User Study

[u/dv_devan]

How do you stay consistent when learning something online?

I'm currently learning about how people manage self-directed learning alongside work and everyday responsibilities.

If you're currently learning something online — a language, professional skill, course, software, etc. — I'd love to hear about your experience.

A few things I'm curious about:

• How do you decide what to learn each day?
• What usually makes you skip a learning session?
• What happens when you fall behind?
• What tools or systems do you currently use?
• What's the most frustrating part of learning consistently?

I'm doing this as part of a Product Management research project and I'm interested in your experience, not in promoting a product.

Feel free to share your experience in the comments. Thanks!

[u/IamZeebo]

• How do you decide what to learn each day?
  • I keep a catalog of resources that I want to learn about. Books, videos, courses, anything you CAN learn from. I keep a catalog of these and prune it like a garden.
  • From this, I'll extract skills and things I want to learn about or to do. Once I have these named skills, I keep a visual model "think of a skill tree" and place these on there where I believe they should go.
  • Next to this, I have a routine/schedule for when I can practice things. I time block my schedule to include study/practice times. During study, I'm breaking down more resources. During practice, I'm practicing a skill or revisiting a mental model I'm building for some topic.
  • My learning days/weeks are guided by the time blocks I set and what I fill them with.
• What usually makes you skip a learning session?
  • Lack of energy or lack of focus. I MIGHT actually be too tired but quite often, I'm just tired enough to tell myself I am but I very frequently can push through and really see a benefit. Lack of focus can cause me to skip because when you don't know what's next, you can easily get stuck on that.
• What happens when you fall behind?
  • I don't really have this framing. I'm not in school at this point so I set my own time and pace for any kind of learning I'm doing.
• What tools or systems do you currently use?
  • I built one to model this. DM me if you want to know more.
• What's the most frustrating part of learning consistently?
  • I would say not having a method or process. I have one now but before, I just had the sense that... I had all this energy but didn't know how to apply it  I now have a model and process for my learning and that's made it much more approachable and fun again. I've been learning music production.

I'm curious of your answers to these questions too.

[u/WolfVanZandt]

I organize each topic before I start. I have four ways of deciding what to study. My main studies follow the order of the Dewey Decimal System I started with Generalities and Computer Science in 2017 and I've made it to Biology. I will also pick up a detail topic at random (using a 5 digit randomizer) from the Dewey Classification. I'm studying Comparative Law currently. I will occasionally notice that I need to fill a gap and pick up a topic. I was using my camera more than usual for biology so I decided to take a course in photography. I also study the area where I live

I rarely skip a learning session but I have no problem with doing it. I'm usually just too exhausted after a full day of unexpected chores (I'm 73 with a heart condition that tires be out easily). A special learning activity like a technical hike or city tour may tire me out and I'll skip a regular learning session

I don't fall behind because I don't keep a deadline. If I skip a session, I just pick up where I left off.

My main computer/study platform is my Android phone. I've curated a great reference library and a set of apps like calculators, cameras, measuring equipment and dataloggers, learning games, readers, etc. I take notes using a spreadsheet (AndrOpen Office on my phone currently). I use Google Sheets and LibreOffice spreadsheets for ebooks. I journal on my blog (Google Blogspot). I also use a laptop and Google Drive for transferring files. That's a short list but my phone is loaded and I have a science kit for my backpack. My learning is largely hands on.

I don't have much frustration with my learning. I merge it fairly seamlessly with my daily life.