I love tools that have a clear ending… usually

I have a variety of tools that I use everyday to help with my learning, and they can essentially be broken into two groups:

• Those that have a clear objective each day, and can be finished.
• Those that are open-ended and you can use as much (or as little) as you want.

For example, I’ve been trying to use Duolingo every day to start learning Spanish, and so far I’m on a 37 day streak. With Duolingo, you can go in and study as much as you want or as little as you want. If you just do a quick two-minute session, that’s enough to keep your streak alive. When I come back the next day, I can just pick up from there.

The same goes for reading. I try to read every day, but there is no set limit on how much or how little to do, and I can just continue on the next day.

Clear objectives can pile up

Generally speaking, though, I prefer tools that have a clear set of tasks for the day so I can finish them and be done. The two main ones that fit into this group are Anki and Feedly. They both have a set number of items in them (flashcards in Anki and websites in Feedly) and when I finish, I’m done for the day! It’s great.

The problem is when I get busy and don’t hit the bottom of those lists. With Duolingo or reading, I can just continue on like normal the next day. With Anki and Feedly, the next day’s worth of stuff is in there plus the items I didn’t finish the day before. It can quickly spiral out of control. I know a few people that have used Feedly for a while, but watched it just accumulate too high and simply bailed on it. It’s understandable.

I’ve done two things to help combat that:

1. I try to take care of both of those first thing in the morning. Because they have a clear ending, I can work them to the finish and then not worry about them again that day.
2. I try to limit what I put in them. I’ve removed a lot of sites from Feedly (including great ones like TechCrunch and Lifehacker, which put out a ton of content) and that makes it much easier to keep up with.

The last year has seen a lot of shuffling in my daily learning routines, and I suspect more is likely to come. I think a key to all of it is to be able to look forward to the next day, and not to be scared of how much has piled up. If I can keep the daily routine at a healthy size, I should be able to keep it going for years to come.