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Eva Keiffenheim

This is How The E-Learning Future Can Actually Look Like

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Welcome to the post-pandemic reality of online learning.

The Future of E-Learning (Source: Canva)

Ten years from now, we’ll grimace at how we used to learn. While the past years have accelerated change, we’re still in the early days of a global learning revolution.

In the next six years, analysts expect the global e-learning market to double, from $253 billion now to $522 billion in 2027.

I’ve been working in education and learning for a decade, and this article is based on recent conversations with EdTech founders, online learners, and research from industry analytics, VC reports, and scenario predictions.

This article has three sections:

  1. The rise of outcome-based education
  2. The evolution of learning management systems
  3. The integration of immersive technologies

Read the whole thing, or jump to the part most relevant for you. Either way, you’ll have a better understanding of how you might learn in 2030.

1) The rise of outcome-based education

In 2015, policy analyst Kevin Carey predicted the end of universities. His key argument: colleges are expensive and ineffective.

Carey mentioned a study with 2,300 undergrad students at 24 institutions across the US. After four college years, 45% of the students had made no statistically significant progress in a range of skills.

Are trillions of student loan debts for higher ed worth it?

Carey, among others, anticipated the rise of MOOCs (massive open online courses). A decade ago, people believed massive open online courses would revolutionize higher ed and potentially even replace universities.

And while online platforms such as EdX and Udemy removed the geographical and financial barriers to learning, we now know that copying traditional curricula and pasting them into online videos doesn’t solve the underlying learning problem.

Data from Harvard University and MIT revealed three devastating data points against MOOCs:

  • Completion rates. Only three to four per cent complete self-paced courses, a rate that hasn’t improved in the past seven years.
  • Retention. Only seven per cent of MOOC learners start another course after their first year.
  • Accessibility. While MOOCs promised to bring high-quality education to all corners of the world, only 1.43 per cent come from countries classified as “low” on the Human Development Index.

MOOCs don’t work, but what does the future hold instead?

Cohort-based courses for outcome-focused learning experiences

In Cohort Based Courses, so-called CBCs, a student group moves at the same pace through the same curriculum.

Here are six features that distinguish CBCs from MOOCs and improve learners’ outcomes:

  1. Interactive live sessions instead of listening to self-paced monologues.
  2. Real-time feedback on learning progress instead of missing accountability.
  3. Assignments linked to your desired skill instead of no real outcome.
  4. Structured access to a subject-specific community instead of inactive support forums.
  5. No room for bullshit; instructors focus on the how instead of the why.
  6. Regular touch points with instructors and coaches to help learners follow through when things get hard.

Moreover, cohort-based courses can adjust their curricula faster than any university ever will. In fast-moving environments, technology or design offers an attractive alternative that can ensure employment.

Take the example of 10K Designers. They teach students state-of-the-art design skills for $1000 while working with recruiters from companies to ensure students are learning the relevant skills to land jobs.

This brings us to the second evolvement in outcome-focused education:

Learning paths to maximize your return on time investment

Lifelong learning will enable employees to keep thriving at their work. Companies will bridge the skill gap through enabling learning environments.

Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, writes in the most recent impact report that offering flexible pathways to skills and credentials that prepare people for remote and digital jobs can pave the way for talent to rise from anywhere in the world.

But what do flexible pathways to skills actually mean?

Imagine every skill as a tree, comprised of several branches. Each brunch has even smaller units. You need all branches to master a specific skill.

Let’s take an example from one of my favourite writers Danny Forest:

Source: Danny Forest in “Use skill trees to learn new skills in a fun and painless way.”

Similarly, eLearning providers will offer a comprehensive overview of neccessary subskills and routes to acquire them, similar to Tim Ferriss’ DSSS model:

  • Deconstruction: What are the minimal learnable units to start with?
  • Selection: What are the necessary blocks to master the skill?
  • Sequencing: In what order should you learn the blocks?
  • Stakes: How do you set up stakes to create real consequences and guarantee you follow the program?

Hence, learning providers will not only offer the infrastructure and environment but also curate the sources of knowledge and any subskills necessary.

Learning providers as curators and creators

Both universities and learning platforms will not function as a single source of knowledge but rather filter content and resources for learners to design the best learning paths.

Viriti Saraf, Teach for America alumna and founder of K20 educators, explains in an interview:

“Universities are curators of content. I had to go through Harvard; I couldn’t just go straight to a professor. In the future, Harvard could still be curating classes of professors, but it’s not Harvard’s intellectual property.”

Studytube, a company that recently secured $30m funding, utilizes the same concept of decentralized knowledge. Unlike Coursera or Skillshare, Studytube doesn’t believe one provider has the perfect collection of relevant courses. Instead, Studytube mix and matches several course libraries to meet the learners’ needs.

A more junior company striving in a similar direction is Beeline. When I talked with Peter Turner and his team, I was excited to hear they’re utilizing learning science to help learners take the direct path to their learning goals.

Beelines are built by aggregating multiple learning sources (blogs, videos, images, online courses, audio etc.) into one consolidated location, with supplementary note-taking and learning tool functionality.

“What lies ahead is a growing recognition that the workforce can be remote, productive, and easily skilled if the corporation can articulate what skills they are targeting.”

— Lee Rubenstein, VP of Business Development at EdX

2) The evolution of Learning Management Systems

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software or web-based app to implement, plan, and access learning processes. Universities, schools, corporates, and many other learning providers use it.

Features often include learning assessment, user feedback, course management, and delivery. If you recently studied at a university, you’ve likely used one of the biggest providers: Moodle, Canvas, or Blackboard.

LMS Market Share for US & Canadian Higher Ed Institutions (Source: PhilonEdTech).

In the next six years, the LMS segment is expected to dominate the eLearning market. Analysts predict LMS will account for a market share of 40.1% by the end of 2031.

How Learning Management Systems will change in the future

Predictions vary but revolve around four trends:

  1. AI-powered LMS that predict the user’s next steps and include personalized eLearning content, curriculum automation, real-time feedback, and improved learning outcomes.
  2. A shift from LMS to LXP (Learning Experience Platform), a learner-focused software, solves the shortcomings of LMS. LXP incorporate learner-led content creation and curation, gamification, customized learning paths, chatbots, and integrations to other learning platforms such as Coursera or Dawrat.
  3. Gamification integration through leaderboards, badges, and other incentive systems to improve retention rates, collaboration, and learner motivation.
  4. Enhanced integration of learning analytics such as course completion rates, learner progress, feedback, and knowledge retention, to help students reach their learning goals.

The biggest challenge for LMS and EdTech providers

Many EdTech companies don’t know whether what they’re doing is effective. And neither know learners.

eLearning providers have no incentive to conduct independent third-party efficacy research, as it might harm their business (similar incentive asymmetries exist for digital health applications).

“The market is completely opaque,” explains Sierra Noakes, project director of Digital Promise, in an interview with EdSurge. The eLearning market will need a global certification to certify products’ efficacy.

