What I'm Doing Now
Matt Spear: 1st August 2021
3 min read
(This is a now page, inspired by Derek Sivers)
I'll keep this page for strictly LearnLabs related activities, and hopefully add a now page to my personal site soon.
Building An Audience
LearnLabs has long been an umbrella name for all things I do, but given the current pandemic and precariousness of freelance work (I've been out of work for the month of July) I'm focusing on building digital products, ways to share my knowledge and build a community / audience.
My first foray into digital products is coming soon as I convert one of my resource guides into a downloadable PDF and video summary. I love researching and with my girlfriend recently diving into the design work I've collected a design resources guide – I'm keen to get the habit of sharing products and just shipping them and see what sticks.
The aim is to provide high quality curated guides that take an unknown topic and highlight the top few resource gems akin to the 80 / 20 (Pareto principle) that will accelerate the readers learning.
Plus if you find a resource I missed / I deem in that top 20% – I'll gift you a guide, input on a the next topic I research or membership to the site!
Learning to Write
I've just finished reading 'Authority: A step-by-step guide to self publishing' by Nathan Barry. I read it in under a week and feeling inspired to write more. Plus its the reason I've got my blog back online so highly recommended for the motivation!
For years I've been collecting content around education, learning and teaching. Eventually will lead to either a book or course – I've got a books worth of outlines already with 20+ chapter ideas but need to do a deeper dive into the research before the writing begins.
To write a book first I want to get back to blogging, writing regularly and improving my communication skills. So expect more posts on the site.
Next up I'm going to read this gem:
The Writing Handbook
Learn how to write well. Topics include figuring out what to write about, how to write an introduction, the writing process, writing style, and copyediting.
Julian Shapiro
YouTube Channel
I love filming, teaching and video editing so the next step would be to start making videos. I've tried before in the past but only since the pandemic really considered it and believed that I have something to share / my own unique angle.
One idea is to merge two favourite things travel and the digital nomad lifestyle with the engineering / devlog / app development I do day-to-day for work and startups.
I've not seen anyone doing this and think it'd make a nice balance between work / play whilst keeping it light and educational. Inevitably other aspects like my obsession with learning, productivity and knowledge management will make nice additions.
Currently in the experimenting phase, will update once I have my first video up!
Startup Pending
For now I'll just leave the title here – Broadly my initial experiments will be around learning, education and resource sharing.
Watch this space...
Updated August 1st, 2021, from Tenerife, Spain