⏰ How to keep learning with a full-time job
(in 15 minutes)
While working at a social impact consultancy firm in Colorado, my friend Sam took online courses run by MIT and Harvard.
He didn’t study statistics or coding during his graduate degree (International Development). But he needed those skills to get his dream data analyst job.
One weekend over FaceTime, he showed me the trading bot he was coding up “just for a bit of fun”. It was admirable. Sam had a full-time job and yet he made time to learn (while having fun along the way).
Few of us can do what Sam did and continues to do. Who has time or energy to learn after five days sitting at your desk from 9am to 6pm?
But the truth is that learning doesn't finish when we leave school. So in this newsletter, we're going to discuss
Why it's important to keep learning while you have a full-time job
And how to do it.
Lifelong learning is the “new normal”
Even if you don't plan to switch jobs like Sam, we need to upskill and reskill throughout our working lives.
The data says so too.
Job postings show that the skills required for a single job have increased year over year since 2017.1
Employers think that employees need to continue learning to keep up with trends.2
Employees think that training is an essential component of staying relevant.3
How to Microlearn
You can start microlearning with these four steps.
1. Chunk it
First, break down whatever you’re trying to learn into digestible chunks. Aim for 5-15 minutes' worth of content.
These chunks should be “self-contained”. This means that they are meaningful when learned in isolation. A list of foreign words on the same topic. A single coding operation. Or a glossary entry of an important concept.
Finding and creating these bite-size chunks of information is the most difficult step. This is why learning apps like Duolingo or Memrise that do this job for you are super helpful (and are on the rise).
If your learning platform doesn’t break down the content for you into chunks, break it down yourself. Split a 1-hour video into several shorter sessions, each covering one narrow learning objective. You can then return to specific timestamps to refresh your memory of concepts.
2. Set your goal
Second, for each microlearning session, set your objective (what do you want to learn?) and your metric of success (how will you know that you've learned it?). Learning apps usually have built-in metrics, like the number of correct answers. But if you're designing your microlearning content, you'll need to get creative. You might want to use flashcard apps to test your memory.
3. Fit microlearning into your “dead time”
Third, whenever you find yourself with 15 minutes to spare, microlearn. It can be something you do between meetings, while waiting for someone, or while the dinner's in the oven. Or you could squeeze in a longer session on your commute to work.
4. Refresh
Maintain the knowledge you've gained by regularly reviewing and testing yourself on it. For example, you might block out one hour each weekend to go through all the content you've learned in the past week. Don't forget the “forgetting curve” (haha). Refreshing your memory every few days helps overcome this exponential decay.
Does microlearning work?
Six months after he started his self-directed learning in data analysis, Sam landed a job in New York. He now lives in Brooklyn and works for a big hedge fund as a quantitative analyst. With the same approach, you can achieve your learning and career goals too.
According to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey, 87% of US workers believe it will be “essential for them to get training and develop new job skills throughout their work life to keep up with changes in the workplace.