Enter learning sciences.

The science of learning combines social and cognitive psychology, brain research, and neuroscience. Integrating research in product development would create a win-win situation for providers and learners, as research by Digital Promise reveals:

“We heard resoundingly that the use of learning sciences research enables EdTech tools to more clearly name the expected impact on learning and more easily evaluate the product’s impact on learning.”

3) The integration of immersive technologies

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will shape future learning environments.

VR is a fully computer-generated environment through which you can immerse yourself in artificially constructed realities. The technology allows learners to get hands-on experience and move through different scenarios.

In contrast to VR, AR works like Pokémon GO. You are enriching the real world in front of you with new objects, for example, through your smartphone.

Market analysts forecast a rapid expenditure growth on AR and VR in education, from $1.8 Billion in 2018 to $12.6 Billion in 2025.

Forecasted growth in advanced technology expenditure in global education (2018–2025) Source: EdTechX Europe

Since October 2021, when Zuckerberg introduced the Metaverse, learning providers have explored how learning can become more immersive and interactive.

Nikhil Kaitwade from Future Market Insights writes:

“Facebook Reality labs will be investing $150m for educational programs to improvise training and tech development. The company is partnering with Coursera and EdX for leveraging learning by offering the Spark AR curriculum of META that will use virtual reality and augmentation.”

Microsoft launched Microsoft Mesh, a mixed reality platform for digital collaboration. Through Holoportation, you can project yourself as your photorealistic self and move through a fluid, digital reality.

You can train together anywhere.

But how exactly will technologies like VR and AR shape future learning environments?

“You could learn to do firefighting, skiing, etc from anywhere/time in the world and in a safe way”

— Gisel Armando CTO of Anything World

How Virtual Reality (VR) will change learning

A very likely application of VR for learning is guided simulations. They offer new ways of delivering scenario-based learning experiences.

Workers can practice in a risk-free environment close to the real scenario. Use cases include sales training, public speaking, surgery training, and much more.

Talespin is an example of a well-funded, following-worthy company that is developing immersive learning content. A short video shows what this currently looks like:

Source: Talespin Example: develop crucial softs skills through role-play with virtual human characters.

Immersive VR experiences are exhilarating for learners with disabilities or special needs as it allows them to explore situations and worlds that might otherwise be inaccessible.

How Augmented Reality (AR) will change learning

AR can be applied in kindergarten, schools settings, and corporate training environments.

In essence, AR content enriches the physical learning experience. Consider these examples, which likely will further improve their features:

  • Google Expeditions allows learners to explore 3D nature phenomena.
  • NASA’s Sidekick helps astronauts practice real-case scenarios.
  • SkyView creates overlays for the night sky that allows learners to explore the universe and identify stars, planets, and satellites.
  • NeoBear develops AR learning toys and materials for children.
Interactive AR 3D flashcards for children by NeoBear. (Source: NeoBear)

In Conclusion

We’re still at the beginning of a global e-learning revolution. The change will happen gradually, and based on what I’ve read for my research, this is what the future of eLearning might look like:

Stage Zero (present)

While digital usage is expected to drop post-pandemic, a hybrid education model will likely remain. Video-based learning has not reached its peak yet (people will stream 3 trillion minutes of video content each month). We’ll continue learning through ineffective online lectures, but cohort-based courses will see broader adaption.

Stage One (2024)

Further development of virtual classrooms that include enhanced features for online whiteboards, streaming opportunities, and interactive videos and presentations. Most LMS incorporate learning analytics. A global coalition for independent efficacy certification for eLearning products emerges.

Stage Two (2026)

Broader application of immersive technologies. AR will be adopted faster than VR, as it can be accessed through mobile devices. Active, scenario-based learning in reality like environments will become the new norm for corporate training.

Stage Three (2030)

From Web3 to Ed3. Ed1 was about knowledge transfer through traditional institutions. Ed2 about centralized learning platforms such as Udemy or Coursera. Ed3 will enable individuals to learn decentralized with IP ownership, knowledge validation through wallets, and blockchain credentials.

And while designing effective learning experiences will remain a key challenge, the future of education and learning looks exciting. Hopefully, it will contribute to high-quality education that sets up all children and learners to thrive.

Sign up for my free weekly Learn Letter to receive inspiring, science-based content around education and the future of learning.

A Conversation with Ken Robinson’s Daughter about Their New Book on Transforming Education

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Kate Robinson and Co-Author of Imagine if — Creating a Future for us All

Source: Canva

“As we face an increasingly febrile future, the answer is not to do better what we’ve done before. We have to do something else . . . We must urgently re-imagine education and schools.”

— Ken & Kate Robinson in “Imagine if…”

You might know Sir Ken Robinson from his TED Talk Do Schools Kill Creativity, which has been viewed 72 million times and is the most-watched talk of all time.

He dedicated his entire life to transforming education systems and remains the education role model I most look up to.

In this interview, his daughter Kate shares more about their new book “Imagine If… Creating a Future for Us All.”

You co-wrote Imagine if… with your father, Sir Ken Robinson. What do you think he wanted to accomplish with this book?

Imagine if… is designed to be a short manifesto of my father’s core messages and beliefs, as well as a rallying cry for the education revolution he advocated for. In his own words, it is a “distilled view of the challenges we face, the changes that are needed and the practical steps we can take.”

In your Foreword, you say you made a promise to continue your dad’s work. What made you want to do this?

There were a number of reasons.

Dad and I had worked closely together for several years before he passed away. My background is also in the creative revolution in education, and I have written and spoken about it for a long time. I was founding Editor in Chief of HundrED, a Finnish initiative that shares global innovations that are already changing the face of education, and my company Nevergrey operated as Dad’s global head office for the past several years.

I had worked with Dad on many of his previous books, as well as several campaigns such as the “Dirt is Good” campaign for real play led by Edelman and Unilever, and The World’s Largest Lesson, which is part of Richard Curtis’ initiative “Project Everyone” for the SDGs. So, in many ways continuing his work is continuing the work I have been doing and that we were doing together for all these years.

Another reason is that he had such an impact on the world. He changed the lives of millions of people, and in doing, so created a legacy that deserves to be honored and to be continued. His message is too important on a societal level to just let go.

Millions of people have been touched by his work, and there are millions more who will be. There are still so many people who need the support and the confidence that he gave: that they are not broken but that the system is.

And a more personal reason is that it was important to him- his work was a fundamental part of who he was. He lived and breathed it, and the best way to honor his memory is to continue it.

In keeping his work alive, I can keep a part of him alive. We sat together and talked about it a lot in his final days, particularly about his manifesto…, and that brought him comfort. It brings me comfort when all I want in the world is for him to still be here.

Dad once wrote that “What you do for yourself dies with you when you leave this world, what you do for others lives on forever.” He dedicated his life to helping others, and the ripples of that will live on forever. He was a shining light for so many people, and it is my privilege to be able to keep that light shining.

