I’ll guess that everyone has something that they want to learn. Here are some examples that come to mind
- Learn conversational Italian
- How to make a commonplace book
- Get better at golf
- Get better at drawing
- Learn street photography
- Become a better reader
- Tie flies for fly fishing
- Decorate a cake
- Repair fountain pens
- Learn woodworking
I’ve been a self learner all of my life. I’ve recently seen some videos by a Youtuber/TickTocker named parmesanprincressx (Elizabeth Jean), read the books “The 12 Week Year” and “Ultra Learning”, read several blog posts and websites, and combined all of this with my own experience to pass along to you.
A buzzword you might see online is “Personal Curriculum”.
What follows is a general template to follow. Some personal examples follow.
GETTING STARTED
- List some topics that you’d like to learn about.
- What are your learning goals
- What is your motivation in wanting to learn more about this topic?
These first few steps help you narrow your focus into topics that you are genuinely interested in, and not just idly curious about.
IDENTIFY YOUR RESOURCES
What will you use to learn about your topic? Be as specific as possible. Here are some examples.
- Books
- blogs
- Museums
- Podcasts
- YouTube videos
- Formal lessons or a workshop
- Friends/mentors
- Learning software, such as Coursera, Brilliant, or skillshare
SET SEASONAL GOALS
Be realistic here in how much you can actually do in the selected time. Set yourself up for success by picking shorter time horizons (like a month, or perhaps a season) and be realistic about how much time you can dedicate to your chosen pursuit(s) during this time.
Be specific. Goals can be activity oriented (examples include to make 30 drawings, try 4 different cake recipes) or results oriented (complete 100 homework problems with an 80 % solve rate, take and pass the LSAT, perform 3 original songs in public). Vague goals aren’t effective.
DEVELOP A REGULAR STUDY/LESSON PLAN
To use an analogy from school, in this step you are creating a syllabus and a course schedule.
When will you study each topic? For how long? How will you study each topic?
It might help here to split your overall goal into subtopics, and then to identify the specific resources needed for each sub stop.
How will you document your learning? Entries into a computer program? Writing in a notebook? Doing homework problems? Meeting with or speaking with others?
It’s important that your plan has a regular way to track progress. Here are some ways you can check your progress
- Write an essay
- Take a test
- Teach someone else
- Complete a project
THINGS TO REMEMBER
It’s tempting to think you can do more than you actually can. Be realistic.
If you don’t complete all of your seasonal goals, it’s OK. If the topic is still of interest, create a new timeline and keep going.
PERSONAL EXAMPLE: MY OCTOBER CURRICULUM
I thought that I could complete 3 projects, or courses of study, during the month. I wanted these to be different in subject matter, and also wanted to pick ones that varied in the required brainpower.
First Project
Classical Mechanics aka Newtonian Physics. Over the past couple of years I’ve been reviewing college level math to help prepare me to study 20th century physics, aka Modern Physics. There was a class at my local university this fall that I wanted to take. I looked online at the syllabus and found which textbook was to be used. I found an older edition of the book on eBay for just a few dollars but in reviewing the book I realized that I needed to review lower level physics first.
I found which physics classes were prerequisites, and found a textbook to cover these topics on eBay. I looked online for a syllabus for the class. I then decided that I could complete the course of study in 2 months, rather than the 10 weeks allocated for the winter term at my local university. From this, for October I decided to complete chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8.
To check my progress, I decided to do 3-5 homework problems for each section of each chapter. The answers to the questions are in the back of the book. If I needed a more detailed solution, I could always look for lectures on YouTube or look at a solution provided by ChatGPT.
My plan is to read and do homework problems on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. I can add Saturday or Sunday as needed.
Second Project
Art/Drawing: I noticed that I had 12 pages left in a sketchbook that I’ve been using for a little over a year. I originally thought that I would just complete these over the course of the month, which basically means that I would need to do 1 sketch every 2 or 3 days. Then I discovered inktober, which gives a drawing prompt for each day of the month so I switched to that to give me some structure.
I thought that I could do a drawing in 30 minutes or less, so I’m planning on doing a drawing each day, shortly after waking up. Here’s a post about my sketchbook.
Third Project
Reading: I’ve always been a fan of Batman and I thought that this would give me a good excuse to read my recently purchased 1100+ page Omnibus comic. My experience in reading this is covered in a separate blog post.
Reading a comic like this isn’t mentally taxing, so I’m scheduling my reading sessions for the evenings, when I’m too tired to do physics problems or focus on drawing.
WHAT ABOUT NOVEMBER?
I’m still thinking about this, but considering the following: (I won’t get to all of these, I’m just listing a few possibilities)
- Complete a few more chapters in my physics textbook
- Complete the first 30 of the 100 heads drawing challenge
- Read a book on literary theory
- Read a poem per day from books in my personal collection, and write one essay per week summarizing my reading experience
- Complete reading a card magic textbook called “Gold Dust”, by Paul Gordon
- Read a Star Wars Omnibus comic, probably a prequel to the movies