Finding your learning personality
When I started writing 2 years back, I had an existential question - What should my writing ‘voice’ to be?
Should it be casual or serious? Playful or professional? While I thought about what I was writing, I was more concerned about how I sounded.
2 years and 150+ articles later, I feel more confident. My focus largely is on figuring out what to write about - and how I sound is something I’m not even thinking about everyday.
I’ve had similar journeys with my choice of exercise, the food I eat, the books or movies I watch and also… how I learn!
We all have different learning personalities.
Traditional systems like schools and colleges make us all learn in the same way. But learning cannot come out of a cookie cutter mould. Far from it.
Learning needs to be different for different people.
While there are some principles that work for most people, everyone learns differently.
Finding your learning personality is hard.
Here are 3 things you can do to find yours:
1/ Think of 3 learning experiences you enjoyed
These could be a workshop, a course or even your time in school or college. Try to think of learning across different fields - fitness, hobbies, upskilling and more. Remember what’s amazing for you might not be the case for others! What’s common between them? Try to find patterns here!
Example:
I know for me I like experiences that are hands on in nature. I don’t like being a passive consumer of content.
2/ Try out different kinds of learning experiences
Think of all the things you are interested - how can you learn more about it? From online MOOCs to cohort based courses to monthly challenges - what options are out there? Just like tasking different kinds of foods expands your palette and helps you figure out what kind of food you like, trying out different types of learning experiences will help you find your learning personality
Example:
Personally, I love a good challenge! I did a 30 day atomic writing challenge in 2021 and that actually what gave me the confidence to I start writing about learning in the first place
3/ Explore different modes
From videos to books to podcasts & more - figure out what format do you like consuming. From writing to teaching others to creating sketchnotes & more - figure out what format do you like creating the most most!
Example:
Personally, I don’t like videos or podcasts to consume content to learn. Entertainment - yes but I prefer reading to watching.
Find your learning personality, it will help you booster your learning like nothing else! But don’t forget, like your food and music preferences, your learning personality is also ever changing :)