How to Prioritize: What Should I Learn First?
It’d be great if we had unlimited time and energy. But the opposite is the reality.
There are too much knowledge and wisdom, and far too many skills out there for us to pick up and master, but we have too little time and energy for all of them.
Often, even when you’re totally clear on what you want, it’s still hard to focus because you just don’t know what you should be doing now and what you should put aside for later.
I have faced the same questions and challenges for a long time and have finally found a solution:
Establish and develop simple principles around prioritization for what I should be working, learning, and spending time on first
These ideas take prioritization to a whole new level. Here are 3 of my best prioritization principles:
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Master the meta-skills first. Then, focus on picking up transferable skills that are versatile and useful regardless of what you do. Learn non-transferable skills if only you need or love doing them.
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For information consumption, focus on just-in-time information. Learn what you need just in the time when you need it.
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Lastly, do what makes you feel good — proud, happy, and fulfilled.
I've written a full article here.
Love to learn more from fellow indie hackers.
What are the skills you want to learn now? And how do you prioritize them?
Interesting article. How do you handle your interest in learning when you work on a project?
I often find more satisfaction in learning new things that I encounter in the course of a project thoroughly before proceeding, rather than in achieving project goals and meeting schedules.
I think I attribute more value to learning, because if I learn something thoroughly now, it will benefit me for the rest of my life, whereas meeting or not meeting a specific project goal or deadline will become irrelevant pretty soon.
But then you are in a dilemma, as stakeholders expect a certain steady progress of a project. Did you make similar experiences?
I too find more satisfaction from learning new things. But at the same time, I weigh the present progress heavily.
For your case, I personally believe that it's not about choosing between learning new things vs. meeting specific, short-term project goals.
I would say it's about connecting with your goals. Are these goals set by someone else? Are you motivated to achieve them? And what do you have at stake if you don't hit them?
Other than that, I see every process is a process of learning.
For example as a writer, I can learn more about writing: new techniques, new styles, new structures. The thing is, doing the work: write (or working on a project) is a part of the learning process. It's impossible for me to reach mastery if I don't actually write.
Lastly, learning comes in stages. It works like this:
And on and on.
With the Internet, we can access level 100+ information now but without going through the first 99 levels. We won't be able to internalize it, let alone learning and mastering it