Challenges
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Quick Win
A detailed learning plan can help you feed your curiosity.
Try This Today
- Set personal learning goals: What skills would you like to learn? How will you use, or better yet, enjoy having these skills? What difference will they make in your life?
- Make detailed plans to achieve your goals: Write down one or two new skills you are committed to learning. For each, list how you will learn the new skill, any costs involved, how much time it will take, when you will learn and practice, and when you expect to achieve milestones.
Sample Learning Plan
- Skill I want to learn this year: Basic Conversational French
- Time it will take: About six months
- How I’ll learn: An online tutor, textbook and language learning app
- Cost: $30 per lesson, $80 for materials
- Study schedule: A one-hour lesson every Monday, and 30 minutes of practice five days per week at 8 p.m.
- Milestones:
- June–July: 150 vocabulary words
- August–September: 50 phrases
- October–November: Simple conversations
- Share your goals: When you’ve finished writing out your plan, share it with a teacher, supportive friend, classmate or family member.
Why
Writing down concrete learning goals, along with an action plan, can help you achieve them. In a study of 2,928 college students published in Contemporary Educational Psychology in 2020, those who wrote about their goals, made a detailed plan to achieve them, and then presented their goals publicly had a 22 percent increase in academic performance. Tip: If your goals include virtual learning, check out online classes from AARP’s affiliate, Senior Planet.
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