TJL #5: How to not be overwhelmed
What Brian Lovin can teach us about not getting overwhelmed
Hi friends,
Welcome back to Today Jan Learned (TJL) #5. In this newsletter I share a new lesson every day, so stay tuned. Today Jan Learned how not to be overwhelmed by using just in time learning.
A problem that I face when learning new stuff is that I get quickly overwhelmed. I get overwhelmed by the sheer size and complexity of the task in front of me. For example, I’m learning React-native and then I think about all the things I have to learn: routing, showing images, infinite scrolling, auth, session persistence, redux, caching, making HTTP requests, storing data on the phone, cross-device compatibility, and so on.
If you allow your mind to veer into that direction it becomes very easy to get overwhelmed. Today I came across the website of Brian Lovin and what he said struck a chord with me.
Who is this guy anyway?
Short intro. I don’t know this guy I just visited his website. This is his bio:
👋 I’m a product designer, podcaster, and writer, currently living in San Francisco.
Right now I’m designing native mobile apps at GitHub. Before GitHub, I co-founded Spectrum, a platform for large-scale communities to have better public conversations. Spectrum was acquired by GitHub in November, 2018.
Anyway, on his website he has a section which is called Ask Me Anything (AMA) where you can send in question and he answers them.
One of the questions read:
What do you do when (if at all) you’ve felt overwhelmed by the amount of potential things to learn on the internet? It can sometimes feel super exciting but also intimidating, especially as a newer designer.
And his answer blew me away 🤯.
Just in time learning
He replied:
I believe in “just in time learning”, most stuff you read online is rarely needed in the moment, often misremembered, and easily forgotten. When a problem is in front of you, dive in to learn what you need to overcome the problem. Ignore the noise.
For some reason this answer had a very soothing effect on me. You don’t need to know everything, that’s not expected of you. Just make sure you have the tools at hand to solve the problem that is right in front of you. And if you don’t have those tools, then finding those tools becomes your obstacle. “The obstacle is the way.”
Bonus: how to overcome procrastination
We all procrastinate. A tactic/tool to overcome procrastination that works for me is to score a small win and snowball that into more wins. One of the questions in the AMA also touch upon that.
And here as well. Find that small win and snowball it.
Now what?
Anyway, that’s it! Today we learned two things:
How to not feel overwhelmed (by using just in time learning)
How to overcome procrastination (by using the snowballing technique)
What do you find inspiring? What tactics do you have for not feeling overwhelmed? What do you do to get back in the groove after a bit of a productivity slump? Let me know in the comments or reach out to me on Twitter
Thank you so much for reading. See you next time!