Whether you work for yourself or someone else, investing in professional development can enhance your skills and boost your credibility and confidence. There are so many learning opportunities available that it can be overwhelming to know how and where to start – especially if you are outside a traditional learning environment (i.e., school). Here are a few tips and tricks to create a plan and organize your learning materials so you can benefit from your training.
Schedule Time
Firstly, book time in your calendar. Choose a block of time (1-2 hours) during the week when you will have minimal distractions. Ideally, it should be when you are relaxed, but your mind is still alert. For some people, this might be after their morning gym workout. Other people might choose an evening after their children are in bed.
When you schedule this time block, treat it with the same importance as a client appointment. If you need to, work with a productivity partner, like an accountability buddy with similar professional development goals.
Set Goals
Use your first scheduled time block to set some goals. Assess where you are now and plan what you want to achieve. Once you select a long-term goal, check if it meets the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. Then, break the goal into smaller short-term goals that build on each other.
For example, your long-term goal might be to increase your company’s revenue through marketing. There are many, many ways to do it. You could blog, engage in social media, in-person and virtual networking, invest in paid online and social media ads, and so much more. It can become overwhelming! Pick one topic and learn more about it before moving to the next one.
Find Appropriate Educational Programs
Once you choose a topic, find appropriate educational programs and consider your learning style. You may prefer in-person seminars or on-demand webinars. Do you like watching, listening, reading or a combination of these options? You know what works best for you. Remember, you may need to rearrange your schedule to attend in-person sessions. However, if you need specialized equipment but aren’t ready to buy it, in-person sessions might be your best option.
Because so many educational programs are available, you could spend more time researching than learning. To help narrow down your choices, limit your research time. For instance, spend 60-75% of your scheduled learning block exploring options. Then, spend the last portion of the time deciding which program best meets your needs. It’s helpful to make a spreadsheet to compare data such as program type (in person/on demand), instructor qualifications, cost, reviews (1-5 stars), etc.
Hot tip: Did you know that besides books, the Vancouver Public Library offers access to digital resources, including ebooks, audiobooks, digital newspapers, magazines, streaming audio and video and the LinkedIn Learning platform – all for FREE!
Manage Your Knowledge
To benefit from your professional development, you must create a method to capture your knowledge. The tried-and-true method of writing in a notebook still works very well, but many other systems are available, some analog, others digital. The most important aspect is implementing a method to classify and store the information so you can search it and find what you need.
Many people use index cards to take notes and add supplementary data like subjects, keywords, and a list of other material related to the note. (My older readers will remember how useful library card catalogues were.)
Today, software such as MS OneNote, Notes for Mac, and many other third-party apps allow you to add tags and meta-data to each note to link them together in various ways. This process is often referred to as Zettelkasten, a German term whose English equivalent would be “card file” or “card catalogue.”
However, don’t spend too much time researching ways to organize and store your notes. It’s more important to spend the time learning and taking notes. Choose a method that works for you and stick with it for at least a few courses. Often, the more we use a tool, the more efficient we become. Besides, you can almost always transfer your notes to a different system later if need be.
Backup Your Knowledge
Whether your note-taking is analog or digital, ensure you back up your information to prevent a data loss disaster. Photograph or scan your paper-based notes and save them (along with your digital notes) to an external hard drive or cloud backup service.
Spending some time to organize your professional development will help enhance your skills and boost your confidence. By scheduling dedicated learning time, setting goals, and taking notes, you will ensure that you can find what you need and apply what you learned. Your future self will thank you for it.
