Track—manage your progress#

After you start your training or study, the Memletic Approach switches from planning to progress tracking. Just like navigating an aircraft, I suggest you pause occasionally and consider how well you are tracking to your plan.

One habit to avoid though is checking your progress too often. There are two key reasons for this:

• It takes your time away from what you should be doing. Too much tracking leaves less time for doing what you are tracking! In an aircraft, for example, too much tracking can be dangerous. It takes time away from other important activities. Pilots train to check their location often, but not a minute-by-minute basis. This allows them to do other critical activities such as keeping an eye out for other aircraft, checking the instruments, and communicating on the radio.

• Regularly seeing how far you still have to go can sometimes be demoralizing. A good example is a long-distance runner. Often when they are running long distances, they set their next objective as reaching the top of the next hill. They focus all their attention on reaching that objective. When they reach it, they set their next objective as the top of the next hill. If they started thinking too much about how far they still have to go, it’s likely their brain would stop them right away!

Tracking your progress is still an important task though. It helps keep you going in the right direction. It helps you realize you may be off track, and helps you understand how to get back on track. It also helps you to celebrate progress.

Key items to track are:

• Your time schedule. How well are you meeting your original time schedule?

• Your cost schedule. Were your earlier cost estimates accurate?

• Progress. What shows you are progressing? Signs include module completion, exam scores, positive feedback from others, or behavior changes.

• What is coming up? Are there any exams or tests coming up?

• What issues are you having in your training? Who can you discuss these with to help you resolve them?

If any of these items suggest you are off track, you may need to do some replanning. Consider whether you need to get back on track, or whether you should change your track. Either way, you should consider the changes you may need to make to your plan.

While you may not need sophisticated tracking, I suggest you at least keep some basic notes in your review log.