Experimentation
Today’s element of a self-directed learning practice is experimentation. I’ve found that framing life through the lens of an experiment is a powerful and effective way to lean into change.
An experiment is something you’re just trying— it’s temporary. If it goes well, it can be longer lasting, but if it goes poorly you can take the learnings with you and iterate to try something else.
I mean this at the level of a life philosophy just as much as at the level of a new idea for a reading schedule as a tactic to find more time for reading.
Big changes feel more approachable if you’re trying something for a week instead of changing your routine forever.
Worldview: Question sacred cows
This one comes from a small startup where I learned many things about operations, product management, marketing, experience design, leadership, and business. It’s a principle that applies to larger corporations and to your personal life, though it’s probably the easiest to put into practice in the latter and the most challenging at the former.
It means that even the most entrenched processes or ways of thinking are not beyond questioning. If something isn’t working, stop doing it and try something else. “The way I’ve always done it” isn’t a reason in itself to keep doing something.
Behavior: Create metrics of success
There are two main components to an experiment: the part where you try something, and the part where you evaluate how it went. If it didn’t work, you try something else, but how do you define whether or not it worked?
Metrics can be specific numbers, and they often are in a business setting or a traditional education setting. But what are metrics in a life setting or a learning setting?
I like to create my metrics in terms of desired outcomes.
For example, I want to build more reading time into my week. I designed a morning workflow to test out in which I aimed to wake up an hour earlier and use that time to read.
The metric of evaluation, or how I determined if it worked, is quite simple: did I wake up and read? If yes, then this is an effective way for me to find more time to read. If no, then it didn’t work and it’s time to try something else.
Outcomes can be feelings too, like if I wanted to see if writing in the evening would make me feel fulfilled and provide a creative outlet.
With your own learning practice, it’s within your control to experiment, define success, and iterate until you find it.
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