In my current role, I’m developing a solution that’s event-specific. The event happens every year, but every year they may need to leverage the event differently. 

The problem I’ve always run into with annual asks like this is that I tend to forget the process until it comes up again, which wouldn’t be an obstacle if the process were exactly the same year after year. But the hope is our learners will build on their learning each time the event happens and deepen their practice.

So how do you get learners to remember something that happened a year ago? 

My answer: You don’t. 

Like myself, a lot of my family and friends are neurodivergent. Asking many of us to remember learning from a year ago is a big ask, and I assume it’s likely a big ask for neurotypical people too. 

Instead of hoping people will just remember, build self-reflection mechanisms into the workflow.

Since my build is event-specific and the event happens annually around the same time, I’m going to end the learner’s experience with an assignment to write a reflection—what worked, what didn’t, what do they wish they had known or done differently, etc. They’ll write this reflection in an email, address it to themselves, and use the scheduling feature to send it into the future. 

Then, when the event comes around again, the learner can go to the on-demand learning like the year before, but their reflection will give them a better starting point, jog their memory, and hopefully deepen their practice. 

I haven’t completed this learning solution for my work yet, so we’ll see how it goes, but I’m hopeful and excited.

I’m also encouraging my mentees at IDOL courses Academy to use their emails for intentional self-reflection as they DoItMessy. One can keep a journal or a win file, but remembering to review that can be a challenge, especially when one’s brain is in survival mode burnout. So my hope is mentees will write to their future selves to share wins, learning, and struggles. Then their past selves can continually show up, reminding them of their growth and ID magic.

Not sure how to schedule an email to your future self? Use the Image below to guide you (Right click to save).

Written by: Mandy Brown

💜Mandy Brown (she/her) is a fiercely neurodivergent, all-boats-rise kind of person who is writing a book to help people in toxic workplaces grow bandwidth and make safety plans. She posts about that and other topics on LinkedIn. And yes, she loves emojis and would be happy to connect. 😉