Category Archives: Planning

My First Task for 2019: Learn how to Learn

4th Industrial Revolution, Learn how to Learn, Learning, Planning, Technology

Learn How to Learn

In previous posts I mentioned about the importance of Life Long Learning. We must keep learning in today’s world as we enter the 4th Industrial Revolution or become obsolete. We have to keep reinventing ourselves throughout our lives.  A job for life is gone. We have to plan for multiple jobs and even multiple careers in our lifetime. The average person will change careers 5-7 times during their working life.  According to a report by the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and a panel of 20 tech, business and academic experts from around the world, 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t even been invented yet!  It is commonly quoted that 65% of children entering primary school today will end up working in jobs that don’t even exist yet.  That means as you read this article it is possible that you could end up working in a career or job in the next 5-10 years that hasn’t even been invented yet! The question is how do you prepare for this new career when you don’t even know what it will be? The answer is life long learning.  But to make sure you are an effective learner you must learn how to learn.

Learning how to learn

The idea that you go to school/college and learn there and then spend the rest of your career applying what you learned is dead.  Since we have to keep learning we must first learn how to learn effectively.  But what does learn how to learn mean?  How do we translate learning into the reality of our everyday lives?  Technology is driving rapid change in the world and this rapid change is making our knowledge and skills obsolete quicker than even before.  Interestingly technology is also a part of the solution to our need to re-skill and up-skill.

My learning goal in 2019

In 2019 I am setting a process goal (see last post) of spending one hour learning each day.  I have no idea what I will spend that time learning.  I will learn what I feel I need to as the year ahead unfolds.  The first course I am taking is an online course by Coursera aptly called ‘Learning how to Learn’.  I want to make sure that the time that I spend learning is well spent (especially since this is a life-long activity!).  I want to be a more effective learner.  You can take the course for free and if you want a certificate you can pay a small fee.

Let’s learn together!

Why not join me in setting a process goal for learning during 2019.  Join me also in taking the free course ‘Leaning how to Learn’ on Coursera.  I will be sharing some of my insights as I go through the course.  I will also be sharing with you what else I am learning as I go through 2019.  Let us make 2019 a year of earning and learning and preparing ourselves for a rapidly changing world.

Best wishes,

Tom

Planning 2019: Set process orientated goals

Career, E-Book Writing, Planning

In the last blog post I talked of keeping it simple and just having 3 goals maximum when planning 2019. I also talked of quarterly planning. Break your three annual goals down into quarterly goals and have 3 quarterly goals.  From there you plan each week and then each day. In this post I want to talk about the importance of setting process orientated goals in 2019.

Planning 2019

What is a process orientated goal?

A process orientated goal is one that focuses on what you are doing and not on what the end result will be. You trust the process to get you where you want to go. If you want to lose 10 kg in weight you can set a process orientated goal of going to the gym 4 times a week or walking for 30 minutes every day etc. This is easily measurable and doable; you are totally in charge of whether or not your reach your goal. The process will lead you to your eventual goal.

Right now after the Christmas indulgences I do need to lose some weight. I do know for a fact that I could run a half marathon by April if I started training today. That is because I can set process orientated goals which will lead me to the big goal of the half marathon. In other words focus on what I need to do this week.  The focus is only on each week and each day – what do I have to do today. How many minutes do I have to run today. Focus on the process will take me to the big goal of the half marathon.

Want to write a book in 2019?

Another example of a process goal is developing an online course or writing a book. These are big goals. They are challenging goals. In this case don’t just say “I will have published my book by December 31st 2019”. Set a process orientated goal which might go like: “I will work on my book for one hour per day from 6am – 7am, six days per week during 2019”. I can assure you that if you focus on the process and achieve your daily goals that your book will get written (I have written 4 books and published 2 online course so I know this works!).

Life Long Learning & planning 2019

Can I suggest a process orientated goal for you in 2019. Set yourself a goal around learning. Life Long Learning is a key skill/attribute for the coming decades of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Technology is driving change in our jobs/working lives and we all need to keep learning and growing or our skills and knowledge will become obsolete. Set yourself a goal of learning something for an hour a day, six days a week in 2019. Take online or offline courses, listen to audio books and podcasts and read. You can do this during your commute time, early in the morning or whatever time suits. Each week you will have 6 hours of learning and by the end of 2019 you will have spent about 312 hours learning new things. That works out at a month and a half of learning in 2019 – all from one process goal!  What new skills will you have learned by the end of 2019?

Best wishes,

Tom

PS Why not start your learning habit for 2019 by taking my online course: Transform your Life: 30 Experiments in personal change.  Get the course at the special price of $9.99 for readers of this blog (course also includes a free copy of my ebook).