Keep a learning log#

Most of what you do while learning vanishes the moment it’s over. You finish a lesson, a practice session, a presentation or a game, you have a vague feeling about how it went, and then life moves on. A learning log catches that feeling before it evaporates and turns it into something you can act on. It’s the simplest self-monitoring habit I know, and it’s one of the highest-leverage.

That’s not just my opinion. When researchers ask what makes goal pursuit actually work, monitoring your own progress keeps coming up as a reliable ingredient. A large meta-analysis of 138 studies found that prompting people to monitor their progress made them more likely to reach their goals — and that the effect was stronger when they physically wrote the progress down and stronger again when they reported it to someone else (Harkin et al., 2016). A log does both of those things almost by accident. Self-regulated learners, the ones who consistently outperform, share this trait: they watch their own learning and adjust, rather than just putting in hours and hoping (Zimmerman, 2002).

So keep a log. Here’s how I do it.

Keep two logs: detailed and summary#

I suggest you keep two logs. I call them the detailed review log and the summary review log.

In the detailed review log, you record what happened in each lesson, session, presentation, game or other activity — what went well, what didn’t, what surprised you. In the summary review log, you distil the key learning points, action points and assertions from those detailed reviews into one running list.

It doesn’t matter much whether you type or hand-write them. I use a standard paper notebook (A4) because I can take it anywhere and never worry about a flat battery. I do the detailed reviews in the front and keep the summary lists in the back of the same notebook.

One frank note on the “write it down” part. The benefit isn’t magic ink — it’s that writing forces you to actually notice and name what happened, instead of letting a fuzzy impression slide past. That noticing is the active ingredient. Recording and, where you can, sharing your progress simply make the monitoring harder to skip (Harkin et al., 2016).

Phrase your reviews positively#

Phrase the outcomes from your reviews in a positive way — yes, even the mistakes. Use the same rules as for assertions . This keeps you focused on the outcome you want rather than re-rehearsing the slip.

Instead of writing:

• Forgot to make an inbound radio call at Bendigo, or
• Forgot to keep eye contact with the audience

Write instead:

• I make inbound radio calls on time at all locations (including Bendigo), or
• I keep good eye contact with the audience.

There’s a sensible reason this isn’t just feel-good framing. A review log is only useful if you’ll keep coming back to it, and a list of failures is a list nobody wants to reread. Phrasing each point as the behaviour you’re aiming for turns the log into something you actually want to revisit — and revisiting it is where the value lives.

Build an assertions list in your summary log#

Collect the key assertions from your detailed reviews into a running summary list, organised by the major areas of your training, and keep it in your summary log.

I used assertions throughout my flight training, and I still use them to keep my flying standard up. My list reflected both specific issues I’d had and mistakes I knew were easy to make. I reviewed it often. By the end of training it was eighty items long. A few examples:

1. I use the map with the largest scale.
2. I remember to include “AMENDED” in a clearance when needed.
3. I complete CLEARA checks before and after changes in height, heading, and every 5–10 minutes.
4. I make correct and early radio calls when climbing or descending into new airspace.
5. I make correct and early radio calls before entering new airspace (laterally).
6. … and so on.

Some of these were mistakes I actually made; many were just potential errors I knew were easy to fall into. When I read about a mistake another pilot had made — say, in an accident report — I’d add an assertion so I was less likely to repeat it. The list also held plain good-practice items, not only fixes for problems.

Review your assertions regularly during training — the more often the better. As you read each one, pause for a few seconds and visualise yourself in a scenario that uses it. That tiny rehearsal is what makes the list more than a checklist. And don’t worry if the order is random; a bit of shuffle actually adds variety to your reviews.

Make the list more powerful — peg it#

What are peg words?

I introduce peg words in the Techniques section. Peg words let you memorise any number of items in a list, in order.

If you want to push the assertions list further, combine it with peg words . Notice how I numbered each assertion above — I memorised each one by associating it with a peg word. I didn’t know eighty peg words at the time, which gave me a good reason to learn them.

The payoff: you can recite your assertions anywhere, with nothing in your hands. I recited mine on the drive to the airfield, on the way to work, even while swimming laps. More reviews, more often — which is exactly the direction the evidence points (Harkin et al., 2016).

Keep going after the course ends#

Detailed and summary reviews aren’t only for training. Run a cut-down version each time you do the thing for real afterwards. Treat every flight, cruise, presentation or performance as a learning experience and take a few minutes to review it. These don’t need to be as thorough as a training review — the habit of regularly scanning your own performance for things to tidy up is what matters.

Since finishing my licence I’ve kept adding to my assertions list from later flights, and it’s now over 200 items. These days I keep them in SuperMemo so I can review them on a sensible schedule without losing track.

One last, candid word on benefits. A review log won’t, on its own, banish a fear of failure or impress your instructor — claims like that overstate it. What it genuinely does is quieter and more reliable: it shows you, in your own handwriting, that you can spot a problem, name it and act on it. Over time that evidence of your own course-correcting tends to build real confidence — the earned kind — which is worth far more than a pep talk.