Dad once wrote that “What you do for yourself dies with you when you leave this world, what you do for others lives on forever.”

Your dad devoted his life’s work to education and fixing broken education systems. He became the Pied Piper, leading millions of followers along the way. In fact, his TED talk is still the most viewed in TED history, still watched on average over 17,000 times per day. To what do you attribute his enormous impact and popularity?

This is a question that I have thought about a lot in mapping out Dad’s legacy, and I think there are three reasons for his enormous impact and popularity.

The first is that his message resonates. As he says in his first TED Talk (he did three full TED Talks and several smaller TED Events), if you tell someone you work in education you can see the blood run from their face, but if you get them talking about their own education they pin you to the wall.

Education runs deep with people — most people spend at least 22,000 hours in formal education, and so naturally it has a big impact on each of us. For far too many people, the impact isn’t as positive as it should be.

When people first saw that TED Talk, it gave voice to something they knew deep down but perhaps couldn’t name — that it wasn’t them or their children or their loved ones who were broken, it was the system.

It lit a fire because the issue is so universal and yet so deeply personal.

One of the first activities Nevergrey did was a campaign called “10 years on” to mark the 10th anniversary of that first TED Talk. We asked people to send in what the talk had meant to them, and we received thousands of messages. One of my favorite quotes was from a woman in Germany who said, “I felt heard even though I hadn’t spoken.”

The second reason is that he was so wonderful, and I say that with as little bias as humanly possible! Dad was funny, he was kind, and he was affable. He had a unique style of public speaking that wasn’t overly polished or rehearsed, that didn’t rely on visual support or excessive moving across the stage.

When he spoke, he connected with people on a human level. It shouldn’t stand out as being a unique approach, but these days it does. He also made people laugh — someone once said that listening to him felt like listening to a friend tell funny stories, and it was only when you walked away at the end that you realized you’d actually been told something deeply profound.

While I was finishing Imagine if… I read a number of books that had been influential to Dad, and while they are brilliant books, they’re also dense and difficult to get through. I found myself re-reading paragraphs multiple times to make sure I understood what they were saying.

Dad had an incredible gift for being succinct, he took big concepts and translated them in ways that were understandable to anyone. He took the very complicated topics of the education system, of the human brain, of intelligence and creativity, and made them digestible.

And the final reason is that he was authentic. He didn’t have a stage persona or an act. The man people saw on stage was the same man I saw at the breakfast table. In the “10 Years On” campaign many people referred to the first time they watched the TED talk as being the first time they “met” Dad.

They may never have met him in person, and yet they felt they had through the video. In being authentic, he connected with people around the world in a way that made them feel as though they knew him, and they were right to feel that way.

According to Imagine if…, the future will be grim unless we take action to change the course where we’re heading. What actions need to be taken and what needs to be done and how? Where do we start?

The first and most important step is to embrace a richer conception of human intelligence. Like any ecosystem, our cultural ecosystems depend on a wide variety of talents, interests, and capabilities to thrive. Therefore, we must actively encourage each person to connect with and make the most of their own abilities and passions.

Imagine if… is Sir Ken Robinson’s manifesto, summarizing his key points and passions. What are some of the bigger ones and why were they important to Sir Ken?

At its core, Dad’s work was a love letter to human potential. It was a celebration of what we as a species are capable of achieving in the right conditions. In writing the book, we highlighted ten “Manifesto Statements” that really summarize the key points the book is making.

The main themes of them are:

  • we are all born with immense creative capacities
  • our incredible powers of imagination are what separates us from the rest of life on Earth
  • Education systems are based on conformity
  • real life thrives on diversity
  • we are in the midst of two climate crises: the crisis of the Earth’s natural resources, and the crisis of our human resources
  • and no matter who you are, you are the system — if you change your behavior, you have changed the system, and when enough people commit to changing the system, we have a revolution that will change the world.

No matter who you are, you are the system — if you change your behavior, you have changed the system, and when enough people commit to changing the system, we have a revolution that will change the world.

The relationship between intelligence and creativity is raised a few times. What is this relationship and how is it applied? What are some of the myths surrounding both intelligence and creativity?

Dad said that creativity and intelligence are blood relatives: you can’t be creative without using your intelligence, and the highest form of intelligence is creativity. We have perpetrated several myths around both.

We confuse “intelligence” with academics and IQ. Academic work is one way to use our intelligence, which primarily focuses on facts, critical analysis, and desk studies. We can experience anything from mathematics to theater in a purely academic way, it just describes one way of looking at something.

The idea of an IQ assumes that we are each born with a certain amount of intelligence that there is not much we can do about it. We know much more about how the brain works than we did in the early 1900s, when the IQ test was developed, especially about the plasticity of the brain and how it strengthens and adapts depending on how we use it.

Intelligence is far richer than the concept of IQ can begin to grasp.

There are certain myths surrounding creativity, including: only certain people are creative; only certain subjects are creative; and you’re either creative or you’re not.

In reality: we all have immense capacities for creativity; you can be creative in absolutely anything, and many subjects that are traditionally thought of as being not creative, like mathematics, actually require huge amounts of creative thinking; and like intelligence, we aren’t each born with a set amount of creativity — if we neglect our creative capacities, they lie dormant, but we can grow and develop them through proper use.

What would Ken say is the core purpose of education and what would he include under this umbrella?

We each live in two worlds: the world around us — the physical world that we were born into, which was there before you were born and will be here (we hope) after you die; and the world within us — the world of our inner thoughts and emotions, our beliefs, and values, that came into being only because you were born and that will end or change when you die (depending on your beliefs).

These two worlds are intimately connected — how we relate to the world around us is constantly affected by our inner world, and who we are on the inside is shaped by our experience of the world around us.

Dad’s contention was that the core purpose of education is to help children and young people understand each of these worlds and the relationship between the two.

To do that, education should expand their consciousness, capabilities, sensitivities and cultural understanding. He also strongly felt that there is a new and urgent challenge to provide forms of education that engage young people with the global economic issues of environmental well-being.

Your dad compares traditional methods of formal education to an industrial factory/industrial farm. What did he mean by this?

Comparing traditional methods of education to industrial factories is a common analogy and one that makes sense. Education systems as we recognize them today were born out of the industrial revolution, to suit the requirements of that time.

Both industrial factories and formal education systems focus on yield and depend on standardized processes to develop standardized output. There is a fundamental difference between the two, however, which is that factories produce inanimate objects, whereas schools do not. Screws and bolts do not have opinions on what is happening to them during production, children and young people do.

Dad made the case that the more accurate metaphor is an industrial farm. Industrial farms also focus on yield and create unnatural conditions to create their products, but unlike factories, they are concerned with the production of living things.

Both industrial farms and industrial methods of education have success in their pursuit of uniform outcomes, but with hazardous repercussions. As Industrial farms are stripping the Earth of its diversity of natural resources, our education systems are stripping our children of their diversity of human resources.

What does he mean by rewilding education? What does this entail?

