Unlearning to develop new skills

Wow! Following on from last week's blog and the need to know, today's DFI with a focus on work flow was of huge value. Improving my work flow, becoming as efficient as possible, is an ongoing goal. 

The challenge with being an adult learner is that when you are comfortable with doing something, and it appears to work well, eg. using a particular app, moving to a new app or way of working takes effort and initially slows your work flow. There's the old saying "If it ain't broke why fix it?" which can, if we let it, be a barrier to developing new practices and, with that perspective, becoming outdated. Featuring in this video is a brief explanation of how adult learning can require "unlearning" in order to learn something new. It's such a brief comment that it could be missed, but it resonated with me today as I contemplate changing the ways of working that I find  currently to be very useful. 

 

There are two apps on my phone that I use frequently: Notes and Reminders. I moved to Notes from Evernote a few years ago and use it for everything both professional and personal; shopping lists, recording meeting notes, links to online articles, collecting recipes. It has the ability to take and insert photos, can be used as a checklist, can be formatted for tables and has folders for organisation. It is really useful. However it can't be used for reminders which is why I use the Reminders app. So discovering Google Keep today means I could replace two apps with just one, with the additional advantage of being able to use it collaboratively. I am a creature of habit though, so I'm going to have to make a conscious effort to retrain myself to use Keep, to unlearn what I am comfortable doing.   For a while I'll need to accept that some things I want to refer to will mean switching between  Notes and Keep.   There might be a way to transfer the most important things eg. my notes for each weekly staff briefing meeting, from Notes to Keep.  I'm motivated to find out if it is possible.  It won't be hard to stop using Reminders though as I can simply start using Keep for these things.  

The additional advantage of Keep is the ability to use it collaboratively.   I'm thinking about how this might be of use professionally.  On the personal front I can already see lots of useful purposes. As adults we are motivated to be efficient so that we have more time for doing the things we value.  I wonder how many of our parents, caregivers and whanau would know about Keep and how they might use it to their advantage. I'll plan to include it in my next parent comms.  My sons, daughter-in-laws and their children all have busy lives with schedules for events and commitments written on notice boards on their fridges.   I''m sure Google Keep, with key information only a click away,  might solve some of the problems, and stresses that happen when busy people forget what's written on the fridge. It's certainly worth a try and whether it is doing away with the written diary, the chart on the fridge or moving from one app to another, the unlearning  will be worth it. 

Thanks to the DFI team today.  There were other work flow discoveries today which I'm sure will be equally as valuable.