"Apply": my One Word for governing my life in 2019

My Challenge

As I get older, I am getting increasingly curious about many things and find many things fascinating. I love the quote below and the associated audio from Intercontinental Hotels’ marketing campaign “The Allure of Fascination”.

I am a content junkie. I love finding, playing, reading, watching and creating content both proactively and reactively in all areas of my life.

I am an online learning junkie. I love learning and increasingly love learning in Working Out Loud Circles, Book Clubs etc with other people who are usually people that I have only interacted with online.

I have got back into reading books this year, taking notes from books, posting notes and exercise responses in online communities and seeking to put into practice what I have read.

However, I am now at a point where I am taking so much in, listing so many action points and not reviewing those action points that I am not actually acting on (all!) those action points.

In other situations, I am listening to podcasts etc on a range of subjects but rarely actually write down what I have got out of a particular podcast and what I should act on in my own life.

My Response

This needs to change!

As a One Word advocate, I have decided to act on the above in a specific, proactive and tangible way and use “apply” as my One Word for 2019. This is the third year I have “done” "One Word: I used “discipline” in 2017 and “focus” in 2018.

I spent some time thinking of the best word to use for what I was seeking to achieve and “apply” was the only word that really encapsulated all that I wanted to achieve for my goal.

“Apply” means “to make use of something or use it for a practical purpose”.

I am seeking to take what I read, watch and hear in any context and to then assess what I have learned as a result of that to then list what I will do as a result (using the classic “Start Doing”, “Continue Doing” “Do More” and “Stop Doing” classifications) and then actually do what I have said I will do.

To help me do this, I have created a learning log-type template to document this, to take action and to then check on myself that I have actually taken action. This is the first time I will have used a learning log.

The fields are:-

• Date
• the date i actually or plan to do the learning
• Title
• the title of the learning content
• Media
• what media the learning was “in”: book, podcast, film. video, TV programme, IRL training course, online course etc
• Objective
• why I used this learning content
• Learned
• specific learning points I got from the learning content
• How I Will Apply
• what specific actions I will take as a result of processing this learning content
• including some indication of time (e.g. now, over the next quarter
• Did I?
• ongoing review of my learning log to see if I have taken action

I looked for books on the subject of applying learning. I have added to my Year of Reading 2019 the book “Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning” by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger (III) and Mark A. McDaniel. This is my March book.

I would welcome anyone sending me resources that would help or encourage me in my year of “apply”.