The process of rewilding focuses on creating the conditions for natural ecosystems to thrive and then stepping back as they do. The promise of rewilding offers hope in the battle for the Earth’s natural resources.

To rewild education we must create the circumstances for our human ecosystems to thrive. As the natural world depends upon diversity to flourish, so do our cultures, including our education systems.

Dad often said that great gardeners know they do not make flowers grow, they create the conditions for flowers to grow themselves. In the same way, great educators know they don’t make children learn, they create the conditions for learning to happen.

Rewilding education means focusing on creating these conditions. To do that we must reinvigorate the living culture of schools themselves. Imagine if… explores how best to achieve that in detail.

Imagine if… asks, so what does a thriving school ecosystem look like? What is the answer? What would his ideal education system and school look like?

It would be counter-intuitive to be overly prescriptive in what an ideal school looks like — as a school is made up of unique individuals and circumstances, each school as a whole is naturally unique.

That said, there are certain attributes that they may have in common. An education system is not successful because of tests and output-driven hurdles, it is successful when individuals are recognised, and diversity of talent is celebrated.

It is successful when students are fulfilled. To do that it must encourage a mixed culture within schools — of disciplines, of individual passions and the unique pathways they each determine, of the circumstances, each school is situated within. At its core, a successful education system celebrates and values the interconnectedness of our human ecosystems.

At its core, a successful education system celebrates and values the interconnectedness of our human ecosystems.

In Imagine if… you argue that it is possible to personalize education for every student, much like we do with cars, diets, and phones. Can you expand on this idea?

The first thing to say is that education IS personal for every person involved in it, in particular for students. Arguing against personalized learning is to argue against the very essence of education and learning.

Any educator knows that you cannot force a person to learn, they must learn for themselves. One of the primary arguments against personalized learning is that it is too expensive. In Imagine if… we make the case that it is an investment rather than a cost. T

he price of rehabilitation programs, re-engagement programs, and alternative education programs is sky high, and most of them rely on personalised approaches to re-engage young people with their education. If education was personalised to begin with, far fewer students would dis-engage in the first place.

There are many programs (such as Big Picture Learning, amongst others) that have been creating the conditions for personalised learning for a very long time. They are easily incorporated into school models and are highly effective.

Advanced technologies have made it even easier and have created more options and pathways. This isn’t a pipe dream — there are brilliant schools all around the world implementing techniques to personalise learning every single day — even within rigidly traditional models. It just takes the drive to do things differently.

Your dad was an environmentalist and naturalist. He had a deep respect for the planet and its delicate balance. Can you speak to this passion of his?

Dad often said that when we talk about saving the planet, what we mean is that we have to save our own existence on it. The Earth still has a long time to go before it crashes into the sun, but in the meantime, it might decide to shake the human race off like a rash. He had great faith in humanity and what we are capable of as a species.

I think a big part of his love for the planet stemmed from his love of people, but he also recognised the damage we are causing with our self-centeredness. He was a believer in Holism — that we are all interconnected and while we each exist independently, we depend upon the health of the whole. In order for life to thrive on Earth we have to take care of it.

In 2016 he contributed to a book by the Genius 100 Foundation celebrating 100 years of Einstein’s theory of relativity. It features 100 living geniuses, of which he was one (he is now a “Genius Inspiratus,” which I think is beautiful).

He wrote: “The lesson we most need to learn is that there is more to life on Earth than human beings, and more to being human than self-interest. Our futures all depend on learning this lesson by heart.”

The lesson we most need to learn is that there is more to life on Earth than human beings, and more to being human than self-interest. Our futures all depend on learning this lesson by heart.

Imagine if… is a call to arms for a revolution for a global reset of our social systems. How can this be accomplished?

The systems we often take for granted: political systems, education systems, healthcare systems, how we structure our companies, the way our cities are designed, etc. — are all human made systems.

Over centuries we have created them to suit our purposes, to solve our problems or facilitate advancements. The problem is that as a species we have progressed to the point that many of our systems are now outdated or obsolete entirely.

The good news about human systems is that because we created them, we can re-create them, and at this point in our evolution we urgently need to. To do this we have to harness our creativity to a more compassionate and sustainable vision of the world we want to live in, and the lives we hope to lead.

The beauty of the phrase “imagine if…” is that it is open ended. It is provocative rather than prescriptive, and endlessly adaptable. A primary goal of the book is to empower people to re-imagine our world for the better, so that we can begin to create a future for us all.

Imagine if… says that education must be revolutionized from the ground up and there is a natural ecosystem of responsibilities in creating change and identifies teachers, principals, policy makers, children and young people, and parents as the frontline. Is there a way for these sometimes-divergent groups with different goals to work together?

Absolutely, and they must work together. Education is a complex, adaptive system — there are multiple systems within the system, which constantly interact with each other. Without this communication, the system breaks down.

A big step in creating a healthy dynamic between groups is to align, so that they all share a common goal– and ultimately the primary goal of an education system must be to enable its students to understand the world around them and the talents within them, so that they can become fulfilled individuals and active, compassionate citizens.

Real power is with the people. By recognising that and by nurturing compassionate collaboration, we can redesign and rebuild our ‘normal’ in a way that is fit for purpose — for both our wellbeing as a species, and the wellbeing of the planet we call home.

Imagine If…

Get the book, Imagine If . . .: Creating a Future for Us All by Sir Ken Robinson PhD and Kate Robinson. Published by Penguin Books, March 1, 2022.

How to Augment Your Long-Term Memory in 15 Minutes a Day

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Your personal memory system makes remembering a choice.

Source: Canva

What would change if you could remember any information you want forever?

Imagine all things that are useful for you would be stored in your long-term memory, giving you an edge in every conversation, brainstorming or deep work session.

Since 2012 I’ve been on a mission to uncover how and when we learn best. I’ve read everything I could find on the science of learning — a new domain that builds on cognitive psychology, neuroscience, brain research and social psychology.

One thing that’s become clear is the strong evidence for the efficiency of spaced repetition and active retrieval.

Encoding knowledge into your memory works best when you reproduce the same piece of information from your mind over increasing time intervals.

But even if you know what to do, it can be challenging to apply it in your daily life.

A month ago, I discovered an applicable method that can change everything. I haven’t felt so excited about something since RoamResearch.

In essence, the following strategy makes remembering a choice rather than coincidence.

It builds on the insight that your brain’s long-term memory capacity is unlimited. Knowledge begets knowledge. The more you learn, the more you can remember.

Here’s how you can expand your long-term memory and remember everything you want within a couple of minutes each day.

What You Need to Do to Remember Things Forever

It’s not your fault that you forget any facts, names, or ideas after some time.

Most people view forgetting as an error in an otherwise functional memory system.

But the opposite is true.

Forgetting isn’t your enemy; it’s essential for learning.

The forgetting curve visualizes how much you forget over time. It shows how your ability to recall things from memory naturally decreases over time.

