Just-in-time learning is the best kind of learning. It will save you.
Your To-Do List is Endless
Everywhere you look, people are shouting about the millions of things you need to have or do or schedule or send or publish.
You MUST have a professional website with keyword-oriented blog posts going out every week. You MUST have a robust social media presence on every platform. And you MUST have a LinkedIn strategy. You MUST send 10 pitches a day. You MUST be an SEO expert. And you MUST have an email list. You MUST have a niche. Etcetera times infinity.
We’re bombarded with a massive list of things that we need to master and execute before we’ve even begun! It’s completely overwhelming.
You Only Need to Learn the Next Step
That’s why just-in-time learning is such a good lens to use when you’re evaluating what’s on your should-do list. It’s a way of self-imposing limits on your learning so that you don’t get overwhelmed with everything out there.
The idea of just-in-time learning is that you only learn the thing you need to learn to get to the next step. You aren’t focusing on stuff you need to know later–just on stuff you need to know to get through this week. What’s the #1 goal you have? What’s the next thing you need to do to achieve that goal?
You identify what you need to know to do the next step, and you learn that. Don’t worry about anything else right now. Besides, there are some things you can’t really learn until you get your hands dirty using it in practice, which you can’t do if you’re not there yet in your business.
What’s the Next Step?
If you’re a newer freelance writer, and already have a solid portfolio, then your next step is to look for clients. You could beef up your LinkedIn profile, if that’s where your ideal clients are. That means you learn about your LinkedIn profile, not how to write Facebook copy.
If you’re not sure what your next step is, but you’re ready to move on from the current stage of your business, pick one or two things that look interesting and would be feasible stepping points from where you are now, and start briefly exploring. If one area bores you, drop it. Pursue an area that interests you, and start taking action.
Good Enough is Good Enough
Adopt the mantra of “good enough is good enough.” That doesn’t mean to dash off crappy work. It means making do with systems, software, or strategies that work for you in your business at your level. Later, you can get fancy when it’s time for fancy.
For example, I’ve used a spreadsheet for 10 years for bookkeeping in my business. Only now am I switching over to a software. And I’m just-in-time learning that software. I didn’t worry about learning about it until I needed it. Before, a spreadsheet was good enough; now it’s a software.
Questions?
If you have questions about any of this, come join my free Facebook Group, the Ink Well Guild. Even if you don’t have questions, you can hang out with us and share your freelance writer life, the same one we have.
Clips Camp
If you need help getting great writing samples for your portfolio, I have a course called Clips Camp.
It’s a three-week course for new and advanced new freelance writers who want to get started with high-paid client work. If you’re on Upwork or Fiverr and miserable, if you haven’t even done anything to get started and you don’t know what the first step is, then Clips Camp is for you.
I teach you how to put together a solid portfolio of writing samples that position you as the kind of awesome writer that awesome clients want to hire. If you want in on that or you just want more information, go to clipscamp.com, and I will see you on the inside!
