Almost everyone I know wants to grow at work, but it’s universally difficult to make time to cram in learning time when you already have a full-time job. That hour-long block in your calendar for self-development is usually the first thing to go when you get busy – so how do you make sure to prioritise your own growth?

Today, let’s look at 3 simple ways to actually make progress on your learning goals.

👀 Make your goals visible.

A lot of people come up with goals and they just live in the performance review software, waiting until next season for you to figure out if you actually hit them or not. Making your goals visible means you remember regularly to work on them, which means you’re more likely to actually hit them!

How you make your goals visible is up to you, but I recommend integrating it into something you’re already doing so that it’s easy to check. Some ideas:

• Add a recurring calendar event every week that has your goals in it

• Put a sticky note with a big goal on your computer

• Write them on the top of your work dashboard

❤️ Add a why behind each goal.

This is something I started doing recently when I found I was ignoring some of my goals. Next to your goal, add a one-sentence “why this matters.” This helps you to connect your goal to the bigger picture every time you look at it, which can make you feel more energised to work on it.

Another bonus that I’ve found in this process is that it helps you weed out bad goals. If your “why this mattes” isn’t very compelling, maybe there’s something else you could spend your energy on instead that does matter.

☀️ Make progress part of your routine.

It’s great if you can block out some time in your calendar for self-development, but often what happens is that it’s the first thing to get deprioritised when it’s busy! What I like to do instead is integrate some self-development into my morning routine so that I’m still making progress every single day.

Depending on what you’re trying to improve, here are some short morning routine additions:

📰 Read a newsletter

Obviously I’m a big fan of newsletters – they come straight to you!

Some newsletters I read: Mostly Metrics to improve my finance literacy, Lenny’s Newsletter to stay on top of the product management landscape, and Built for Mars for UX case studies if you needed some inspiration!

🎧 Listen to (part of) a podcast

I absolutely don’t have the attention span for podcasts, but I know there are a lot out there to suit your niche.

You also can do this (or audiobooks) while commuting in, which can make you feel like you’re getting more growth in than you have hours in the work day.

💻 Check LinkedIn

If you spend some time curating who you follow on LinkedIn, it can actually get pretty useful! If your feed is junk, follow some influencers in your industry and businesses you like to inject some learning into your feed.

Some people I follow: Liz Fosslien for her work and wellbeing comics, Bobby Pinero for his finance and SaaS insights, and Jared Spool for his UX insights and industry analysis.

Is there anything else you find challenging to juggle with a full workload? 🤔 Let me know!