Prioritize Learning

February 13, 2023 Jeremy Utley

How much time in your schedule is expressly dedicated to learning?

Hip hop producer and entrepreneur Wes Pendleton devotes three to four hours per day to learning: “My days are very structured, to lean towards learning… I literally have block scheduling for myself throughout the day. The first thing that I do when I first wake up, is I dedicate three hours to just learning. There’s no emails, there's no scrolling on social media. It is just to learn. That's it… I read a ton — and I listen to a lot of podcasts.”

That learning mindset led him to frame a winning exit strategy in a crowded marketplace, and get acquired within four years of building Soul Surplus. You might not have 3 hours a day, like Pendleton, or 2 days per week for unstructured time, like Jeff Bezos.

What about an hour? Can you spare an hour?

“In the early days of Merrill Lynch, founder Charles Merrill wrote to his business partner Winthrop Smith about the importance of taking time to reflect: ‘You and George Hyslop [a partner in the firm], and when I am there, me, too, should never be so busy that we cannot set aside at least one hour each day to quiet, thoughtful study and discussion of the basic principles, as contrasted with current operations.’” (The Imagination Machine, by Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller)

In this day, with the calendar such a driving force in how we spend our time, it’s not enough to “not be so busy.” We have to schedule these times, and protect them as a precious resource. Time for incubation, after all, is often a catalyst for insight and unexpected connections.

So when you’re auditing your calendar, take a moment to assess how much time you’ve made to learn.

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