When I was in elementary school, I soaked up information like a sponge — and then I’d come home to teach my stuffed animals and my Toys ‘R Us version of an American Girl doll what I had just learned.

I administered spelling tests, practiced times tables, and read books with them all. Weird? Maybe. But was I cementing my learning by practicing it in a creative space? Absolutely.

As the years went on, I continued to crave knowledge. How do you balance in chemical equations? Why am I being taught how to manually score a bowling game? What makes a poem…a poem?

After graduating college, I naively assumed I’d just keep learning. I did for a while; I learned some basic HTML and CSS, read books on communication and habit-building skills, and dabbled in FIRE (financial independence/retiring early). I dipped my toes into some Coursera and MasterClass sessions, although they never really stuck. Life happened, I got busy, and my structured learning waned.

“After graduating college, I naively assumed I’d just keep learning…but life happened, I got busy, and my structured learning waned.”

This year, and inspired by TikTok and YouTube trends I’ve seen circulating, I want to get back in the game by creating my own personal curriculum (stuffed animals and dolls beware). But what does that even look like when you don’t have someone prescribing it all to you? How do you know what you don’t know, and then pursue it?

And my biggest question: How do you pursue curiosities that aren’t related to work?

Here’s how I’m approaching this next chapter of learning, even when there are no pop quizzes or grades involved.

What is a personal syllabus?

Before we dive in though, it’s helpful to know what it means to have a curriculum — and how that’s different from a syllabus.

Think of a curriculum like alllll the things in a chef’s repertoire. Sweet, savory, experimental, global, hyper-local — a good chef can probably make something tasty no matter the genre. When you open a restaurant, though, you want to find a specific menu that keeps you focused (and frankly, keeps you marketable). This is your syllabus — the specific, cohesive details that let you dive deeper into one aspect of your curiosities.

Or, just think of it like this: A curriculum is your degree, or the general courseload that gets you the education you are working towards. A syllabus contains all the coursework, reading, and tests that outline one single class in your path towards completing your curriculum.

Getting started: Find your inspiration

“I’m so interested in anything that crosses my desk, or my mind, that I have trouble getting started in one direction.”

Many of us want to keep learning throughout the rest of our lives — but what if you don’t know what you want to learn? I’m personally so interested in anything that crosses my desk, or my mind, that I have trouble getting started in one direction.

“The secret is to lower the stakes — you are not choosing for the rest of your life,” notes Unordinary Mind on YouTube. “You are just choosing for this season.” So don’t worry about putting too much pressure on finding the exact right thing; just focus on choosing the next thing.

For me, this looked like doing a brain dump of everything I’m interested in, including things and places that fascinate me, big questions I have about the world and my life, and things I’d like to try. I didn’t do this without prompts though, I sought some inspiration:

  • My saved folder on Instagram
  • Old pins I’ve saved on Pinterest
  • Movies, books, and shows I return to frequently (both fiction and nonfiction keep things rounded out)
  • Places I’ve been on my travels
  • Pain points — and delights — in my day-to-day life
  • Journal entries from years past
  • Daydreams and aspirations I’ve held quietly about my future
  • Taking online quizzes (like this Coursera career quiz)
  • Going to museums, concerts, events, or whatever catches your fancy

Remember, this doesn’t have to be about work. Too often, we’re tempted to improve ourselves or increase our knowledge in order to make our work lives more lucrative. Monetization creeps its way into every corner of self-growth, even when it’s just following our own personal curiosities. Lay aside the dollar signs, and follow what sparks your heart.

Open notebook page with color-coded handwritten notes, pens, and a highlighter nearby. Notes include lists, questions, and goals for creating a personal curriculum or syllabus.
A handwritten list titled "THEMES" highlights topics like women's creativity, collective liberation, neurodivergent support, community care, self-sufficiency, and sustainable daily life.
What my “brain dump” looked while creating my personal curriculum.

