Make Time In Your Career for Spontaneous Learning
Not everything should be goal-driven
In school and college, we were spontaneous: we learnt whatever we felt like, whenever we felt like it. If someone asked us why we’re doing something, we could not explain it in ways the other person could understand and relate to, because we ourselves didn’t know. We didn’t know why we’re doing something, the goal we’re working towards, or when to stop a project. We didn’t have milestones, plans or priorities. And we were the happiest then.
As we take up jobs and become senior, we’re taught to become strategic: we identify goals and plan backwards. Identifying a goal gives us a target to work towards. After all, if we don’t know what our goal is, we can’t possibly achieve it. We evaluate each task by asking whether it contributes to the goal.
Let’s compare these two ways:
Make room in your career for spontaneous learning, also called Effectual Thinking.
How do you actually do it?
One way is to take a break between jobs. At least a few months off. In addition to giving you clarity on what you want, learn whatever you wanted to and didn’t get a chance to when working. If you worked a decade or longer, take a whole year off to retrain yourself.
Another option is to work, but work fewer hours than you have bandwidth for. In my case, I consult for 23 hours a week, leaving me significant time for spontaneous learning. 40 hours a week of work would be too much for me now.
Your specific numbers may be different — a friend of mine who shut down his startup is willing to work 90 hours a week. I think a better decision for him would be to limit his work to the standard 40 hours a week 1, and use the remaining time for spontaneous learning.
When you do this for a while, you’ll be refreshed, reinvigorated, and equipped with a deeper foundation that will serve you well for years to come.
By working in a bigger company, not a hectic early-stage startup. Or by consulting. Or by taking up a part-time job.