HOW TO LEARN THINGS THE PROPER WAY - TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE LEARNING

I don't know about you, but I love learning new things, figuring out how to do or not do stuff and slowly getting better as I go. Learning rocks!

But have you ever wondered how to learn things the proper way? 

It's actually quite easy to get the best of your time and effort while getting all the new information in your head. All you need to do is following this super handy list:

1. BEFORE YOU EVEN START ANYTHING MAKE SURE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE INTERRUPTED.

That goes both for interruptions from the inside and the outside. Inside is pretty straightforward - do not shoot your own foot, stop sabotaging yourself. In other words, find some quiet space, relax, don't let any excuses take over (no, you are not hungry, your house doesn't need cleaning right this very moment and the cat videos on the internet can wait) and get your brain in I Can Do It! mode. Outside is even easier to sort out - for your study space choose a location that should be nice and quiet by default, get your phone away from you (or put it on silent, but no peeking!), and if possible, put a 'Do not disturb' note on the door. It will help.

2. FOCUS, BUT TAKE IT SLOW

Do you have to study and read a whole 20 chapters of a super boring book? Is the online course that you are taking 50 hours long? Find a way to make the workload smaller and manageable. Divide it into smaller pieces and go for it - it's way easier to tell yourself to read one paragraph at a time, watch a tutorial video while enjoying a cup of coffee or take notes as you go than try and tackle all of the available material in one go. Remember that you don't have to do everything right now, you just have to finish it at some point. Chill out, slow down and enjoy it. But no slacking either!

3. TAKE NOTES, SCRIBBLE, ARGUE, THINK ABOUT IT - MAKE IT INTERESTING

There is a huge difference between skim reading an article or binge-watching video tutorials and actually interacting with the information that is out there. Sure, no matter what and how you do it, you will learn something, but you can greatly improve your understanding of any topic just by engaging in it more. Try writing some notes as you go, try and come up with a real-life situation where you will be able to apply this new knowledge, think about a way to improve what your instructor is talking about. By making it more interesting for yourself, you are actually getting more from it, so get out there and figure out what will make it fun for you. Then learn like there is no tomorrow!

Have fun!

3 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD VOLUNTEER (AND HOW IT CAN SAVE YOUR CAREER)

You can't imagine how many people told me in the past 10 years that volunteering sucks and it's completely pointless. I consequently ignored all those 'wise' suggestions, volunteered for many different charities and organizations and guess what...it gave me skills, experience, better job prospects and great leverage when negotiating my salary and benefits. As far as I know, all those people who were not happy about supporting a cause still have boring office jobs that they hate. And me? I am a happy freelancer with tons of experience.

When I first got an idea to work for a charity it was purely because I wanted to get some work experience. I studied Fashion Design and at that point, I was pretty sure that I will end up somewhere in the retail sector. One Saturday I went up to my High Street and asked out in several charity shops if they need a window dresser/visual merchandiser (I really set my mind on this role). Some of the managers were fussy: maybe come back later/we have too many people now/we don't need anyone/you don't look good enough to work here (which only told me that I don't want to work there in the first place – who would like to work with mean, stuck up people anyway?), but one manager was absolutely lovely. She told me everything about the shop, how the charity works, everything about what they do here and what kind of people they have in the shop. I stayed with them for almost 2 years and loved every moment of it. It gave me the skills I needed, great references and it allowed me to apply for better jobs when I finished my studies.

How does it all work then? How can you make volunteering work for you?

1. CHOOSE WISELY

Not every charity is the same and not every charity is great. There are some shady ones out there, but most of them are legit, solid and actually contributing to the cause.

Your role is to find an organization that you like and that helps the cause you would like to support. It's important to have both of those – if you like only how the organization looks in the media, but you couldn't care less about what they actually do it will not work out that well. Give it all a thought, because the opinion about the charity you support will stick with you (if you want it or not).

Take a look at the people at the site you are considering volunteering for. Would you like to work with them? Are they happy? Do they seem nice? It is your choice, so choose to work with someone that company you will enjoy (unhappy, stressed volunteers are a clear sign that you don't want anything to do with a place like that).

2. THINK ABOUT THE ROLE THAT YOU WANT

Do you have an idea of what kind of work would you like to do in the future? Try and align your volunteer role with that. You would like to work in retail? Go and ask for a cashier opportunity. Are you considering social media career? Try and get a role that will maintain charity's Facebook and Instagram account.

