Self-Directed Learning Techniques

Learn Anything, Faster. (9 moves for your first 20 hours): It’s 9 pm. Three tabs open. Zero progress. The fix isn’t more information. It’s better reps, designed on purpose. Here are 9 moves to turn stalled intention into skilled execution: 1. Vague goal vs One-line outcome ❌ “Get better at data viz” ✅ “In 7 days I present a 3-slide chart story without notes” Try this: Write a single success sentence you can test in public. 2. Info hoarding vs Skill reps ❌ Ten tabs open, zero practice ✅ Five minutes reading, twenty minutes doing Try this: 1:4 ratio. For every minute of input, do four of output. 3. Marathon sessions vs Daily sprints ❌ Weekend cram ✅ Short, consistent blocks that stack Try this: Two 25 minute Pomodoros, every day for 10 days. 4. Random tutorials vs Deconstruction ❌ Learning everything in order ✅ Isolate the highest leverage subskills first Try this: List the skill’s top four moves. Practice the one that removes the most friction. 5. Friction everywhere vs Clean launchpad ❌ Notifications, clutter, multitasking ✅ One tool, one tab, one task Try this: Airplane mode, full screen, single document workspace. 6. Perfect from the start vs Ugly first reps ❌ Restarting until it looks right ✅ Ten messy iterations to expose patterns Try this: Ship version 0.1 in 60 minutes, then iterate by rule, not by mood. 7. Late feedback vs Immediate loop ❌ Waiting until you “feel ready” ✅ Rapid, objective checkpoints Try this: Record yourself, compare to an expert example, fix one thing per session. 8. Motivation hunt vs Commitment design ❌ “I’ll do it when I’m inspired” ✅ Make momentum inevitable Try this: Calendar 20 hours, announce a micro deadline, add a small stake you care about. 9. Solo grind vs Social learning ❌ Struggling alone for weeks ✅ Borrowing brains to speed the climb Try this: Teach back for 15 minutes to a peer or community and ask for one note to improve. What move are you starting with today, and what’s your one-line outcome? ♻️ Share this with someone starting from scratch ➕ Follow Helene Guillaume Pabis for practical, human-first performance playbooks ✉️ Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dy3wzu9A

Everyone talks about getting 1% better every day. Few people actually explain how to do it. Here's the real science of self-improvement and how you can use it to reach your full potential: The ideas behind getting 1% better are: - Consistency - Discipline - Process-focus And each of those are part of one larger skill - Self-regulated learning. Self-regulated learning breaks down into: - Setting clear goals with plans - Monitoring your progress during practice - Reflecting afterward to direct future goals and learning. It's simple, but remarkably hard to do. This is the skill underlying deliberate practice. 1. Goals with plans “A goal without a plan is just a wish” is exactly right. You need to know where you want to go and a path to get there. That means: • outcome goals: destination • performance goals: progress indicators • process goals: daily actions A plan with these 3 ingredients will help you much more than a simple goal itself. Your plan should also include other resources you need (coaches, support) and what you want to target each day along the way. 2. Monitor progress As you work toward your goal, you need to assess what’s going on. This allows you to make adjustments in the moment to find what works. If you’re trying to become a better basketball shooter, for example, try to track your improvement shot by shot, rather than practice by practice. Checking with how you’re performing during practice so you can refine and iterate while you’re still active. 3. Reflect and iterate When practice ends, you’ve got to ask yourself 3 things: • what did I do today that I want to keep doing? • what did I do today that I want to do differently? • what did I learn? Reflection will deepen your learning. Then, take what you want to do differently and turn it into a process goal to iterate on tomorrow. Now you know exactly what to work on and how to get 1% better tomorrow. Just improve that skill. With this framework, you can make 1% better every day a reality.

