Being a technology enthusiast, you may share my frustration of enrolling in dozens of courses on the MOOC platform, each partially completed with no clear sign of end date given the day-to-day job, family, and other commitments. Add to this those corporate mandatory education, and you may find yourself in a challenging position due to competing priorities. The result is usually, learning takes low preferences or becomes too monotonous.

I challenged myself to run a minimum of 5KM every day for 100 consecutive days. Initially, it seemed monotonous, but I gradually started loving it and completed it successfully, including ten days run in my drawing room during my stay-home order. I learned a few practical ways to keep going, break the monotony and have fun. I am now leveraging those routines in my learning experience with great results, sharing the same hope you may find helpful.

1. Fix your learning time before the day schedule – While we all love the flexibility, however the key to streak successfully and keep going is a fixed schedule. I ran 80% of my run morning 7-8 AM that helped me keep going without bothering about the daily schedule. So now I have replaced 45 minutes of reading early morning, before my run. It doesn’t mean I am waking early, just replaced with the time spent on catching up with news & twitter 🙂 The schedule itself can be a personal preference but blocking your calendar is essential.

2. Mix it up: Easy interval, tempo, fartlek, speed run, progressive you see each run day is very different. The same goes for learning. Combine theory with some hands-on exercises. Read some blogs on the same topics or do some quizzes, ensure each session is fun.

3. Find a learning buddy: Well, you can’t read along unless you intend to join the “youth club” at Starbucks. But knowing someone with interest in similar subjects allows you to share, discuss the nuances and learn better.

4. Mentor someone – I started helping a few of my friends who recently started a passion for running. Mentoring them helped me to improve my running form and build endurance. In the same way, I have found that mentoring someone on a topic helps enhance and comprehend the subject better.