Forgetting curve. R: probability of recall (retrievability of memory) d: strength of a memory trace (stability of memory) t — time. The forgetting curve varies for individuals and is factor-dependent see this 2015 study. (Source: SuperMemo research)

Here’s an important implication many people never realize: If you see information only once, you will very likely completely forget them after three months. However great a lecture, book, corporate training, or online course; you will forget most of the content unless you interrupt your forgetting curve.

To remember information forever, you need to interrupt your forgetting curve strategically.

Spaced repetition is the best way to do so. In essence, you test yourself on the same information across increasing intervals.

Notice how the forgetting curve flattens after each review. You can retain more, and you forget slower.

Source: Bo Ae Chun on Researchgate

So to remember information forever, you want to have a process that makes your recall a piece of information at the right time for optimizing retention.

But how can you do this? Handwriting flashcards and starting a manual review system?

Luckily, there are more efficient ways.

How to Augment Your Long-Term Memory in 15 Minutes a Day

Simple tools can make remembering a choice rather than a coincidence.

Anki and Neuracache resurface information at the optimal moment and interrupt your forgetting. (To understand the algorithm behind it, read this article by SuperMemo, this iteration from Anki or watch this 5-minute explainer.)

Unlocking the power of these tools works in three steps:

  1. Create digital flashcards. You enter a question and a corresponding answer.
  2. Retrieve information from your memory. When the program shows you a card, you actively recall the answer from your memory. Look at the answer afterwards.
  3. Self-assess. The software asks whether you knew the answer or not. Based on your self-assessment, the software manages the review schedule for you.

If you got the answer right, more time would pass until you see the card again. A one-day gap between reviews become a week, a month, and so on.

This seems trivial, but showing you flashcards based on your forgetting curve is incredibly efficient.

What Will Happen When You Apply This

Within a few minutes of learning a day, you can memorize thousands of facts, ideas, rules, or words.

Michael Nielsen, a scientist who has used this system for four years, explains in his essay how much time it can save you:

“On average, it takes me about 8 seconds to review a card. Suppose I was using conventional flashcards, and reviewing them (say) once a week. If I wanted to remember something for the next 20 years, I’d need 20 years times 52 weeks per year times 8 seconds per card. That works out to a total review time of just over 2 hours for each card.

By contrast, Anki’s ever-expanding review intervals quickly rise past a month and then out past a year. Indeed, for my personal set of Anki cards the average interval between reviews is currently 1.2 years, and rising. In an appendix below I estimate that for an average card, I’ll only need 4 to 7 minutes of total review time over the entire 20 years. Those estimates allow for occasional failed reviews, resetting the time interval. That’s a factor of more than 20 in savings over the more than 2 hours required with conventional flashcards.”

Let me rephrase this because it’s revolutionary: within 4 to 7 minutes of total review spread over 20 years, you can remember anything you want.

Based on the spaced repetition algorithms, you can decrease your time spent studying while increasing the amount you learn and remember.

Michael Nielson started in 2018. I asked him this week whether he still sticks to the process. Here’s his reply:

Imagine how your life would change if you encoded 20,000 useful bits of information. Yes, you can google almost anything but processing fluency matters.

You can only hold a handful of items in your short-term memory. When you encode information into your long-term memory, you will have the edge over many other people because you atomize and retain valuable insights directly from your brain.

The benefit of memorizing information is not in the knowledge itself, but in the way you can deploy it. Through memorization you build a mental structure that helps you develop new thoughts and knowledge.

“Long-term memory is capable of storing thousands of facts, and when we have memorised thousands of facts on a specific topic, these facts together form what is known as a schema. When we think about that topic, we use that schema. When we meet new facts about that topic, we assimilate them into that schema — and if we already have a lot of facts in that particular schema, it is much easier for us to learn new facts about that topic.”

— Daisy Christodoulou

What do You Want to Remember forever?

Michael Nielsen’s rule of thumb is as follows:

“If memorizing something will likely save you five minutes in the future, write a flashcard. Because the expected lifetime review time is less than five minutes, i.e., it takes < 5 minutes to learn something… forever.”

There’s a ton of things you can remember forever with Anki or Neuracache, such as:

  • Findings of books and papers important in your area of expertise
  • A line of commands for a programming language
  • Vocabulary from a foreign language
  • Birthdays and wedding days from your close friends and family
  • Academic material such as periodic tables and geography
  • Quotes or poems you want to be able to recite
  • Names and faces
  • Reflections or life lessons from your work or hobbies
  • Favourite places from a holiday or best dishes in a restaurant
DIgital flashcard examples. Source: Neuracache

While there are many pre-written decks, writing cards yourself is even more meaningful.

Creating flashcards is a learning process in itself. Learning scientists call this elaborative encoding — you explain and describe an idea in your own words.

Final Thoughts

Knowing that many valuable facts and ideas will vanish from our memories has made me feel frustrated for a long time.

My digital note-taking system keeps growing, and it’s been very beneficial. But working memory capacity is limited and even with my second digital brain, I can only hold a specific number of things in my head.

The above method changes everything.

Applying spaced repetition and active recall for 15-minutes a day is a bullet-proof way to embed new knowledge in your long-term memory.

My free weekly Learn Letter will give you tools and resources to accelerate your learning. If you’d like to accelerate your online writing, register here.

Evidence-Based Strategies to Better Remember What You Learn

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Many people waste their time relying on outdated learning techniques. They use ineffective strategies like rereading and highlighting. By following these techniques, learning becomes pointless entertainment.

A research group around neuroscientist Henry Roediger and psychologist Mark McDaniel spent ten years exploring learning strategies. Their goal was to bridge the gap between cognitive science and educational science. The result of their work is ‘Make it stick.’

Reading more than 15 books on learning, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern: 
it’s less important what kind of brain you have — what matters is how you use it.

Or, as the researchers of ‘Make it Stick’ put it:

“Elements that shape your intellectual ability lie to a surprising extent within your own control.”

Howwe learn changes our brain’s neural network. This concept, neuroplasticity, is the enabler for lifelong-learning. Whether you’re a life-long learner, a trainer, teacher, student, or a parent who wants to best help your kids, effective learning strategies can make new knowledge stick.

Here are five evidence-based strategies that help you learn better and store new knowledge in your long-term memory.

1.) Retrieval Practice

With retrieval, you try to recall something you’ve learned in the past from your memory. For example, you might ask yourself what you remembered from the book you finished two weeks ago.

The more time has gone since your information consumption, the more difficult time you’ll have to retrieve it. Naturally, a few days after we learn something, forgetting sets in. And that’s why retrieval is so powerful. In the words of the authors:

“Retrieval strengthens the memory and interrupts forgetting.”

While retrieval practice can take many forms — take a test, write an essay, do a multiple-choice test, practice with flashcards — some forms are better than others:

“While any kind of retrieval practice generally benefits learning, the implication seems to be that where more cognitive effort is required for retrieval, greater retention results.”