Here’s the boldest learning tactic I know. It’s crazy. And it works. ↓ Ready to look fear in the face? Try this: 👉 Commit to teaching something before you know it. Crazy. I know. Let's take a look anyway. ↓ Conventional wisdom says you have to be an "expert" before you teach something. Or, at a minimum, 90% of the way there. You need to: - Know the topic inside and out - Have significant experience in the field - Be versed in all the little nuances Only then can you help someone else. ↓ But what if we rewrite the rules? New rule: You can teach as long as you have passion for the subject and are at least one step ahead of your students. One step. That's it. This new rule: - Lowers the barrier to entry - Brings you closer to your students - Sets a clear learning (and teaching) target ↓ With this new rule in hand, we can try out our crazy tactic. Commit to teaching. Work to get yourself one step ahead. Bring others to where you've landed. That's it. That's the playbook. ↓ Why this works ... (1) Accountability Once you've committed to teaching, you're stuck. You have to level-up or you're going to let everyone else down. This is a major motivator. (2) The Power of Teaching To teach something, you have to understand it. There's no way around this. By committing to teach, you are committing to learn. (3) The Curse of Knowledge In a fascinating twist, being closer to your students reduces the "curse of knowledge" - where experts have trouble remembering what it was like to NOT know a subject. This tactic also pulls you out of your comfort zone. Eleanor Roosevelt would be proud. ↓ 3 ways to try this tactic out ... (1) Teach Your Team Commit to a small presentation. Ask for 15 minutes on your next All Hands to lead a development session on "X." Then, align the topic with something you and your team would benefit from. (2) Commit Publicly to Posting on LinkedIn LinkedIn content, when done right, is like teaching. You share lessons learned to help others. Commit to share on a topic you don't know much about ... then get to learning. (3) Volunteer Find an organization that helps young people. YearUp and Junior Achievement are great examples. Commit to teaching young people a topic you don't know. Then raise your level. ↓ My personal example ... A few years ago, I was asked to teach a retail techniques class. At the time: - I'd spent time working with retail banking teams - I knew a little about the retail world outside of that - But none of my knowledge was rock solid I definitely wasn't an expert. But I said yes anyway. And, in doing so, committed to leveling-up my retail knowledge. 📌 I read books on the subject 📌 I scoured the internet 📌 I reached out to folks in my network Sure enough, I learned a ton about retail. And helped my students in the process. ↓ Crazy tactic? You bet. Does it work? 100%. 💭 Are you willing to try this tactic? #learning #skills #careers #teaching

Coding, marketing, design - these are all valuable skills in today's economy. But the most valuable skill by far is learning how to learn. If you master this meta-skill, you can unlock any other skill you want. It is the key that opens every door. But how exactly does one learn how to learn? Through years of self-education and helping others, I've discovered techniques that can make anyone a better learner. Here are the most important ones: 1. Find your deepest motivation. Learning sinks in when you have a burning "why" behind it. Determine what truly drives you and let that passion fuel your quest for knowledge. 2. Curate superior sources. With the firehose of information online, find credible, current sources tailored to your exact needs. 3. Explain it simply. The Feynman technique - explain what you learn as if teaching a child - creates dramatic understanding. It uncovers gaps and forges neural links. 4. Apply and practice. Don't just absorb facts. Use your new skills in real life, such as doing projects, solving problems, or teaching concepts. This cements true learning. 5. Get expert feedback. We all need input from mentors, peers, and communities to improve. Use these relationships to refine your approach. 6. Never stop learning. The day you think you know enough is the day you fall behind. Always look to expand your knowledge. Learning how to learn is the meta-skill of the 21st century. It's he master key that opens the door to unlimited potential. Remember, this skill does not come naturally for most. The payoff, however, is monumental.