In most cases, you just need a clear idea on what kind of experience would you like to get, what role can give you that and then you can ask if it's available. If not – try another charity, someone will have an opening for you. Also, some charities offer training for their volunteers, so find out if that's available (having certain skills and a certificate or references that can confirm those is great).

3. LEARN FROM OTHERS

People end up volunteering because of many reasons – one of the most popular ones at the moment is to get away from corporate life. Switch off your 'volunteering is for old people' thoughts because most of the volunteers that you meet will be highly experienced professionals that choose to give their time for free because they are tired with stressful business life. Ask around, get to know them and figure out if there is anything that they can teach you. If you are nice, they should be happy to help. Especially if you know what interests you and if you have specific questions that need answering.

...and how will that help your career exactly?

You will get experience that is unusual. Being a volunteer you will have an opportunity to try many different things and some of them may be normally way beyond your reach. When I volunteered with one of the education-focused charities, I somehow ended up managing a team of 10 and organizing company-wide events. I was around 25 then and having this on my CV boosted my career prospects sky high.

You will meet people. Everyone that volunteers with you has the potential to teach you something or knows someone who can. Make friends, go out there and meet people and you will be surprised how many opportunities you will find along the way. Network!

You will get work experience that can be verified. Treat your volunteering as a part-time job. Be there on time, call your manager if you fell sick – and when the time comes that you need references for your next job you will have the best ones possible.

You will have an option to work with the charity. Sometimes you don't even think about that, but at some point, you will absolutely have an option to apply for a paid position with the organization that you volunteer with. They always give preference to people that worked with them before, so this may just turn out to be your future career.

It shows that you care about something. More and more companies are interested in your values and things that you believe in. If you choose your volunteer role carefully it may give you a better chance at getting your dream job – just make sure that values of both organizations are roughly the same. 

Have fun!

HOW TO MAKE A KILLER PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (THAT WILL TAKE YOU EXACTLY WHERE YOU WANT TO BE) - FREE WORKSHEE

Where would you like to be in 5 or 10 years? Do you have a plan?

This post is for anyone that would like to stop daydreaming about how they will push their career forward, get fit and get that certification they need and start planning how they will make things actually happen. Don't worry – it's easier than you think, you just need a Personal Development Plan.

What is that thing? PDP is a super handy tool for setting your goals, listing step by step how you can make it real and helping you to keep track of everything. It works for both long and short-term goals so you can put some easy things along with the big, hard-to-achieve ones (and having a mix of those will make you more motivated, as you cross off everything that you already completed every now and then).

What you need is one simple worksheet, tea or coffee and 30 - 40 minutes of free time:

Start from the beginning. What would you like your life to be in a year? What kind of job would you like? How would you like to feel? What kind of changes would you like to make? When you have a somewhat clear vision of where would you like your life to go, try and think about what needs to be done to make it happen and strip it down to specific goals.

Do you need to find a new job, get some new qualification or start a freelance project? What is it that you would like to achieve?

Always write down why is it that you want to do something – if you have a reason and you remind yourself of it from time to time, your motivation will last way longer.

Also, set a clear deadline on finishing every single one of your goals. It's only for you and you should use it for reference – will you manage to complete everything in time?

Everything that you want to do can be broken into smaller pieces. So you want to change a job? You have to prepare a CV, find a job that you like, send out applications, interview. You would like to get a yoga instructor certificate? You need to find a course that will give you qualifications, attend, pass the exam. Put everything into tiny, achievable pieces that you can cross off as you complete them - easy as that!

You always need to know what exactly is it that you want. Do you just want to move to a different city, or do you want to find a new studio flat on a specific street? What outcome is good enough to be considered a success for you?

If there are any things that you need to make sure to send/check/hand in before a certain date – put them on the list whenever you find out about them (with a date when you will do it next to whatever it may be). This is simply to make sure that you are on top of everything.

If there are some things that are not so clear in your head (yet...) write them down in the four squares at the bottom. This space is for ideas that will develop as you go. Remember that your Personal Development Plan will change with time and will need to be updated – maybe things from the bottom part will reach the top? Maybe they are just the next goals that are slowly growing on you?

You can find a full .pdf version of this Personal Development Plan worksheet on Tiny Upload my SlideShare.

Have fun!