How to make learning as you go predictable

If you want to know what you need to know, as I mentioned before it’s a good idea to take some time to get a high-level overview of a particular domain.

As you’re discovering some of the high-level items that you want to later explore, you should take some time to use generative thinking to find a past situation where you would’ve wanted to use some of these high-level items. And then use that past situation to think about future opportunities to come back to these high-level items.

This gives you the ability to schedule opportunities to learn on-demand.

For example, if you’re working to be a better speaker, you might explore some high-level areas of what speaking entails. You might stumble on several different approaches to speaking from several famous speakers. Let’s say you find one style that you would like to use.

It makes no sense to try and put that style to use right now if you’re not going to be speaking anytime soon.

But, let’s say in two months you have a speaking engagement. You can go into your calendar and scribble down a reminder to revisit whatever high-level technique it is that you would like to take for a test drive.

And then you can forget about the subject for now. You’ve done your reconnaissance, now it’s time to move on to other things.

In two months, the reminder will arrive, and you will have the opportunity to put to work, a new technique, and take the next step in your progression of becoming a better speaker.