These are some learning management methods that I have been using to make the most of my time and not just learn things with a ‘first come first serve’ methodology. This has been especially useful as topics to learn have come from multiple mentors and from work on projects – it cannot all be done at the same time and I have had to prioritize. Also as I tend to find myself reading around topics that are generally interesting but not on topic for what I set out to do – this allows me to stay on track whilst bringing those topics into my backlog.

Learning Journal

This one was set as a requirement for my trainee scheme, the idea was to note down topics in a reflective manner following the theory, application and reflection cycle. I found that I tended to use this as a retrospective journal more than reflective as it was taking a considerable amount of time to maintain. It was easier to look ahead with learning topics by adding them to a learning kanban (see below) which was easy to maintain.

Accepting that the journal would be more retrospective than reflective allowed me to leverage its uses in other ways. I created more detailed entries for technologies/processes/techniques that I had used; where they had come from, and where/how I had used them. I found that keeping track of resources has helped me see what types of resources I find most beneficial.

In all I think this method worked well for me but I can see why it would not be so popular with others as it’s a lengthy learning technique that requires some dedication to keep it updated.

Learning Kanban

I set myself up with a board on Trello that had a backlog, in progress, backburner and done columns. Just like a standard board learning topics can be added to the backlog to be looked at. I have had a variety of backlog items from researching whole technologies to reading a blog post.

Each time someone has mentioned a topic for me to look at I have added it in here so that someday I will get to it. What I have struggled the most with is putting these in a suitable order as it requires some restraint to not put the most interesting at the top. Equally so it also requires some restraint not to just cherry pick the topics.

When I have felt comfortable that I have completed an item it has been moved over to the done column.

I think this method has given me the most benefits from the others I have tried as it has a very low-cost in time and effort. It is a very efficient way of managing your learning.

Blogging

The final learning method that I have used is blogging; more time-consuming than both of the others it is better suited to a few topics that have been challenging or detailed.

I set myself up with a simple WordPress blog and have written a variety of posts for anything that I have found especially beneficial. It is a great way of reinforcing understanding as it tests your knowledge to write out an article.

You could probably get similar benefits from creating a wiki of learning rather than a blog if you preferred a more technical style of writing. I think that blogging has been a good resource for learning.