To-learn lists

The Learning Circuits Blog Big Question for September is not a question at all - it's an exploration of an idea raised by Jim Collins, in an essay in Learning Journeys. He wrote, “A true learning person also has a 'to-learn' list, and the items on that list carry at least as much weight in how one organizes his or her time as the to-do list.”

Well I've always liked lists. Lists are what stop me from worrying what it is I'm supposed to be remembering. They free up my short-term memory, because I don't have to keep rehearsing what it is I'm supposed to remember; I know all I've got to do is look at the list.

To-do lists are also extremely motivational - at least they are if you're a sad person like me. Ticking items off a list can be about as tangible an output as you get as a so-called 'knowledge worker'. I have been known (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) to add tasks to the list that I've already completed, just so I can marvel at how much I've done that day.

And so you won't be surprised to know that I do have a 'to-learn' list. I don't keep it with me at all times, stored on my phone, but I do have it as a folder in Outlook, for occasional reference. Essentially, it acts as a collector for all my 'resolutions to learn something'. It does not have action dates or anything like that, because none of the items on the list is all that urgent.

So, according to Collins' definition I am not a true learning person, because the items on my to-learn list do not carry as much significance as my to-do list. Nonsense of course. If they were as serious and as urgent as my to-dos (which they could be at some point) then I'd put them on that list. On a day-to-day basis I'm a one-list person and that suits me just fine.