Your personal development coach

Organize To Learn

All deliberate learning is a process of Connecting the Dots. Think of dots as the learning activities and resources that come together to help you develop and use new knowledge, skills, attitudes, and creative ideas. You connect these dots over time and they define your learning journey.

Plan some of the “dots” early in your journey. Then let others appear as you go. The intensity of your plan depends on the difficulty of realizing your learning goal.

Where is the challenge for you on the scale below? Your learning will be less challenging if the phrases on the left generally describe you and your learning. It will be more challenging if the phrases on the right describe what you will face as you learn. Give yourself a number from 1 (less challenging) to 10 (more challenging) and mentally place yourself on the arrow below

More challenging visions (higher ratings) will require more investment of time, resources, commitment, and resilience in your learning.

Be ready to continually translate what you are learning into implications for what you want to remember, skills to develop, attitudes/beliefs to update, creative ideas your learning will spark.

Decide actions after you have searched for the best resources (with the help of Scanners from the Search section of this app. These may include:

  • Planned learning activities & resources
  • Spontaneous resources, experience, adventures, experiments
  • Environment, tools, materials, aids to support learning
  • Support from others
  • Recognition of progress and completion

Place your Dots and Dates on the journey timeline. (Note: Plan to add other dots and dates as unforeseen learning opportunities arise. Your ultimate learning journey will emerge as all the dots connect over time.)

Block out learning, reflection, and review time on your calendar.

Prepare…

  • A physical space where you can concentrate
  • Your Visual space by removing clutter and putting your Future Card (in Tools) where you can see it (What you see can be a major distraction or an asset)
  • Your SMART Notes so that they are ready for recording insights
    • (the SMART Notes Tool is a fillable pdf that you can complete on your computer or print after download)

Let others know about your learning agenda.

  • Tell your partner, colleagues, your manager, a friend about your learning intentions.
  • Ask them to ask about your progress from time to time – or schedule times for quick status checks with them.

This App is your always-available personal learning coach. Use it to help you…

  • Concentrate
  • Remember
  • Use SMART techniques to mine your learning resources and experiences
  • Successfully transfer your learning to life
  • And more.

It is your just-in-time personal development coach!