2.) Spaced Repetition

With spaced repetition, you repeat the same piece of information across increasing intervals. Again, our natural forgetting curve kicks in. But the harder it feels to recall the information, the stronger the learning effect:

“Spaced practice, which allows some forgetting to occur between sessions, strengthens both the learning and the cues and routes for fast retrieval.”

It might sound counterintuitive, but forgetting is essential for learning. Spacing out practice might feel less productive than rereading a text because you’ll realize what you forgot. To retrieve your knowledge, your brain has to work harder. And it should work hard.

As a rule of thumb: learning works best when it feels hard.

3.) Interleaving

Imagine you had to remember 100 paintings from five different epochs. Would you prefer studying one epoch after another or mixing all five?

While our intuition tells us blocking to be more effective, researchers pointed towards the benefits of interleaving:

“If your intuition tells you to block, you should probably interleave.”

Here’s what interleaving means:

“In interleaving, you don’t move from a complete practice set of one topic to go to another. You switch before each practice is complete.”

Alternate working on different problems feels more difficult as it facilitates forgetting. But as you will know by now, that’s the desired effect you want to achieve.

“If learners spread out their study of a topic, returning to it periodically over time, they remember it better.”

4.) Elaboration

Elaborating means you explain and describe an idea in your own words. You consciously associate material you want to learn with what you’ve previously learned. In the words of the book’s authors:

“Elaboration is the process of giving new material meaning by expressing it in your own words and connecting it with what you already know.”

The more details and the stronger you connect new knowledge to what you already know, the better. By doing so, you’re generating more cues.

Elaborative rehearsal is a method to encode information into your long-term memory more effectively. It can be advantageous to relate the material to a personal experience or to something you already know, explaining the idea to someone else, and explaining how it relates to your life.

5.) Reflection

Reflection is a combination of retrieval practice and elaboration that adds new layers to your learning materials. Here are a few questions the authors suggest to reflect upon:

What went well?

What could have gone better?

What might you need to learn for better mastery, or what strategies might you use the next time to get better results?

By reflecting, you’re retrieving what you learned and connecting it to existing memories. In the words of Roediger and McDaniel:

“Reflection can involve several cognitive activities that lead to stronger learning: retrieving knowledge and earlier training from memory, connecting these new experiences and visualizing and mentally rehearsing what you might do differently next time.”

6.) (Self)-Testing & Calibration

While reading often falsely tricks us into perceived mastery, testing shows us whether we truly mastered the subject at hand. Self-testing helps you identify knowledge gaps and bring weak areas to the light. In their book, the scientists conclude:

“It’s better to solve a problem than to memorize a solution.”

To answer a question or solve a problem before looking at the answer is what learning scientists also call experiential learning. Even if you don’t get the right answer, the process facilitates remembering the correct answer.

Plus, objective instruments, like testing, or self-testing, help you adjust your sense of what you know and don’t know:

“One of the best habits a learner can instill in herself is regular self-quizzing to recalibrate her understanding of what she does and does not know.”

Takeaway

If you only remember one thing, pick the following:

“Learning that’s easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow.”

Effective learning strategies include retrieval, elaboration, spaced repetition, interleaving, self-testing, and reflection.

Plus, once you’ve mastered new material, you can use mnemonic devices and build memory places to help you retrieve what you’ve learned.

These 3 Practices by Bill Gates Will Change How You Read

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Reading gives you access to the smartest brains on earth. Learning from the greatest people is the fastest way to become healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Charlie Munger, self-made billionaire, and Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner, once said that he hadn’t known any wise person who didn’t read all the time. None, zero.

Yet, reading per se doesn’t make you a better person. You can read 52 books a year without changing at all.

It’s about what and how you read that will improve your life’s quality and enhance your mind.

I read a book a week for more than two years now and continue to look for ways to improve my reading. Recently, I listened to Bill Gates sharing his free, yet priceless lessons on how he reads books.

Here are his top three reading practices and how to apply them:

1. Take side notes

In our distracting world, it’s tempting to shift focus at light speed. When phones are within a hand reach, it’s easy to switch tasks without even realizing it.

Taking side notes in the margins is a simple yet effective way to stay present. With a pen in your hand, it’s your default option to engage with the book in front of you. You’ll find it easier to focus on the thoughts at hand.

Moreover, scribbling on the pages will make it easier for you to remember what you’ve read. You ensure you link the new knowledge to what you already know. This helps you to think hard about what’s in the book.

Gates always aims to connect new knowledge to what he already knows. If he disagrees with the written word, he will take even more side notes:

“If I disagree with a book it sometimes takes a lot of time to read the book because I am writing so much in the margins. It’s actually kind of frustrating. Please say something I agree with so I can get through with this book.”

How to do it:

Take a pen in your hand before opening your next book. Cross out what you don’t like and write down what to do instead. Jot down a question if lines are unclear. Scribble your thoughts on the margins and connect what you learn with what you already know.

How can you link the words in front of you to your own experiences?

Which example can you add to the page that contradicts this claim?

Do you have any memory that proves the point at hand?

Soon you’ll realize that taking notes not only helps you to concentrate but also to remember what you read. The more you write in the margins, the more you’ll remember.

In learning theory, this way to remember things is called elaborative rehearsal. You make an association between the new information in the book and the information you already know. The more you elaborate, or try to understand something, the more likely you‘ll keep this new information in your long-term memory.

2. Finish every book you read

Gate’s second principle is simple: get to the end.

Read books cover to cover. He says:

“It’s my rule to get to the end.”

Huh? Seriously? It’s tempting to skip this principle since productivity coaches advise you not to complete bad books. We have to be careful here.

Bill doesn’t sayyou should complete a lousy book.

Instead, his rule indicates to decide what you read before you start. Consider whether a book is worth your time before you open it.

By doing so, you’ll become as intentional on reading as Bill Gates. Because it’s his rule always to finish what he starts, he’ll think twice before he starts a book.

Finishing every book you read doesn’t mean you should force yourself through a bad book. Instead, pick carefully and then commit to complete the book. Even if it turns out to be hard, contradicting, or daunting.

How to do it:

The internet allows us to access the libraries of smart minds. For example, Obama’s tweeted his favorite books from 2019, and Bill shares his recommendations once a year.

Start a want-to-read list with every book you intend to read. To do so, you can use listing apps like Google Keep, Wunderlist, or ToDoist, or create a profile on Goodreads.

I love using Goodreads for my want-to-reads as I see the covers and the overall rating. Before bulk-ordering, I’d browse through my list to pick the next books.

3. Read for at least one hour at a time

To get your mind around a book, Bill says, you should block an hour at a time every time you read. Here’s what he says:

“If you read books you want to sit down an hour at a time. Every night I’m reading, I’m reading a little bit over an hour so I can take my current book and make some progress.”

While Bill’s advice is applicable for retired billionaires, I’d recommend adapting his rule to: “Aim for one uninterrupted reading hour a day and also take every additional minute you get.”

How to do it:

Make it non-negotiable to read before you sleep. To do so, replace your smartphone with an alarm clock and go to bed an hour earlier.

