Learning JUDO

10+1 ways to boost your learning by going public

Does this sound like a familiar learning process to you:

1. You decide to learn a new skill
2. You do research to find out what is needed for reaching your goal - everything is great so far
   
3. You work happily towards your goal for a day, maybe even a week
4. As you don’t get any feedback from other people, you start to lose interest… It starts to feel like nothing is happening. You still continue for a few more days.
5. Then you get bored and find something new to try out… Or just watch TV.

There are many ways to improve your commitment and maintain the motivation, but one of my favorites is making your efforts public. Here are a few ideas on how to do that:

1. Share your goal with your friends (This one seems to be really common among hobbyist game developers)
2. Write about it in a blog (See Kloonigames for a great example - the author actually even makes his deadlines public)
3. Join 43things and share your list of goals with people.
4. Join All Consuming and share a list of books you’re reading (it feels great when you can check one more book out from the list…)
5. Join a discussion forum to speak about your goals
6. Join a club (Weight Watchers is a well-known example of this approach)
7. Create a web site and publish your successes on it. For example make your applications or games available for download.
8. Write articles and tutorials teaching the things you have learned to other people. Teaching something is the best way to understand it.
9. Offer to give courses on the topic, or teach it to your kids, wife, friends - basically anyone who is willing to listen. Talk about the things you’ve learned.
10. Use your skill in public: if you’re learning French, let all your French-speaking friends know that you’re trying to practice their language, and I’m sure they’ll be delighted to help you reach your goal.
11. This last one is the hardest one for me: practice some moderation. You know, when you talk about fusion reactors, the evolution theory or Java programming for a few hours, and your wife falls asleep, it’s a pretty good sign that maybe you’ve been talking for too long.