Reflecting on 100 Editions
The Cold Start Problem 🥶
I published the first Learning Nerd’s Diary in June of 2020. I was what I jokingly call a ‘closet writer’ - always writing in my drafts but never putting anything out. The first diary came out of a week-long break where I couldn’t go out much and a bit frustration from being stuck at home.
I would write about what I was learning, reflect on the week and publish primarily on Instagram & Twitter. I was surprised how many people reached out and said they resonated with the diary. On weeks I was late or didn’t end up publishing it - people would reach out and ask for it. For someone who was just starting out writing & publishing - this was encouraging.
Building a Writing Habit ✍🏻
I came across a tweet where someone was building a writing club. The idea was simple - everyone writes an atomic essay (200-300 words only) every day for 30 days and posts the link on a WhatsApp group to keep each other accountable.
It was not easy, but it was a LOT of fun.
I wrote about research, cooking and on uninspiring days I wrote about things like ‘50 most underrated things’. Somewhere during that month, I also wrote about learning & the work I was doing. By the end of the month, I was more confident about my writing skills AND felt I should write more about learning.
Learning About Learning 💭
This series started as me trying to unpack learning. I had just transitioned from being a researcher to being a learning experience designer a year back and I was trying to leverage writing to boost my learning journey.
The idea was simple - can I reflect, synthesise how I look at learning and put it out there? The visuals came out of a way for me to add to my writing.
My writing led to more connections and more interesting conversations — something that I found valuable. From knowing about how people look at learning around me, I was now being able to understand a global perspective.
Building an Audience 👯♀️
In January of 2022, I signed up for a course by Sahil Bloom on Audience Building. The course helped me add a lot of structure to my online writing. It helped me question my why and helped me sharpen my how.
I had retired the Learning Nerd’s Diary by then but the course made me question if I wanted to start a newsletter. I decided to start with being more regular with my writing. I started publishing 2 pieces every week - 1 article and 1 nugget, both with a visual. I also doubled down on writing mostly on LinkedIn - I realised that people who work in learning are more there than anyway.
This new focus helped me attract & connect with the relevant audience on LinkedIn and have more conversations.
Resurrecting the Learning Nerd’s Diary 👾
I got back the Learning Nerd’s Diary in June of 2022. The diary became a roundup of writing I was anyway doing and became a way for me to add things I was thinking about. At this point, the diary was an eclectic mix of things.
Over time I realised that curating the diary on a specific theme might be better — it also allowed me to deep dive into a specific topic. The diary gained subscribers - something that was incredibly encouraging. People started writing back with questions and thoughts on what they enjoyed in the diary — something that I loved!
Learning Heuristics 🧠
In 2023, I also did a new series - one on learning heuristics. It came as an idea to connect heuristics - something so common in design to learning. For 10 odd weeks, it became a part of the diary and found a special section on my website as well :)
Streamlining Content Production 🛠️
Early this year I started working on streamlining the content I was producing. I wanted to make sure I had enough buffer/ writing in place that if on one odd week, I had low bandwidth - the newsletter could still go out with little/ no effort.
I sat down & made a list of all the ideas I had in place for writing newsletters and put dates to it. This removed the decision-making fatigue of having to think of new ideas every week. I have a long way to go - but this is a small start!
Retiring Learning Nuggets 🥜
As I was putting together this edition, I realised that Learning Nuggets are no longer as valuable as other things that I put out. So starting next week, I am going to retire Learning Nuggets as a series.
All the past Nuggets will continue to stay on my website and I’m excited to explore what takes its place!
tl;dr 📌
We spoke about serendipity just last week and it seemed like the emergence of this Diary was also a result of that.
Thank you for showing up every week with me on this learning journey. I am truly grateful. I can’t wait for the next 100 editions!