Why we devote one day a week to learning—and you should, too
By smartly shifting your workload, you can massively benefit your organization’s future.
Learning should be a key tenet of any organization and play a pivotal role in the company culture. Not only does it make its members better professionals, it also leads to more creative satisfaction and better cooperation.
Nevertheless, just like all organizations have different personalities, their approach to learning should be different. Here I want to share our experience of devoting one day each week for personal and professional development within our design studio.
New skills breed new opportunities
In our climate of hyper-productivity, it might seem counter-intuitive to give up a full working day for personal growth. However, remember that learning is a long-tail game and that it is knowledge which will set you apart from the majority of professionals in your field.
Many disciplines have become much more accessible, and learning has become vastly more affordable.
Today, more and more work — especially design — has become interdisciplinary. The old model of “learn once and apply for the rest of your life” no longer applies. It’s an outdated mindset, since you now have a multitude of learning resources at your fingertips: You can quickly find lots of information online, watch educational videos, or enroll yourself in courses. Because of this, many disciplines have become much more accessible, and learning has become vastly more affordable.
Thinking of switching from brand design to motion design? Visual design to UX/UI? You’re in luck! It has never been easier—if you manage to set the time aside and learn the required skills.
Cutting the distractions, streamlining the process
It’s easy to get caught up in client projects and neglect your personal growth—especially when it’s scattered throughout small segments of the day.
When you only allocate little chunks of time for a personal project or learning activity, it’s easy to lose focus. That’s because it takes preparation, research, experimentation, and a lot of trial and error to learn something new. We have found that learning in longer sessions streamlines the process and helps you better understand and remember what you’re trying to grasp.
Imagine trying to allocate one hour at the end of each day for learning something new. It’s difficult, since you will most likely have some unfinished tasks to complete, calls to attend, and e-mails to read.
Even if you manage to detach yourself and learn, these things will still be present in the back of your mind, diluting your concentration and slowing your personal growth. We’ve discovered that devoting an entire day to learning takes care of that, since it mentally separates the learning activity from the day-to-day work.
It’s not about giving up a full working day for resting—it’s about shifting your workload to make time for learning.
Afraid you cannot fit a whole week’s work in only four days? You shouldn’t be. It has been proven that most people are fully focused and productive only a small fraction of a working day, with the rest being taken up by admin, e-mails, and other unrelated activities.
If you fully dedicate yourself to sustaining this schedule and commit to a full, undisturbed learning day, you will change your behavior to become more productive during the other four days of the working week. Your work will benefit from this as well, thanks to the increase in productivity and focus.
In the end, it’s not about giving up a full working day for resting. It’s about smartly shifting your workload to make time for learning that will benefit you in the future.
What has worked for us
What do we actually do in our studio? Well, loads. We started out with some online classes and books but then expanded it by accessing specialized courses, experimenting with and testing new design methodologies, working on personal side-projects, pro bono consulting, and two-hour sharing sessions between studio members. It has been an organic process that has evolved from small initiatives to a more structured plan over the course of the past six months.
We started learning how to work with various design tools and how to do design consultancy better. We took up writing as a key skillset for the studio and played around with typographical experiments, just to name a few. At one point, we started working with an experienced learning consultant, who gave us a more structured and strategic process to follow. This has helped us better understand our needs as individuals and as a studio.
One thing that we found, having these practices in place and learning on the go, was that they spark conversation and collaboration between studio members who become more engaged and focused both in their studio work and personal growth. We’ve become more mindful of our colleagues’ capabilities and started actively learning from each other, which has resulted in new projects or studio initiatives.
One of the key drivers in our work is to feel creatively satisfied with what we do.
On the short term, these initiatives have added to our learning mentality and fostered our curiosity. I believe that every person in a creative field, especially design, needs this playground to test out new ideas and see where they lead them.
As designers in general, one of the key drivers in our work is to feel creatively satisfied with what we do. Client work doesn’t always suffice, so finding and realizing personal projects is a great way to compensate and make sure we stay motivated.
In the long term, this contributes to—and cements—our learning vision for the studio to turn us into a learning organization.
Building a habit and learning to learn
Learning how to design a mobile app or mastering the swimming breaststroke might seem two very different concepts to grasp, but with proper planning, resource allocation and time invested, they’ll soon fall under similar learning processes.
As we’ve kept on learning and building up the habit, we’ve internalized a new process that goes beyond collection of new information. We have learned to better understand our capabilities and connect dots faster than before—even in new situations.
We’ve discovered that starting the learning process at a smaller scale and growing it organically was extremely helpful and set the pace for solid progress in the future.
In a nutshell, not only have we learned new things, but we’ve also learned how to learn. This has enabled us to be more disciplined, flexible, and adaptable in our endeavors—a habit for everything we do.
We’ve discovered that starting the learning process at a smaller scale and growing it organically was extremely helpful and set the pace for solid progress in the future. It took us roughly six months of experimentation and going through different approaches to find the one that works for us.
Devoting a day to learning might seem like a big commitment at first, but the benefits will speak for themselves as you transition your organization into a learning-oriented one. Don’t take our word for it, give it a try yourself!
In the end, it’s only one day a week.
Adrian Ciulei is the co-founder and creative director of studio~humm. He’s spending his Fridays getting better at motion design and writing. Send him your thoughts at adrian@studiohumm.com.
