I came to the realization this weekend that the backlog of learning resources I have is now at the point that it is causing me to stress. My Pocket list is overflowing, I have courses I have signed up for, both paid and unpaid, that I have not even started, and not to mention a huge number of books I want to read.
Amazing Times
It is an amazing time that we live in that so many resources are available (mostly for free). Between blogs and YouTube alone, a person can learn more than enough to get going on just about any project. I am emphasizing how amazing this is because I don’t want anyone to take this post as complaining.
Plan to Focus
The strategy I came up with this weekend to help me address my backlog was one of focus. I have a ton of topics I want to learn about, but very few of those are in my core areas of focus. I went through my Pocket list and archived anything that was outside of those core areas. Yes, I want to dig more into both Microservices and Kubernetes, but since those are not areas I’m currently focusing on all the related resources got archived. The number of posts this left me with to read is manageable and I plan on keeping a limit on how large I let my list get.
After addressing the blog backlog I went through all the courses I have signed up for and make a prioritized list. I will be spending a set amount of time a week working my through them one at a time. I have also put a hard stop on signing up for new ones until the number in my backlog has dropped below five.
Leave Time for Doing
I love to learn new things and plan for it to continue to be a big part of my life. Going forward I’m going to be much more mindful of the course my learning takes which will help prevent it causing stress. The plan is for this to free up some of my time to allow me to use some of my learning to actually do something.
While learning is enjoyable, what is the point if you do nothing with it? Finding a project is a whole other level of stress, but one that is worth it. I was to put all I have been learning into more practical use. I’m excited to see where this all takes me.
Also published on Medium.
This is a good strategy Eric.
I went through a similar process end of April, where I just had so many ideas I wanted to execute and never got around to any. So I made a list of a handful of projects I want to focus on in May, and ignore all the other. Except for one other little distraction that came along, the strategy is working pretty well so far.
Glad to hear you are having luck with a similar strategy. Seems like life always has curve balls, but easier to deal with them when you have a plan. Good to hear from you, Jerrie!
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