“Atomic Habits” for learning modern GIS

In the last few weeks I have been reading (or rather listening) to Atomic Habits by James Clear. While I am certainly not productivity obsessed or focused on rigid habits, I do always look to optimize the way I work. For me there are a lot of things I want to do, and I want to find some optimal ways to balance that.

I use a second brain I built in Notion which helps a lot, but ensuring consistency, or habits, is another thing all together. After listening to most of the book I thought that in addition to any other habit, similar practices could be put in place for learning modern GIS.

For me what worked well was really finding the ability to practice concepts many times over, often times failing and hitting roadblocks during the process, to learn both the right way to do things as well as where not to go the second time around. Some of you may be familiar with the YouTuber Xiaomanyc 小马在纽约, and if you are not he is a polyglot who learns difficult languages and goes to those locations to catch native speakers off guard because they generally don’t expect an American to speak their language.

In this video, where he learns the Cree language and travels to remote Canada to share and speak it with some of the Cree elders (he also encounters a native Welsh and Chinese speaker and surprises both of them as well). In this part of the video (timestamped link) his host shares how surprised many people were that he could learn such a difficult language so quickly.

His answer, in short, is that the key to learning a language is speaking the language consistently for an hour a day. If you practice consistently, you will get better at it, just as many other things like exercise and many other things.

So how do you practice? How do you set those habits so that you are practicing consistently so that you will get better at the desired areas of modern GIS you want to learn? Here are a few ideas borrowed from the book:

1. Clearly define your new identity
   • “I am a GIS professional who continually hones my skills.” over “I am working on learning modern GIS.”
   • Shift focus from outcomes (e.g., mastering a software) to becoming a lifelong learner in GIS.
2. Set your workstation up for success
   • Keep your work open on your computer so it is far easier to access rather than having to constantly reopen your projects (reduce the friction to practice)
   • Organize your computer desktop with GIS software, tutorials, and data sets easily accessible.
3. Stack your habits
   • After a current habit (such as a coffee/snack break), start a GIS tutorial or read an article.
   • Example: “After checking my emails each morning, I will spend 15 minutes on a spatial SQL exercise.”
4. Set obvious reminders
   • Set visual cues like sticky notes or calendar reminders to prompt you to practice.
   • Pick a starting activity that if you complete, means you will likely finish the practice (if I open VS Code, I will practice DuckDB)
5. Make it attractive
   • Join the conversation on LinkedIn or in other GIS communities to make learning interactive.
   • Combine GIS learning with interests (e.g., mapping areas related to your hobbies).
6. Start small
   • Start with small, manageable tasks (e.g., learning one new function in GeoPandas per day).
   • Use templates and pre-made data sets to reduce the initial effort required.
7. Make it satisfying
   • Reward yourself after completing a study session (do something you enjoy).
   • Share your completed projects with peers or on LinkedIn so others can see and you can build your LinkedIn portfolio.
8. Track your progress
   • Use a journal or app to log your daily practice activities and reflect on your growth.
9. Leverage the “Plateau of Latent Potential”
   • Recognize that learning these skills takes time (years for me) and celebrate small wins to stay motivated.
   • Reflect regularly on how far you’ve come to reinforce your identity as a modern GIS learner.
10. Accountability partners:
    • Partner with a colleague or friend to learn these things together.
    • Schedule regular check-ins to discuss progress and challenges, or use LinkedIn to keep yourself on track by posting regular progress.