won’t always achieve what you had set out to do for yourself. This means you may have to take some time into your weekend or days off from work to work on your learning. Remember, it’s an investment and in my opinion it’s the one investment that does not have any risk. Think about it, you have nothing to lose when you learn and you have everything to gain!

Set an hour aside this Saturday and work on learning what you’ve been postponing all this time. Future you will be very grateful… just don’t forget to repeat.

 

Be okay with learning

Some days will suck because it gets harder. There are other people who know much more than you do. Some days you won’t feel like doing anything. This is when you have to put in the effort to just remind yourself why you are learning and put in a little more effort to embrace the journey. When you get really good at something and it becomes second nature to you, it’s time to move on and learn something else. Learning is one of those things that gets worse before it becomes better. One of the most important lessons I have learnt is do not do something because you feel like it. Especially where consistency is required. Human moods are the most inconsistent thing to ever exist and relying on that will definitely not get you as far as you intend to be. If anything it may make you give up entirely and you may have just lost the chance to be brilliant at something. Stick to the journey, there will always be something at the end.

 

Don’t be too hard on yourself

 

Use you work and work-mates to your learning advantage

Our jobs are where we spend most of our time. Some people 5 days a week, some every day of the week. Find different ways to learn while you’re at it. For instance, partner up with a more experienced person whether it’s for a project or just your day to day. For my tech people, pick up bugs that your manager has not assigned to you, review PRs published by your colleagues; subordinates or superiors. Work on projects with team-mates instead of by yourself. Pick up a new software… there is so much potential in your daily job, more than you can actually get in your free-time. I cannot begin to list them all.

 

A key thing to remember is that you can also learn from your subordinates. We do not always know everything so it’s always good to take your time and listen to everyone’s thoughts and opinions. Not only can you pick up something from that, it also makes you pleasant to work with.

 

Replace what doesn’t matter with something that matters

I started this thing where whenever I have the urge to open Instagram or Twitter and mindlessly scroll through, I open Duolingo instead and catch up on my Spanish lesson. I cannot begin to explain how far it has gotten me with Spanish. By the time I am going to bed, I have easily achieved or gone past that day’s goal that the app has set for me. Let’s face it, those social media urges are intense and frequent. Why not share that urge with something a little more helpful to yourself. You could start by setting a time limit; 15 or 20 minutes a day of Instagram and whenever you feel the need to open it again and are past your daily limit, read on something or continue with whatever lesson you’ve been taking.

Share your knowledge

We live in a give and take world. It’s only fair you share what you’ve learnt or are learning with those who are interested. For their benefit and yours as well. It’s nice to bring a smile on someone’s face when you help them out or share resources you use. It actually etches it into your mind more,

 

Feel free to comment on what you’ve been learning lately 🙂