Want to Learn a New Skill?

 Using Small “P” projects To Get Smarter

Do you feel like there is too much to learn?

I do. All the time. I cannot believe what people are doing, what they have created or how simple things have been re-invented.

New products are being created to replace products that they had already replaced.

What inspired my thinking this morning is note taking. Exciting stuff, I know. Note taking isn’t the point though. It highlights how much things are changing, and more importantly, how people’s understanding and perceptions are changing.

This is what’s important, because it’s happening — everywhere.

The more that you can learn, the more exposure you get to shifting paradigms, to better you will be equipped to manage your own needs and keep pace.

What is a Small “P” Project?

I’m introducing you to this idea to tear down how you might think about projects.

People hear the word project, and they think boardrooms, budgets and big deliverables.

Small “p” projects comes back to an idea that David Allen popularized in “Get Things Done”.

Projects are any task or goal that requires multiple steps to achieve.

When you think of projects in this sense, you make the distinction for one and done type activities to those that have some runway to them.

Learning Through projects

The best way to learn anything is to do it.

You can read about the best ideas. People can tell you how to do something. Until you actually find a way to get the experience for yourself, it doesn’t get understood the same way.

Expectation versus reality is real.

If you want to learn something new, tie it to a project that you have. A test case or a reason to try something compounds your learning.

You have a “problem” in front of you that you need to solve (irrespective if you use a new method or tool). This real situation gives you all of the inputs that you would need to ask questions, figure things out and understand how a new tool may work for you.

Taking My Own Advice

Obsidian is what’s on my radar at the moment. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a note taking app. What’s different about it is that it uses wiki style links to link your notes together. It then has the ability to search through and connect these different notes while also being able to show you a graphical representation of how all of this information links together. I’m a geek I know, for me this is super cool.

Like a lot of people faced with a new thing, I was stuck. It felt daunting. How could I possibly start my knowledge management system now? I’m not exactly a spring chicken.

I started thinking about the opportunities I had to start using this.

Life in general didn’t feel right. I could use it for work, but again, I’m not new there. Maybe on my next BIG project?

Then it dawned on me. My writing.

From this you can see that I am not a fiction writer. Since the content of my writing comes from my experiences, what I learn and how I think about the world, it’s always changing.

I’m always looking or researching something.

So that’s my small “p”.

I started this morning for a short article I’m working on. As I was researching for it, I started adding information that was interesting into Obsidian.

I spent about 1h working on that today. Not only did I get through (and now have proper notes) my initial goal, the process kicked off 3 other notes of ideas that were tied to my initial subject.

My personal knowledge node network already started to grow!

Use It Everywhere

I have used a similar approach with my teams at work. I have always found it easier to get them to adopt a new tool or workflow when we have a way to use it.

The more focused the project, the easier it is to do this.

(My challenge above was that PKM felt like a HUGH task)

The next time you have something you want to learn, find a use case in something that you are going to do anyways.

Whether or not you use the new tool, the work is still there and you have to complete it, so why not take the opportunity to learn something while checking it off.

The most important thing when you take this approach is that you break down that indecision. By picking a test case, you move to action. It’s through action that we learn and improve.

So whatever you want to learn, start. Just, start.