Planning & implementing your curriculum

Once you’ve identified where your interests lie, it’s time to find the connective tissue between them. My list was long, but I came away with a few themes — my interests in fiber arts, influential women creatives, and civil rights movements led me to consider how women’s creativity has influenced social movements throughout history.

Similarly, my interest in meditation, spirituality across cultures, and emerging research in the neurodivergence space led me to consider learning how to develop greater clarity of self and purpose. Lay out your themes and consider which ones feel most timely, most interesting, and most accessible to your energy levels right now. Start with the theme that sticks out!

Next, you’ll want to develop your courseload. What books, podcasts, movies, or events might help further your knowledge about this topic? Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and that’s okay — we have a world of information at our fingertips online, and it just takes a bit of curiosity and persistence to find the next steps. Here’s where I look to find learning resources:

  • Search for courses and syllabi online that might already be publicly available
  • Identify relevant research papers on Google Scholar, JSTOR, PubMed, ScienceDirect, or other reputable sources and follow the citations for further reading (Psst — you don’t have to read them right now, save the URLs in a doc for when you’re ready to dive in!)
  • Reach out to folks online who talk about these themes — do they have a reading list? Can you reach out to them to ask?
  • When in doubt, ask a librarian; they’re masters (literally) of discovering relevant information
  • Tell your friends what you’re intending to learn; they may surprise you with some handy resources
  • Look for local events in adjacent spaces — I’m beginning to look for knitting meetups and fiber arts exhibitions where I might make new acquaintances with recommendations for further exploration

In your search, be open to writers or resources that contradict your existing point of view. In fact, dissenting view points or accounts might even be helpful as you form a more robust perspective of your own. Approach this with a critical eye — learning exclusively from the loudest voices in a space can lead you into an echo chamber where you only parrot a prescribed point of view. Look, also, for marginalized voices and commentary by folks who don’t share your identity or worldview. Challenge yourself with a broader perspective, and you’ll be all the better for it.

Store what you find in a central Google doc or Notion workspace, listing resources that range from quick to read to one with deeper time commitments. This way, you can dip your toes in — or dive all the way in — depending on how much time you have on hand.

“What books, podcasts, movies, or events might help further your knowledge about this topic? Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and that’s okay.”

Decide your ideal outcome

The beauty of self-directed learning is that it doesn’t have to culminate in a thesis, or a presentation, or a capstone project. The only stakes are the ones you impose on yourself! Your final “project” might just be having read a few more books on a topic you care about, or it might be a trip (if you’re studying history or learning a language), hosting a themed dinner party (to share your new knowledge with friends), or going to a concert (or performing in one if you’re studying music!).

“What is it that you want to do once you’ve learned more? Or, in other words, why are you following this particular branch of knowledge?“

You might want to jump ahead and put together a month’s worth of learning on a topic, but I prefer to start with what I’d like to learn and then build the timeline from there. Learning a language might take years, but learning the basics of knitting might only take a month. It all depends on the depth of knowledge you want to build, and what your intentions are after you’ve begun your studies.

And that brings me to the most important aspect of building a curriculum you’ll actually stick with (if you’re like me and you don’t tend to finish things you’ve started): What is it that you want to do once you’ve learned more? Or, in other words, why are you following this particular branch of knowledge?

It very well could be for progressing your career, but it also might be to connect you with your partner, your neighbors, or deepen your civic engagement. You might want more context behind your favorite historical dramas, or to be able to speak more confidently with your in-laws about their favorite subjects. (Although, I’d recommend focusing your most in-depth research on subjects you personally want to learn more about. Introduce your in-laws to those and teach each other new things!)

Thanks to many of our chronic online-ness, we’re absorbing so much information every day. But, a TikTok education is only going to scratch the surface, which is where this intentional planning comes into play.

Now, in the comments below — tell me what you’re learning! And of course, drop your recommendations for books and movies that might help me deepen my own knowledge of the history of fiber arts and activism. 😉🧶 I’ll see you at the library!

An open notebook with color-coded handwritten notes lies on someone's lap, next to several colored pens on a wooden table by a window.