Time to Learn, Time to Act

Hi and welcome to The Daily Dot, the daily edition of the Connect the Dots podcast. My name is Matt Raglan and in each episode I share a short lesson about how to be more focused and productive. I draw these lessons from personal experience, work with clients, modern psychology, and real-world application. Thank you for listening and if you enjoy The Daily Dot, please share it with a friend. Now here's today's lesson. Time to learn? Time to act. In a recent call of the Productivity Power-Up, a member asked a question that I thought was really insightful and also really revealing because it's something that I know I've struggled with in the past and many other people have. And what she was basically saying is, I don't know what I don't know, meaning that I'm learning so much in this and I'm reading new books and I'm learning different strategies for how I can get things done. And so while it's really exciting, it also makes me feel a little stuck because there are so many rabbit holes that I can go down and it feels like there's so many ways that I can improve. So I want to do those things, but it gets me stuck in actually doing the things because I feel like I'm not as effective as I should be. Back to me being Matt. I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but that's essentially what a lot of people have brought up to me. And I know I've felt in the past as well. And what I wanted to share with all of you, and I shared with the member during the call, is that is absolutely 100% true. But the other part of it is it will always be true. We know that logically when we pull ourselves out of the moment. Of course, there are always going to be things that you don't know, more things to learn. That's exciting if you can keep it from being overwhelming. In this case, she was talking about a writing project that she had. So she started to read Bird by Bird and was reading, taking smart notes. And so there are all these different ways about how to write and the mindset of a writer and how to develop your notes so that you never have to start from scratch. Go back and listen to those episodes about note-taking. But there are these really exciting ideas about how you can become a better writer and how you can sit down and be more effective right away, but you're not quite there yet. No matter what it is for you, like, what are those things that you know you don't know now, and you know that learning does make you more effective and efficient. You understand that once you start to grasp the concepts, you're like, man, if I could really nail this, then my writing, my note-taking, my videos, my work, my projects, my proposals, they'll all become more effective and efficient. But remember, this is true, but it will always be true. There are a few ways that I want to encourage you in this. And one of the things that is most important from the beginning, and I was sharing with people in the Power-Up, is the best way to learn quickly and to gain more confidence and competence is by implementing what you're learning in a really tight feedback window. It's a turbo boost for improving your effectiveness while you're still learning. If you start to take even just a few notes, you'll start to apply those to new writing projects. If you read the chapter in Anne Lamott's wonderful book, Bird by Bird, one of my 22 books for 2022, you'll read the chapter on shitty first drafts and you'll realize that even great writers like Anne Lamott still sit down and have shitty first drafts. Apologize for the language. It gives me a sense of calm. And assurance when I don't feel like the work that I'm doing right now is connecting to the type of work that I expect it to be. If you want to learn a little bit more about this concept, go back and listen to the gap episode where I'm talking about IRAGLASSES, the gap between the ability that you currently have and the taste or the expectation that you want to have eventually as you continue to master your craft. The other thing that you should know about this tension between wanting to learn more and still making the time and having the courage to do the work is that you can also protect time to read, learn, develop notes. You should absolutely do this and make it a consistent part of your practice. No matter what kind of work that you're in, time to read and develop your knowledge, to learn more from other people and resources, to develop notes. This is all time incredibly well spent. It becomes the building blocks of your expression of your work. So you never have to start from scratch again. But here's the other piece that is really important. This is something we talked about on the call. We had a great conversation about it. Is you should give your learning a deadline as well. So don't think I have to learn X amount of material before I can do this thing. In some very limited parts of life that might be true, but for the majority of what I'm talking to you about, about the type of creative, productive, self-driven work that you are interested in doing, give your learning a deadline and continue to implement those lessons in real time. You will learn more, you will go faster and further if you create a tight feedback loop of implementing the things that you're learning in the work that you're doing every single day. There's also a part of us that forgets in some ways what it was like to be in school, because when you were in school and you had a paper or a project assigned, the paper was due when the paper was due. You could want to do all these things to improve your capacity, your competency at delivering the project, at writing a great paper., but when it came down to it, you had to write the paper and it was due. So I want you to think about still having a deadline for the work that you want to express for the type of project that you want to deliver while also protecting time to read, learn, and develop your notes. Because again, those are the building blocks of your expression, both today and in future days. You're building that kind of second brain. Mentality, that Zettelkasten, as it were. I believe one of the most important realizations you can have is that there is a time to learn, there is a time to act, and there's a time to express, and they are best done in harmony together. Thanks for listening to The Daily Dot. I really appreciate it. The best way to help the show grow is by sharing with a friend, but the other way is to rate and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I'd love to hear from you on Twitter or Instagram. You can find me @MattRagland. I'll be back tomorrow with a new episode. So thanks again, and I will talk to you tomorrow.