Staying On Top of Your Learning
A challenge of self-paced online courses is making space for the time to read, reflect, and learn.
Below are a few strategies you might find useful on a day to day and week to week basis to keep your progress going.
Making/Finding the Time
Often taking a class like these are “on top” of everything else you have going (work, family, commitments). Hoping that the time will appear in your week is often not the most successful approach.
If you are choosing to learn something from the Hub, you likely have a reason for it. Use that reason to motivate you and to schedule time in your week for “learning time” like you would if it were in a classroom. Each class lists an estimate of learning hours. This is a broad guess based on the amount of reading and activities involved – you may find that it goes more quickly or takes longer.
- Look at the estimated learning hours in your course. Adjust for your own learning needs and experience.
- Select the date by when you would like to be finished.
- Determine how many hours each week you would need to spend on learning to meet your goal deadline. [Example: 100 learning hours, complete in 10 weeks. 100 / 10 = 10 hours each week]
- Use your calendar or schedule of choice – paper, phone, app – to find those hours each week.
Optional: Make a sign for your space (Karen’s Learning Time) to put up to tell others that you are focusing.
Use Your Time Efficiently
Sometimes the hardest part of getting done is getting started. Sometimes it is feeling overwhelmed with so much to do. Creating small chunks of focused work time can be a good way to tackle both challenges.
In brief, this strategy is to:
- Identify a few tasks (2-4) that need to be done.
- Set a time for 20-40 minutes and pick something to start (you don’t have to finish in this time).
- When the timer goes off, take a 5 minute break. Really. You could look around, stretch, think about what you accomplished and what the next step, do a quick breathing exercise (see Staying Positive on Your Learning Journey for some tools).
- Reset the timer and repeat.
- After 4 work blocks, take a longer break.
Additional information:
What is The Focus Time Technique and How to Make It Work for You by Intelligent Change
The Pomodoro Technique by Todoist (a ‘to do’ app company)
Working Alone Together
Some people find it helps them to stay on task if there is someone else working at the same time on their own thing.
Services like Focus-mate can provide a work partner to be on a video conference session with you at a set time. Conversation is not required. Having that other person present, even virtually, can help remind you to stay on task.
Want to try it? You can:
- Find a friend, colleague, or family member who has something to work on and suggest co-working
- Use the Hub Community to find another Hub learner and arrange a co-working time.
- Stop by the Hub on Mitchell Campus to use our space.
Additional information:
Having trouble focusing? This service pairs you with a remote work buddy by Fast Company
What is ‘body doubling’ for ADHD? by Medical News Today