> focus For casual learning, I split my time across various subjects and do whatever feels interesting. For serious learning like a certification, I set goals

> focus For casual learning, I split my time across various subjects and do whatever feels interesting. For serious learning like a certification, I set goals based on e.g. time spent studying. > Tools I use plain text files, either a single file or a folder full of them. I try to develop a sort of learning system for the subject in question. > Pain points I was too reliant on outside sources before and did not spend enough time creating "my own" knowledge through hypothesis, testing, measuring, etc. Nowadays I realize I have very little need for most of my books; it's more fun to see what I can come up with on my own. I also wrote up a "learning ladder" that ranks various forms of study; for example before opening a book or a browser tab on a topic I will check to see if there's a short YouTube video available. After that I might look for an ELI5 on Reddit. Then eventually you get to books. While that may seem obvious, it represents my taking responsibility for my own learning and I am a more motivated person because I created the ladder by myself and continually work on it. I have hundreds of these systems in areas from learning to fitness to work operations to finances, etc. When I go on vacation it's the #1 "book" I enjoy reading and pondering (I save all the .md files to Dropbox for reading on my phone).