Are you addicted to learning new things? Never before has it been easier to improve your knowledge on any topic. If you want to learn something new then you have a wide range of books, podcasts, YouTube videos, articles and online courses to choose from.
A commitment to ongoing personal development and learning is great, but you have to make the effort to ensure you are actively learning and actioning, rather than endlessly consuming content. Keep reading to find out how you can ensure you consume information productively.
CREATE A STORAGE SYSTEM FOR INFORMATION YOU WANT TO CONSUME IN THE FUTURE
Maybe someone sends you a link to a YouTube video, a podcast or an article. Old you would have clicked on the link and lost minutes, if not hours, of your life.
New you has a storage system, which means you can quickly file the link into a suitable place to watch, listen or read when you are in consumption mode, or when you are about to do something related to that topic and the knowledge could be useful.
Your storage system doesn’t have to be complicated at all. You could have a list in your notes or use a cloud application like Evernote.
SET SPECIFIC TIMES TO CONSUME INFORMATION
The most successful people in the world focus on creating over-consuming, especially when it comes to the consumption of digital information products (they might still spend a large proportion of their day reading books).
When you are consuming content online it is easy to get swept into a black hole. A YouTube video finishes and automatically another one starts. You are reading an article and it suggests you might also like this. Before you know it you have lost an hour of time.
Therefore, you need to set a specific time aside to consume knowledge. Ideally, you should set a timer and know that when the timer goes off you need to stop or at least stop as soon as you finish consuming what you are currently reading, watching or listening to.
FOCUS ON LEARNING AT A TIME WHEN YOU WANT TO APPLY
If you have set up your storage system correctly then you should be able to have extended periods of learning or consumption time dedicated to a topic at the precise time you need that new knowledge.
For example, if you have decided that you want to start a podcast then you could go into your storage system and consume everything to do with starting a podcast. Once you have gone through the all the resources you had already gathered you are free to Google and find new resources on the topic.
The key here is that you are allowed an amount of time to learn but then you have to take action. By applying your knowledge quickly it will ensure you aren’t passively consuming content and will help you to retain more of your new knowledge.
