In a world where the frontiers of technology are ever-expanding, embracing the latest trends in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and quantum computing can feel like chasing a constantly moving target and it can become overwhelming. Through my journey, I’ve learned an invaluable lesson: it’s not about keeping up with everything but aligning your learning with what matters most. I’ll share the insights and strategies that have empowered me to stay up to date while maintaining focus and ensuring mental well-being.
Common pitfalls when studying tech.
Before we delve into the techniques that can streamline your tech learning journey, it’s essential to address some common traps that learners often fall into. When you start recognizing the patterns that are not serving you, you can start making the change and become more effective in learning.
- Jumping between topics: Instead of focussing on relevant topics you start to jump from one topic to another which leads to fragmented knowledge and feeling overwhelmed,
- Passive learning: passive consumption of information (only reading articles or watching videos) but not actively applying them. Research shows that the information will be retained longer in the brain when participating in active learning methods.
- Learning in isolation: learning alone and not actively participating in discussions, meetups or finding peers.
- Overcommitting: The compulsion to grasp everything at once can overwhelm your capacity, disrupting the work life balance, and potentially leading to burnout.
- Focus only on new trends: it is very sexy to jump to hottest latest trends at the expense of mastering the fundamental principles of your current domain.
Tip #1 create a plan.
Without clearly defined goals we are like a ship without a course, and we end up running in circles. The first thing I do is checking where I want to go to in my career. I start looking for people that are experts in that field and check what skills they possess that I do not have and what the requirements are for landing such a job.
Knowing my destination, I move to phase 2 of my plan and that is setting concrete learning goals. I want to formulate my learning goal as an achievement so that after I finished learning I create a product. It is very satisfying holding that ‘thing’ you made after a cycle of learning. Take, for instance, setting a 30-day challenge like: “create a simple todo app in Flutter”. From there you can break the goal down in topics like state management, dart programming basics, mastering widgets and so on. Also find out where you can find the experts in the field and good online groups to discuss learnings.
Now you can break each topic down in smaller elements that you can complete each day. Remember consistency is key! It is better to learn each day for 1 hour then one day for 8hours. If you learn something consistently for 30 days in a row it starts to become a habit and it becomes as natural as brushing your teeth. Can you imagine if you would do this for a year? You would be unstoppable!
Tip #2 Zero in and zone out distractions.
A plan will help you keep your eyes on the price, but here’s always that new shiny topic beckoning, promising you quick glory, and it’s easy to get side-tracked. I’ve made a pact with myself to stay the course until I hit a goal. Then, and only then, do I take some time to see if I am still on the right track.
Now let’s talk social media, it’s a productivity killer. To prevent I lose myself in the latest tech trends, I limit my time that I spend on social media looking for trends to 15 minutes a day. After that it is all eyes on my learning goals.
Finally, when learning, put your phone far away, find a place quiet and make sure your do not get distracted. Research shows that after you check your phone it takes 20/25 minutes to be fully focussed again. I am a big fan of the pomodoro technique where you work with laser focus for short iterations and then take a quick break to recharge.
Tip #3 Create a good balance between depth and breadth.
There is a fine balance between depth (specialisation) and breadth (bigger variety of skills). Ideally you do not want to become a generalist because the market tends to value specialists more but be wary of becoming so niche that you’re only fit for a rare gig.
I define a couple of core areas to specialise myself in. For example, when becoming an app developer, I decided to specialise myself in reactive design patterns, state management, clean code and asynchronous operations like API calls and managing persistency. When it comes to trends, I make sure to stay informed. I dedicate 15 minutes a day to inform myself about the latest trends and the ones that I find interesting I write down. Some of these trends can become new learning goals in the future.
Tip #4 Find peers and mentors.
Diving into new tech territory? It’s a whole lot smoother when you’ve got company. Going to meetups, participate in tech communities, forums or conferences will bring you in contact with more experienced people that can help you in your journey. Dare to ask for help. My experience is that the tech community is very supportive, there are many people open to mentor you and help you acquiring the skills you need.
Another activity that I found very helpful is to contribute to open-source software. Do not be afraid and start small by improving documentation, fixings simple bugs or participate in discussions. You receive feedback from experts in the field and you can put your newly learned skills into practice. It is always nicer to apply the skills you have learned directly.
I hope these tips will help you becoming less stressed and more effective when staying up to date and remain relevant in your tech job. Contact me on social media or through the contact form on this site if you have any questions and remarks.