Schedule a smartphone alarm every evening at 9 PM, which reminds you to switch off all your digital devices. Schedule a second alarm for 9:20 PM as a hard deadline and stick to it.

My bedtime ritual is reading. In bed, I can either sleep or read. That’s how I read one book per week for two years. The sooner you shut off your devices in the evening, the more you’ll learn.

Bottom Line

Following Bill’s principles isn’t complex, long, or exhausting.

On the contrary: These principles make reading fun and worthwhile.

  • Take side notes to engage with what you read.
  • Pick intentionally, and finish all the great books you read.
  • Make reading a bedtime ritual to have an undistracted reading hour.

Instead of feeling discouraged by all the ideas about what you could do to improve your reading, enjoy experimenting at your own pace. Keep the principles that work for you and screw the rest.

Choose one or two new reading habits until you find a pattern that helps you on your journey to health, wealth, and wisdom.

How Social Media Captivates Your Mind

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Have you ever wondered how much lifetime you spend on social media?

According to this meta-analysis, it’s around two hours every day. And while you might think two hours a day is reasonable, the time adds up. By the age of 50, you’ll have spent more than 4 entire years on LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any social invention of the future.

“If you are not paying for the product, you are the product,” Jaron Lanier, a computer philosophy writer, said in a social media docudrama. In 2017, I co-founded a company against screen addiction and spent weeks researching addictive technology, persuasive design, and hooking mechanisms. And yet, Lanier’s words made me pause.

In our so-called attention economy, businesses make money by developing technology that attracts and retains attention for as long as possible. The more attention a social media platform can get from you, the more attractive its advertising space becomes, and the more it can charge its advertisers. We feel the platform is free to use, while we pay with our life’s limited attention.

This article is not going to teach you how to spend less time on your phone. Instead, it shows you the most common hooking mechanisms. Knowing them will help you identify platforms that use you as a product.

1) Red Notification Badges Alert Your Senses

20 years ago, Apple introduced with its Mac OS X the first version of the red notification badge — tiny, red, rounded, with numbers inside. Today, the red icon is almost everywhere. There are red dots next to the apps on your home screen and the horizontal toolbar of almost any social media platform.

When you see the red notification badge, you know there’s something you need to check: new activities, messages you need to reply to, people liking or commenting on your pictures, people who mentioned you, people that started following you, contact requests, or important announcements.

And the surprise factor behind the notification number makes these tiny red notification badges so powerful. You investigate because they could mean anything: a career-boosting email from your boss, a reminder for your hair dresser’s appointment today; a message from your crush; or a family member checking in with you.

This psychological strategy tells you that there’s information you want to know but requires you to click through to the site to find out more.

“Red is a trigger color,” design ethicist Tristan Harris said in an interview with the Guardian. “That’s why it is used as an alarm signal.” When you see such a badge, you need to click on it. It’s a visual form of screaming, shouting something like “hey, click on me; I’m important, you’re important.”

“I’ve met dots that existed only to inform me of the existence of other dots, new dots, dots with almost no meaning at all.”

— John Herrman in the New York Times

2) Pull-to-Refresh Works Like A Slot Machine

B.F. Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, experimented with mice on incentives and rewards in the 1950s. What he found led to a mechanism all social media platforms use: the intermittent variable reward.

Skinner discovered mice respond compulsively to random rewards. The mice would press a lever and sometimes got a small treat, other times a large treat, and other times nothing at all. Unlike the mice that received the same treat every time, the mice that received variable rewards pressed the lever compulsively.

Just like lab mice in Skinner’s box, we respond most voraciously to random rewards.

We crave predictability and struggle to find patterns, even when none exist. And that’s why we continue to pull-to-refresh. We don’t know when we’ll be rewarded. Most of the time, we won’t find anything noteworthy. But just like with gambling, we continue to refresh in the hope of a quick dopamine shot.

“You pull a lever and immediately receive either an enticing reward (a match, a prize!) or nothing.”

— Tristan Harris in one of his essays

3) There’s No End to Infinite Scrolling Design

As we’ve established, nothing holds our attention better than the unknown. And that’s why often find ourselves subconsciously scrolling through social media apps for entire hours. Translating scrolling time into scrolling distance, this report shows we scroll for more than 200 meters per day.

According to Nir Eyal, the author of two best-selling books on persuasive design, wrote in Psychology Today, “The infinite scroll is interaction design’s answer to our penchant for endlessly searching for novelty.”

One finger flick away, we continue searching in the uncertainty of what’s next. Using platforms that deploy infinite scrolls can feel like solving a mystery, looking for a final puzzle piece. And during the aimless search, we give away much of our lifetime.

“Time worth 200,000 human lifetimes are wasted on a daily basis due to our act of infinite scrolling.”

— Aza Raskin, creator of the infinite scroll in an interview

4) Push Notifications Recapture Your Attention

If you’ve watched the Social Dilemma of Netflix, you might remember the following scene: two friends talk to each other in a cafeteria. Then, one gets a notification and checks in with his phone. Shortly after, both friends stare at their screens and disengage with the physical world around them.

“If you disengage, you get peppered with little messages or bonus offers to get your attention and pull you back in.”

— Natasha Schüll, author of Addiction by Design.

Push notifications remind you to go back to a social platform. Something ‘exciting’ happened, something you shouldn’t miss. A friend posted a photo or tagged you in a story. You can’t help yourself but see it.

“The vast majority of push notifications are just distractions that pull us out of the moment,” Justin Rosenstein, the co-creator of the like button, said in an interview with Vice. “They get us hooked on pulling our phones out and getting lost in a quick hit of information that could wait for later, or doesn’t matter at all.”

For you, push notifications are disturbing. For the platforms using them, they’re a great tool. According to a report from analytics company Urban Airship, sending out weekly notifications doubles the app-retention on mobile operating systems.

5) Algorithmic Filtering Monetizes Your Mood

Have you ever wondered why you spend more time on your newsfeed than you intended to? Algorithmic filtering is the answer. Platforms like Facebook developed machine learning algorithms that study your behavior on the platform.

So-called ‘Text mining’ enables social media platforms to analyze your emotions. It’s common practice to record what you like and record how long you hover over a certain post. In this way, platforms do not only know what you’re interested in but also what mood you are in.

This 2019 study from two German Universities concluded Facebook has a great interest in studying your behavior as detailed as possible. At best, you only see interesting information in your ‘Newsfeed.’ Filtering information to maximize your engagement stops you from leaving the app.

6) Social Validation Makes You Want To Stay

One of the most prominent features of social reward mechanisms is the iconic ‘thumbs up.’ According to this 2019 study, a ‘like’ demonstrates positive social feedback on one’s own post or gives another person such feedback.

A group of neuroscientists investigated our brain’s responses to social validation. Instagram users were confronted with their own posted pictures. These pictures were manipulated by being presented either with many or few ‘Likes.’ When the participants saw more likes on their pictures, their brains showed greater activity in neural regions for reward processing, social cognition, and imitation. And that’s why we keep posting our pictures.

