Worksheet

Week 1 - Project

Step 1:
- Define a clear goal.

Step 2:

- Select learning materials and approach to reach goal.

Step 3:
- Estimate time required to achieve goal.

Step 4:
- Set deadlines and milestones.

Step 5:
- Break down work into a week-by-week process.

Step 6:

- Review and update project file (ongoing).
Week 1 Worksheet

STEP ONE: Define a Clear Goal

What are you trying to learn? At this point, it’s okay to be vague, simply write down all your learning
aspirations:

Of all the things you’re trying to learn, which is most important to you right now? Which are you going
to focus on in a learning project? (Note: if you’re taking multiple classes, you can lump them together
into a single project)

Step 1: Define a clear goal Page 2 of 10

Week 1 Worksheet

Now try to make the goal more specific, concrete and constrained. Note how the MIT Challenge had
very specific criteria (pass exams/complete programming projects for 33 classes) and wasn’t just to
“learn programming” or “learn computer science”. I want you to be similarly specific.

In general, there are three ways to do this:

1. Constrain the outcome (e.g. I want to pass the CFA exam, get As in my classes, speak French
conversationally)

2. Constrain the curriculum (e.g. I want to read all the books in the Personal MBA series)

3. Constrain the timeframe (e.g. I want to invest 5 hours per week for 3 months)

Try this now—make a constrained goal for your project:

Are you committed to this? Does completing the goal fill you with enthusiasm to get started? If no, go
back to the start and try to rephrase your project until it does. You might want to spend time thinking
about why you’re learning this subject first.

Yes No

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Week 1 Worksheet

STEP TWO: Select Learning Materials

Now you’re going to pick how you’re going to learn it. If you’re in a formal class or program, simply
write down the learning activities suggested in the syllabus (readings, assignments, lectures, etc.).
If you’re learning on your own, do some research to find out a good starting set of materials for your
goal. Write them here:

In case you have too many materials to have time for, pick the top three here you intend to use as
your primary materials. Note: This mostly applies to self-learners. If you’re learning Spanish and you
have 6 apps and three books to choose from, it helps to start with a top three resources.

Step 2: Select learning materials Page 4 of 10

Week 1 Worksheet

STEP THREE: Estimate Time Required to Achieve Goal

How long will it take you to achieve the goal? In case you’re in a fixed curriculum, just write down the
date of your last exam or assignment. If you’re learning on your own, there’s two ways to estimate
this: bottom-up (figure out how much time each task will take, then add to get the total) or top-down
(choose a timeframe and then make the material fit in that time):

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Week 1 Worksheet

STEP FOUR: Set Deadlines and Milestones

Pick an end-date for your project:

If your project is longer than a month, you should also define some milestones. When would you like
to have met certain points of progress in your overall attempt?

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Week 1 Worksheet

STEP FIVE: Week-by-Week Progress

Now that you’ve gotten deadlines and milestones, I want you to break down your project into weekly
sections. What will you need to do each week, in order to finish the whole project.

Generally there will be two approaches here. For complex projects, such as classes, which may have
different assignment due dates, quizzes and assigned readings, you’ll need to specify what you’re
going to do each week of the class, and it might not be the same each week.

For simpler projects that simply require a lot of time invested, every week in your plan might be the
same. In this case, it’s fine to just write out your plan for one week and keep it constant.

Weekly Breakdown:
Week Plan for the week
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Week Plan for the week

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Step 5: Week-by-week progress Page 8 of 10

Week 1 Worksheet

STEP SIX: Review and Update

Keep this document with you. It will serve as the backbone for your project plan. Now your goal should
be to spend 15 minutes each week, to make notes on changes in the project. Is the project on-track?
If not, how can you make changes to your plan above to get it back on track?

Week Progress Notes

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Week 1 Worksheet

Week Progress Notes

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Notes:

Step 6: Review and update Page 10 of 10