Some of the best things about online learning are also the reasons it’s hard to keep going: it’s often free, there’s no real pressure, you can learn at your own pace. Once your past the initial excitement of finding an online course procrastination sets in and soon you’re ignoring the reminder emails and telling yourself you’ll do it next weekend.
So how do you get started and then keep going? Here are our tips.
1. Make the time
Don’t just say to yourself ‘Tuesday nights are learning nights’ – block out some time for learning in a tangible way. Set an event on your phone (with an alarm) or write it in a diary. Maybe tell friends and family the time, and get them to remind you. Having time that’s been properly set aside will help you learning feel like more of a commitment that you can’t skip.
2. Try and stay focused
If you find yourself on Facebook or Twitter every five minutes when you should be learning you’re not alone. It’s almost an unconscious behaviour for lots of us. But there are solutions. For instance apps like SelfControl allow you to specify a list of sites you can’t visit for a fixed amount of time. It’s also worth removing distractions around you like phones and unrelated paperwork (read more about creating a good environment for online learning).
3. Know what you want to achieve
Whether it’s knowing 100 words of Italian, being able to explain what a gene is, or knowing where to invest a spare £50 – having a goal that you can achieve thanks to your learning is a good motivator. Try and avoid vague goals, if you make it something more specific you’ll really feel you’ve made progress when you achieve it. Write it out somewhere nice and big, and have it in your eye-line – it’ll remind you of why you’re learning.
4. Get yourself the right tools
Having something you’ve bought especially, like a nice notebook or pen, to help you learn might help you get excited about your learning. It doesn’t have to be big thing, or even something you’ve bought – it might be a well-organised file on your computer, or a note-keeping app. Either way, have somewhere special where you can write notes and ideas down – that way you’ll feel excited about coming back.
5. Try not to worry about the workload
If you’re worrying about the amount you need to get through on a course learning becomes a chore. Try not to think about all the work you need to do. Often you can learn step by step online – you don’t need to spend two hours or write pages and pages of notes
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Using FutureLearn
