How to Learn All the Things

A couple things of significance happened this week, already, and it's only Wednesday. First, I taught a class on Online Learning. Second, I realized I will never learn all the things. I'm pretty sure the first event is connected to the second.

Creating an Online Learning Curriculum
This event was a follow-up to my much praised Online Learning 101 class, which introduced about 12 women to the options in online learning. The Online Learning Curriculum class had about 6 people total, and eventually devolved into the Online Learning 101 class, as most of the folks who requested the follow-up class did not attend. 

The event was fine in that I introduced another group of women to the possibilities of online learning. However, I've led the horse to water, but it sounds like no one has had a drop to drink. I'm considering a few options for encouraging online learning participation, including a MOOC study group or even weekly meetings for those taking online courses. I do hope the women who joined my class will take up at least one online class!

As it turns out, I can be an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I'll Never Learn All the Things
In essence, this class was about how to learn all the things. The internet is vast and full of a multitude of information and now we have many options for learning that were not available even 10 years ago. However, I'm seeing that time is infinite, but I am not. As much as I'd like to learn all the things, it's just never going to happen.

So what happens now? Do I cry about how I'll never be a NASA astronaut or learn to play guitar? Probably not, but there are certainly some goals that seem impossible - learning another language fluently, learning to dance, picking up some coding skills, writing a novel. 

At this point, it's time to prioritize. Obviously, I want to focus on some skills that will help at work and some skills that will help with future plans. On the other hand, I'd certainly like to do some fun classes. I've found that classes I'm really enjoying and are of personal interest to me, I'm more likely to "find the time" to participate (sorry Statistics One). 

What's Next?
Next steps are to list out those things I want to learn, triage those things, and make a plan (online learning curriculum perhaps?). Sometimes it feels like post-grad school is just a bit too unorganized for my tastes. Perhaps it's time to think hard about that 5, 10, 20 year plan.