I have a problem and I’m happy to admit it. I’m addicted to learning, expanding my knowledge of whatever catches my interest and staying up to date with what’s new and noteworthy. At first, this sounds great, but it’s a real problem.
I call it “Chronic Learning Disorder” and it’s both a productivity killer and a sure path to failure. And I know for a fact that I am not the only one suffering from this challenge.
Information Overload
Back in 2010, Eric Schmidt told us that, “Every 2 days we create as much information as we did up to 2003”. I’m sure you can now safely rephrase “Every 2 days” to “Every 2 minutes”. It’s crazy how much content we produce. Yes, a lot of that content is useless rubbish, but a fair amount of it is extremely useful and interesting.
Follow the right people and read the right blogs and you’ll have an endless supply of insightful, useful and actionable information that you can use to make progress in whatever you’re working on. And there is always something new to learn and discuss. A new topic, platform, channel, conference, podcast, book, strategy, tactic, post, tweet, pin, tag, update or video. It’s truly amazing how empowering and at the same time how paralysing this can become.
So what is the answer to this ongoing challenge of chronic learning disorder? My answer is: Just In Time Learning.
What is Just In Time Learning?
Originally heard on the “Internet Business Mastery” podcast, Just In Time Learning is all about only learning what you need to know in order to reach the next step of your success plan. By doing this you maximize the return on your time invested and you don’t waste time learning about things that you might benefit from in the future.
In other words, it’s like saying “let’s figure out how to cross that bridge when we get there”.
Learn What You Need To Know Now
So moving forward I’m focusing on only learning what I need to know now to reach the next step of my success plan. Everything else either gets ignored or archived for later.
Are you struggling with a chronic learning disorder? Spending too much time learning about topics that are not directly contributing to your progress and success?
How are you applying ‘Just In Time Learning’? What are you currently learning Please leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your feedback.
