Personal Power: How to use Know What You Don’t Know

Know What You Don’t Know is the process I use to approach pretty much every new skill I want to add to my box of tricks. I’ll run you through at a very high level how you can use Know What You Don’t Know to put together a blogging action plan.

Step 1 – What do we need to know

In a very Covey way we begin with the end in mind.

What is the desired outcome?

We would like to learn how to build a successful blog.

On a high level what would this entail?

If we had no clue at this point it’s time to go do some research. For Dummies books are very useful at this stage as is hanging around in forums as you’ll pick up the terminology that you’ll soon be fluent in.

For me at the highest level Blogging comprises – Good Content, Good Design and Good Promotion.

During step one we are trying to be as general as possible.

Step 2 – What is Good?

Typically at this point I will spend time looking for examples of Good Content, Good Design and Good Promotion. You’re probably reading blogs with these elements already. Subscribe to these good examples and read them religiously. Study the structure of their content, look at what design elements Good sites have in common and start studying how these sites promote themselves. Do a search, are they paying for advertising, relying on social networking site and word of mouth.

Write down what you notice when things don’t make sense take some time and do some research.

At this point if we were to write down your total knowledge on blogging should have lists that look something like the this except a lot longer (this is just an example):

Make this list as long as you need it to be and keep adding to it. I suggest you use a tool like Evernote which allows you to access your notes regardless of whose computer you’re working on or just to keep a notebook and with you and constantly update your list.

Step –3 Plan and Research

Go through each of the items in your list and decide in what order you need to know them and then research them. Find websites, books, forums and chat rooms and get as much information as you can on each subject you’ve listed.

By going through this process you will be in a position to find the right resources at the right times. Don’t be surprised if you find that for every item you research you find 4 more items to add to your list that you need to research.

The beauty of this system is that as you add items in step 2 you get sight of the bigger picture and you start gaining confidence in what you know and what you still need to learn. Add one or a couple of these items to your to do list each day and you’ll quickly find your knowledge increasing.

Disclaimer:

Using Know What You Don’t Know will not turn you into the next Darren Rowse or John Mayer. It will give you a framework to learn what they learnt in a structured way. You still need to do the hard work of actually learning and applying and practicing. What this system does do is help you guage your own progress.

Useful Link

Are these three words ruining your life an interesting discussion about the psychology of failure/success by Jonathan Mead on the Zen Habits blog

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