"Learning to learn is a metaskill - a skill applied to itself." I just read Marty Neumeier's book "The 46 Rules of Genius" and it's excellent. Here is the rest of his Rule 25 "Learning How To Learn" --- "It multiplies your knowledge and accelerates your progress. When you learn to be your own teacher, you can acquire any skill you put your mind to. You can quickly build a new skill on the roof of the last one. You can move laterally from one skill to the next by bringing deeply understood principles to related disciplines. The ability to direct your learning is personal growth squared. Teaching yourself is called autodidacticism. It requires that you develop your own theory of learning, a personal framework for acquiring new knowledge. While every person’s framework is different, here are ten principles you can use to construct it: Learn by doing. We learn better and faster when we use our hands, our senses, and our whole bodies in addition to our brains. Find worthy work. Not all work is educational, important, or fun. Look for work you believe in. It’s too hard to work with one hand holding your nose! Harness habits. The brain forms habits when routines are transferred from the rational level to the automatic level. They allow you to perform familiar tasks with little conscious effort, freeing up mental resources for new challenges. Focus on your goals. It’s easy to become distracted by shiny objects in your periphery. A genius learns to concentrate on a single task for an extended period of time. Cultivate your memory. While general knowledge is available online, your store of craft-specific knowledge needs to be ready at a moment’s notice. Memorize it. Increase your sensitivity. A key trait of genius is the ability to make subtle distinctions among outcomes. Consciously identify the nuances that separate the truly great from the merely good. Stretch your boundaries. To keep growing, always aim slightly beyond your current abilities. Customize your metaskills. Intuition, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, imagination, and other high-level skills can make a big difference in how you learn. Focus on the metaskills that will drive your professional success. Feed your desire. When you want something so badly that you never give up, success eventually surrenders to you. Keep the fires of passion burning with books, articles, talks, and conferences. Scare yourself. Take on projects and responsibilities that lie outside your comfort zone. Look for workarounds to mitigate your fears. As any genius will tell you, fears faced are fears erased." (Image generated by DALL-E 3 via Bing Image Creator) --- I help people learn and grow through words, visuals and AI.

Daily Drop | How to Learn Anything 5x Faster Mastering a new skill or subject doesn’t always mean working harder — it means working smarter. These 10 evidence-backed learning techniques can dramatically improve how quickly and deeply you learn: 1. Feynman Technique • Pick a topic and explain it as if you’re teaching a 12-year-old. • Identify any gaps in your understanding and study them. • Refine and simplify your explanation. Why it works: Teaching forces clarity of thought and deeper comprehension. 2. Dual Coding • Combine verbal and visual information (e.g., notes + diagrams). • Describe visuals in your own words. Why it works: Activates different parts of the brain for better retention. 3. Spaced Repetition • Review material over increasing intervals (1 day, 3 days, 1 week, etc.). • Helps beat the “forgetting curve.” Why it works: Reinforces memory just before it fades, making it stronger. 4. Interleaving • Switch between related subjects while studying. • Apply knowledge across multiple contexts. Why it works: Improves critical thinking and transfer of knowledge. 5. Mind Maps • Start with a central concept, then branch into related subtopics. • Mimics how the brain organically connects ideas. Why it works: Visual mapping aids memory and helps organize thoughts. 6. Chunking • Group related bits of information into meaningful units. • Focus on one “chunk” at a time. Why it works: Reduces cognitive overload and makes complex material manageable. 7. Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) • Focus on the 20% of content that delivers 80% of the value. • Identify the core concepts and prioritise them. Why it works: Efficiently allocates your time and attention. 8. SQ3R Method • Survey: Preview the content • Question: Ask what you expect to learn • Read: Engage actively with the material • Recite: Summarize what you learned • Review: Revisit key ideas Why it works: Builds deep comprehension and long-term recall. 9. Overcome “The Dip” • Motivation dips after initial excitement fades. • Push through the plateau by staying consistent. Why it works: True progress often follows persistence. 10. Chunked Practice • Not a label on the image, but implied: group sessions with breaks outperform long cramming. Why it works: Prevents fatigue and boosts cognitive endurance. Final Thought Learning is a skill in itself. When you master how to learn, you unlock anything you want to know.

Too many people believe that once school ends, learning stops. That mindset is the fastest way to limit your potential. The truth is: Self-education is where real growth happens. No curriculum. No teachers pushing you. No deadlines forcing your hand. Just you vs. your ambition. The world rewards those who take ownership of their own learning. Because knowledge acquired by choice, not obligation, is powerful. It's the difference between surviving and thriving. Here's the 5-step framework I follow when self-educating: 1. Find a burning curiosity 🔥 ↳ What topic would you study even if no one paid you? ↳ That’s usually where your edge will develop. 2. Break it down into skills 📚 ↳ Big goals are overwhelming. Skills are manageable. ↳ Focus on one small skill at a time. 3. Set up a daily learning sprint 🚀 ↳ 10–20 minutes daily. ↳ Consistency beats intensity. 4. Apply what you learn immediately 🛠️ ↳ Knowledge without action fades fast. ↳ Try, fail, tweak, and repeat. 5. Reflect and adjust 🧠 ↳ Every 30 days, ask: "Am I better than I was a month ago?" ↳ If yes, double down. If no, pivot. At the end of the day: Those who self-educate control their future. Those who don't, leave it to chance. Which skill are you teaching yourself right now? Let’s hold each other accountable in the comments ⬇️ ---------- 📌 Follow me Gav Blaxberg for more content like this. ♻ 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞, 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 to share with your network ♻

