I keep a list of things that interest me with sublists about interesting observations I make about each item on the list (I use workflowy for this task - no aff

I keep a list of things that interest me with sublists about interesting observations I make about each item on the list (I use workflowy for this task - no affiliation). The observations can be anything from ideas, to blog posts, books, online courses or articles about the subject. When I want to learn something new I pick an item from the list and work on it (usually some idea I came up with). My preliminary research efforts often help me realise an idea or it gives me a chance to compare two different learning sources. I also try to create something using what I learned. Through craft I feel like I draw more from the learning experience. The outcome can also be that I need to find better references or that I simply want to learn something else. The most difficult thing is getting started. I find it useful to be systematic about it by explicitly devoting time to it. Once you have a system in place you like it eventually becomes a habit. Also note that it is helpful to break tasks into small subtasks. Having a feeling of accomplishment leads to a more positive experience of the learning process which further leads to increased learning drive. Note that my process is not much more sophisticated than "this is interesting". However, instead of acting on some hunch in the moment I act on observations which I gather over time.