Welcome back to another Ask Me Anything, a weekly series where we talk to our friends, our viewers, and our community about all of their pressing needs, questions, wants, and desires.
Let’s take a look at the mailbag to see which questions are burning this week:
I’ve been enrolled on the PESO Model™ Certification for some time now but have still yet to complete it. Lots of life changes going on at the moment, and with running my own PR company (though it’s just myself and now my first employee) I am really struggling to commit the time to get through the course. I was wondering; everyone here who’s completed it – how did you find was the best way to go through it? I find I am spending all day fighting fires and dealing with responses and work in the day – then in the evening I am seeing my son, or having to catch up on the to-do lists. I’m just struggling to devote time to my own learning. It’s really important and I really want to go through the course. Any advice/suggestions would be welcome!
Community Professional Development Ideas
There were a couple of really great suggestions in the Spin Sucks Community.
“I use the Google Calendar Focus Time feature! Blocking my calendar so no one books me for something. I respect that time for myself so it makes a world of difference for me.”
And another one I really liked, “I am doing the course on a client campaign that runs during April so stalling is not an option. I have to get it done in the next few weeks so we are ready for the launch.”
Other Professional Development Ideas
Other ideas included:
- Getting an accountability partner (lots of those available in the Spin Sucks Community!)
- Block time every day
- Do it with your team—either for your business or for a current client
For my own professional development, how I handle it changes with the seasons and how busy we are with client work.
Some days and weeks (and months, let’s be honest) are better than others, but I try to treat it like I do riding my bike.
NOTHING gets in the way of my training schedule. I have it blocked on my calendar and I never, ever let anyone book over it. That time is sacred.
I try to treat my professional development the same way. When I wrote Spin Sucks, I got up an hour early every morning, set a timer, and wrote for an hour straight. Then I was finished for the day. It’s amazing how fast you can write a book doing that (and how nice it is to be finished and sleep in that extra hour).
Figure Out What Works for You
The point is to figure out what works for you.
It may be to have an accountability partner or to create a use case or to block out time and not let anything interfere with that time. Or it might be to get up an hour earlier with the sole focus on your professional development.
The point is to figure out what works for you because that’s the only way it’ll stick.
Have a Question?
The best part of all of these ideas is they work for the PESO Model Certification and for any other type of professional development.
As long as it’s something you feel like you’ll create a habit around, it’ll work for you!
If there is a topic you’d like us to cover, industry trends you’ve heard about but don’t understand, or a question you are embarrassed to ask but know we will be happy to answer let us know!
You can drop it in the comments below, DM us on social or in the Spin Sucks Community, or send an email.
You can also stop by my house with a bottle of wine, but we can’t sit out on the porch and drink. It’s too cold. You’ll have to wait for that part until spring.