Play your H.A.R.P. and make learning pop

Imagine this. You’ve carved out precious time to take a workshop, a webinar, or attend a conference.  And you were wowed by a speaker. So much so that a while later you go to find that speaker’s name and your seminar notes from what you learned annnnnnnnnd ….. nothing, nada, niet.  You can’t find your notes.  In fact, you’re not even sure if you took notes. You’re doubly bummed because you know your colleague would absolutely love the content.

So you give up.

Learning gets left on the table.  You lose out and so does your colleague.

Don’t beat yourself up tho.

“There are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day at our current pace, but that pace is only accelerating” (Source: Forbes).

But wait, there’s more!

“The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 181 zettabytes in 2020” (Source: Statista.com).

Who even knew there was such a thing as a zettabyte?!

It’s no wonder we’re overwhelmed with info and we can’t find what we’re looking for when we need it.

But there’s hope.

Let’s take a different tack.

Imagine that same scenario except for this time, with a proud little hum in your heart, you go straight to your notes.  You grin with glee when you find them quickly and your grin gets even bigger when you quickly share them with your colleague.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

If you want to be in that situation then Simpy (with a capital S) use my H.A.R.P. worksheet.

The next time you’re taking a workshop, webinar, or attending a conference, download the worksheet and fill it in as you go along.

Here’s how to use your editable H.A.R.P. worksheet

H – stands for highlights

• These are the things that make you go ‘wow,’ ‘I didn’t know that,” huh!” etc.  These are the things you want to remember.

A – stands for action

• These are the things that you want to do with your learning, the things you want to take action on.
• Example: read a blog post that the speaker mentioned, learn more about a particular sub-topic, reach out to the trainer, etc.

R – stands for resources

• This quadrant is for resources –  the books, blogs, podcasts, speakers, etc. that you want to have all in one helpful space.  Feel free to add any and all kinds of resources that you want to keep track of.

P – stands for pictures

• Did you know your brain interprets images 600,000 times faster than text?  Pictures are a fabulous way to help you remember your learning.  Think of this as your official ‘permission’ to doodle.  Challenge yourself to represent your learning with images, symbols, and/or doodles.

Pro tip: Be sure to save your H.A.R.P. template with a memorable name.  And save your filled-in H.A.R.P. worksheets with a naming system that will make sense to your future self when trying to find it.  For example date and topic.  Then you can find and share your H.A.R.P. worksheets when you need them.

Overwhelm, frazzle, and frustration be gone.  The next time you take a workshop, webinar or attend a conference use my H.A.R.P. editable worksheet and you’ll: 1) remember what you learned, 2) be able to find your notes when you need them and 3) be able to share them easily.

Now go on and learn, laugh and lead

Learn

• Download your H.A.R.P. template here and say goodbye to never being able to find what you learned from webinars, workshops, and conferences

Laugh

• Learning can be tough.  Sometimes (when not using a H.A.R.P. worksheet) our expectations don’t match reality. Here’s a sweet example of expectations vrs reality – with this little one eating cocoa.

Lead

• Share the H.A.R.P. template with a friend or colleague – either the blank template and/or one that you’ll fill in.  Share the love, share the learning.

P.S. Let’s stay connected. Free weekly coaching by email on how to use humanity and humour to problem solve, right here.