I always believed my career Learning Journey through application of 'Learn by Doing' to become a Life Long Learner!!!! How can one apply the principle of "learning by doing" to your daily routine. Learning by doing also known as experiential learning-means actively engaging with new skills or knowledge through direct experience, rather than just reading or listening. To weave this principle: 1. Turn Routine Tasks into Learning Opportunities Approach daily chores (like cooking, budgeting, or organizing) as experiments. Try new recipes, use different organizational methods, or experiment with new ideas. Reflect on what works and what doesn’t, and adjust your approach accordingly. 2. Practice Skills Actively: If you’re in the process of learning a language, speak it daily-even if you make mistakes. For professional skills, work on small projects or simulations related to your field. Break complex tasks into simpler components, practicing each part before combining them. 3. Reflect and Iterate: After completing a task, take a moment to reflect: What went well? What could be improved? This reflection is key to deepening your understanding and making learning stick. 4. Connect Learning to Real Life: Apply what you read or watch immediately. If you learn a new productivity tip, implement it during your workday and observe the results. Create small challenges for yourself to reinforce new information. 5. Embrace Mistakes as Part of the Process: Don’t shy away from failure. Each mistake is a valuable learning opportunity. Adjust your approach based on feedback and outcomes. 6. Engage All Your Senses: Whenever possible, involve multiple senses in your learning. 7. Collaborate, Share Your Learnings and Teach Others: Discuss what you’re learning with friends or colleagues, or try explaining a new concept to someone else. Teaching is a powerful way to solidify your own understanding. 8. Make Learning Fun and Interactive: Turn learning into games or puzzles. 9. Start Small and Build Gradually: Don’t wait for perfect conditions. Begin with small, manageable tasks and build up as you gain confidence and skill. #selfbelief #learningisfun #learningthroughgamification #funlearning #embracefailure #selfreflection

Ultralearning changed how I tackle tough skills. Most people try to learn everything at once—and get stuck. Want to see how focused ultralearning really works? Read on. After 8 years in biotech and 6 years of grad school, I've realized that bridging big knowledge gaps—like life sciences and software—requires more than just taking courses. Ultralearning principles made the difference for me. I started as a bench scientist and taught myself software development and machine learning, using my real work projects as learning labs. Ultralearning, as Scott Young describes it, is a framework for aggressive, self-directed learning. It's about targeting your biggest knowledge gaps and closing them, one focused sprint at a time. Whether you're learning biology, software, or any other domain, the 9 principles of ultralearning—like directness, drilling, feedback, and retrieval—help you learn faster and deeper. For example, I used directness by treating my work projects as learning labs, and drilling by isolating my weak points and practicing them repeatedly. The key? Don't try to learn everything at once. Cycle between domains based on what's blocking you. Ultralearning is about alternating deep dives, not spreading yourself thin. If you're interested in mastering new skills—whether in biotech, software, or beyond—I invite you to check out my latest blog post for actionable ultralearning strategies: https://lnkd.in/gWwuhGXx How have you used ultralearning (or similar approaches) to tackle tough skill gaps? Any stories or tips to share? #ultralearning #careerdevelopment #lifelonglearning #biotech #datascience

Thinking about thinking: Metacognition Did you know that having learners think about their own thinking can improve learning outcomes? Instructional design that incorporates self-assessment, reflection activities, and strategies for self-regulated learning can empower learners to take control of their learning processes. For example, after completing a module, ask learners to journal about what strategies helped them understand the concepts best and what they could do differently in future modules to improve their learning. What are some of the metacognition techniques you use in your designs? Let me know!