I recently subscribed to some writing prompts from Rands. This week, the second prompt spoke to me the most:
A small habit that you’ve built that pays incredible dividends.
Rands Writing Prompts #2
I thought, “Wow, I wish I had a small habit that payed incredible dividends.” Then I started to wonder… do I…?
My biggest little habit is to learn out loud #LearnOutLoud. I tell people what I’m trying to do, and I invite them to join me in doing it. For example, a couple years ago, I made a New Year’s resolution to improve my writing. I needed something catchy to remind me to do this, so I adopted the hashtag #WSD (#WriteSh*tDown, or for a more SFW version: #WriteStuffDown).
I told everyone I could about this hashtag and the practice that it was meant to remind me to do. If a great idea came up in conversation, #WSD. If someone said they needed my help with something, #WSD. If my mom called and asked me to give her a ride to the eye doctor, #WSD. (Yes, calendar entries included!)
For me, it didn’t matter where I wrote stuff down, as long as I did it. I wrote things down in notebooks, on sticky notes, on my whiteboard, on an internal blog, on the back of envelopes, on the front of envelopes, and even on the bathroom mirror. (I eventually ran into a conundrum where I had approximately 4,325 sticky notes and bits of paper on my desk, but that is a problem for another prompt.) And the best part of this practice was the practice. The more I wrote stuff down, the better I got at it. And the more I did it, and found value in it, the more I told people about it. I was learning out loud (sometimes, very loudly 😉 ).
“Gosh, I feel like Kristen right now… have we written this down anywhere?”
an unsuspecting coworker
Telling others about what I was doing, how I was experiencing it, and making it obvious when I was writing stuff down right in front of them, seemed to rub off. I was often the person dropping notes from conversation in the chat for virtual meetings, and then one day, someone else in a meeting start typing notes in the chat. They said, “You were actively talking, so I decided to write stuff down this time.” Someone else told me that they found themselves saying, “Gosh, I feel like Kristen right now… have we written this down anywhere?” And the fact that I was not only learning by doing, but also telling people about it, and then doing it where they could see it happening, I think that made all the difference.
Now, the people I work with most make sure that we check in on who is #WSD for a particular conversation. We more actively share where we have already #WSD when we start to collaborate. I’m still getting better at #WSD, and at writing in general. As I continue to #LearnOutLoud, I also get better at learning, and I find myself doing it more, and more easily. I love the practice of learning out loud, and the impact that I’ve seen it have on my teammates and clients has really been astonishing. I guess I should write that sh*t down somewhere.
So what have you been learning lately? Do you have an opportunity to tell someone about it? Feel free to reach out. I’d love to hear about it and learn something new!
Snark & Fire 