Have you tried to learn a new piece of software lately? That is where I am right now. I've been struggling. I've seen myself get stuck and lost in the settings. Too complex. Too powerful. I was about to move on to the next shiny thing, because I could not master it. Sounds familiar?

We know that learning requires effort.

It needs repetitions to achieve mastery. Muscle memory doesn't build from reading about a thing - I have to do it. Here's how I'm doing:

My training manual provides exercises that are baked right into the tool. Then comes a brutal test. I failed it on the first try. But I have my baseline now and will take it - probably several times - again.

Testing repeatedly is a super-efficient way to learn.

Testing focuses on active recall. It is retrieval practice - getting stuff out of your head. The first try took me 4x longer than allowed. Finding the right keyboard shortcuts haunted me in my dreams. I'm fascinated by how immersive it is. And in this case, speed is a good indicator of mastery.

Explain what you are doing.

Learning is even better when I explain what I'm doing. Even to myself, for example in a screencast recording. Simple to do with tools like Loom. In addition, it is a communications training for free.

This kind of learning by leaning forward has me excited. The process checks many boxes with regard to the key findings from learning sciences. Now it is about putting in the effort consistently to get results.