“We were not evolved to get social approval being dosed upon us every 5 minutes.”

— Chamath Palihapitiya, former Facebook Executive

With each tweet and post, we wonder how much social validation we’ll receive. This goes as far as quantifying our social influences with tools like Klout. And above all, it means we adapt our public behavior on the platforms to receive the maximum amount of recognition.

Final Thoughts

Persuasive design and addictive technology will continue to exist. There will always be tools competing for your attention. Yet, knowing the key mechanisms behind social media platforms can help you identify software that takes away your time. Watch out for:

  1. Notification Badges
  2. Pull-to-Refresh Triggers
  3. Infinite Scrolling
  4. Push Notifications
  5. Algorithmic Filtering
  6. Social Validation Cues

And whatever you do, charge your phone outside of your bedroom and keep Tristan Harris words in mind:

“Once you start understanding that your mind can be scheduled into having little thoughts or little blocks of time that you didn’t choose, wouldn’t we want to use that understanding and protect against the way that that happens?”

9 Free Writing Tools That Helped Me Make $4,167 a Month

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Let’s get this clear: Your writing won’t bring you money because of these tools.

Sitting down to write will make your writing better. With quantity comes quality, my writing coach continues used to say. And she was right.

I wrote my first Medium article on March 27. Since then, I have published 55 pieces with a >80% curation rate. In August, I earned $4,167 on Medium alone.

Screenshot by Author

And while these tools won’t turn you into a professional writer, they will level up your writing process.

Whether you’re struggling with headlines, keeping a writing routine, or are non-native speakers, these priceless tools will help.

1 Manage Your Articles With Trello

Trello is an idea keeper, a writing tracker, and a motivation booster. Here’s how I use my Trello Board, from left to right:

  • Medium Article Ideas
  • Working Projects
  • Articles Submitted to Publications
  • Articles Rejected by Publications that need Reediting
  • Articles Published

When to use it:

Your Trello board will be useful on five occasions.

  1. When an idea strikes you. Add the title or the idea as a new card to your very left corner. You can also access it from mobile. Write down everything that comes to your mind.
  2. When you start writing. Because of all the article ideas on your board, you’ll never have to worry about a blank page in front of you. When you start a new story, pick one of your ideas, drag them to the “Working Projects” column, and start writing.
  3. When you hit publish. This is a motivational booster. It feels great to move a working project card to the “articles submitted” column. In the card add a date when you expect to hear back. Thereby, you’ll see when you need to follow-up or submit your piece to another publication.
  4. When the publication publishes or rejects your piece. Being rejected is part of every writer’s journey. Move your card to “rejected” and improve your piece. Then, give it a new shot at another publication.
  5. When a publication publishes your piece. Boom! You’ll move your card from “submitted to publication” to “published.”
Screenshot by Author

2 Improve Your Headlines with Co-Schedule

Most writers ignore this fact. They write great content and bad headlines. Yet, readers will never read your writing if your headline isn’t catchy.

Nobody will read your article if your headline sucks.

I ignored this fact until I completed Benjamin Hardy, PhD’s online course writing course. He takes 20–30 minutes every time he writes an article. He’d jot down 10–30 headlines before he starts to write.

Headline writing is a craft. It leaves the reader asking questions and wanting more.

Headlines consist of a combination of words. And while there are great articles on headline hacks, this tool does a quick check-up for you.

When to use it:

Opinions vary on this one. I love to find the headline before I start writing. It’ll help me frame my idea in various contexts. Moreover, a clear headline will help you structure the content.

Screenshot by Author

3 Format Your Headlines With Title Case Converter

After you mastered the balancing act of crafting a headline that grabs the reader’s attention, you’ll want to format it. Many publications reject articles because of their first impression.

When to use it:

I use Title Case Converter before I paste the headline into my story.

Screenshot by Author

4 Look Beyond Unsplash Pictures

After you’ve leveled up your writing with a great and proper formatted headline, you want to make sure you choose an awesome picture.

Search images by emotions instead of keywords. Pick a picture that supports the feeling you’re trying to convey. Tim Denning is an incredible picture picker.

When you analyze his images, you’ll see he searches beyond Medium’s built-in Unsplash feature. Here’s a list of links to free high-quality stock images:

When to use it:

After you set and formatted the headline, and before you start writing.

5 Use A Leftover Graveyard To Edit Without Mercy

Excellent writing requires ruthless editing. A leftover graveyard is a simple tool for producing clear, dense, and solid writing.

It’s a simple text document containing every phrase that wasn’t good enough to remain in your piece but was too beautiful to be deleted.

With every passage, ask yourself: Does this add value for the reader?

If the answer is yes, keep what you wrote. If the answer is nay, move sections or words to your graveyard. Every time you doubt whether you should delete a sentence, cut the sentence out, and paste it into your leftover document.

When to use it:

When you do the editing after you’ve written your article.

Screenshot by Author

6 Engage Your Reader With Thesaurus

If you’re also a non-native English speaker, a synonym finder is a pure piece of gold. It’ll find words outside of your vocabulary and give you suggestions on how to use them.

By adding variety to your writing, you’ll make your texts more interesting.

When to use it:

I use it at the same time as the leftover graveyard. In my first round of editing, I’d cut out everything that’s not needed and look for words that make the writing better.

Screenshot by Author

7 Run a Health Check With Grammarly

Grammarly has gained a lot of popularity within the last year. And it’s well-deserved. This writing tool checks your writing for grammar and punctuation mistakes.

And, in the pro-version, it also offers suggestions on how to replace your words.

Yet, don’t let Grammarly ruin your copy. It’ll sometimes be very strict on suggestions and make you want to reach the 99, even though a 78 score might be more authentic and humane.

When to use it:

To ensure it’ll not change your message, only use it after your round of self-editing. A grammar health check will give your piece the final touch.

Screenshot by Author

8 Do A Second Audit With The Hemmingway App

Even though I love Grammarly, it’s not perfect. So anytime I submit a piece, I’d make it run through the Hemingway App and look for phrases that are very hard to read.

Most of the times, the very hard to read phrases contain some logical errors. I’ll try to split them into two sentences or change the overall structure.

By focusing on clear, logical writing throughout your entire article, you’ll attract more readers, and, after all, take your writing to the next level.

When to use it:

After you’ve run your writing through Grammarly and before you hit publish.

Screenshot by Author

9 Analyze Your Articles With an Excel Sheet

I first learned about this sheet in Sinem’s Medium Writing Academy. It’s a self-made excel sheet you can use after you publish your article. It serves as an analyzer and a motivator.

This sheet helps you to do more of what works well. Moreover, this system helps you keep track of the number of articles published, your curation tags, and the publications you’ve published with. You can use your sheet to set your writing KPIs.

When to use it:

Once a publication published your piece add all the details to the sheet. Once a month, add the stats and the numbers.

Screenshot by Author