The normal question we were used to was How to master a digital skill? Or what Digital skill to start with? However, if you don’t answer the Why? you will always have a doubt if you are are doing the right thing. There is another step before thinking about mastery. That’s the foundation step. Few of us accept the idea that when learning a new skill we are at square zero in this skill. This means that we can do nothing or very little using this tool. This applies for digital and physical hand skills. Moreover, physical hand skills can be more dangerous as it may cause a physical damage while trying to figure out the correct way to do the things.
Let’s answer quickly at first the How? and What? questions then we delve deep into Why to master a digital skill?
How to master a digital skill?
Well, the steps from zero to hero are not much different from mastering any other hand skill. But before launching on this trip, you need the right mind set. Setting up your mind on how to success in a new skill is in details in this post from our holistic web site: Block 2: what is the priority of your unique gift?. The key factors in setting up your mind for excelling a new skill are prioritizing the skill and having patience. Why? you can see this from the summary of the steps below:
- Explore it and Try it
- Learn about it then Get some training
- Invest in it (instrument, tools, software) or even time for free online skills
- Practice, Practice, Practice
- Excel it more – if you wish-
When you give priority to something in your life then you are willing to free some time for it. This mean that you will secure some of your most precious asset which is time. Then comes the patience. The patience will support your forward steps when you are stumbling in the first steps. When you are still at square zero, you place everyone else using this skill on a high pedestal. Then, you might lose your interest due to the rumbling thoughts that try to show you that you will never reach that and the gap between you and the others is very big to cover.
What skill you will need to master?
That’s a simple question that needs a simple answer. Either you have an interest in it or it is requested from you. Both of these tracks will tell you what skill you need to learn to excel it. As both of them will give you valid reasons to give the effort and time needed for any new skill. So, when we are going to answer Why? we won’t talk about the reasons that justifies these effort but we shall focus on the difference between an occasional user and an expert user.
Why you need to reach mastery in your digital skills?
There is a simple answer but often not in the focus. When you grow your experience with a skill or a digital skill or a tool, you are able to reveal its full potential. Moreover, you can come up with non conventional usage of it. All this because you had uncovered its capabilities. And, you are a different human than others. So, your point of view, your imagination and your set of capabilities are unique. This uniqueness brings out some creative usage of common tools. Even mixing tools usage together to bring a new outcome.
I like how Google explained its point of view in making a wealth of resources and tools available for free. They said that we as a Google team can follow a stream of ideas and creations, maybe a couple or a dozen of them. However, you millions of creative users can develop millions of different creative streams that we can’t come up with. Further more, for each new door open or idea uncovered, there will be millions of developers who can build up on it in millions of new different ways and so on. Some of this ideas will serve a narrow band of users or even a specific uncommon use. But other ideas will boom and enrich the market and open new horizons for users and developers.
I had listened to an interview of Linux developer which is a very popular free operating system that rocked the software world in the 90’s. He had made it for himself because he wasn’t happy of all other operating systems. He introduced it to the coding community while he is not sure is it something good or nonsense. Nowadays 5% of PC runs on Linux and 100% of the world top supercomputers runs on Linux.
So you need to follow your own inner guidance and to continue even if your foundations are still shaky and, you are still at square zero. Maybe you will make the next Linux, Uber or Airbnb.
Example of creative usage of a digital skill using Google Forms
Forms had always been there for decades. Any sign-in application or online registration form has a 21% probability that it is a Google Form.
Google Form is part of Google Doc suite and is automatically linked to all Google Apps. You can create your form as a standalone project then link it to Google sheets. Even more you can can build your Google Form directly from within Google Sheets and then for any submitted response to the form it will be logged to the dbase in the sheet you created the form from. On the other hand, You can use Apps Script to build a different version of your form automatically and to send it to an email address with a different request every time based on the condition that had triggered the form generation.
In simple words, in our Google Jump-Start Apps Script, sheets and form course we show you how to generate a stock taking form. You can edit, refurbish and modify the items in the form using buttons in your sheet. A reminder is sent to the shop floor team to take their store stock on a certain day. Then once the response is submitted it is logged to the sheet. The automated sheet checks the inventory against the minimum stock. Based on the result it generates a purchase request with the material and the quantity to the email of the purchasing responsible.
This same form is alive till it is marked completed and material delivered. It is tuned to allow submissions with the status of the purchase request along time. The purchase request issuer will be able to check the status of his request once the purchaser updated the status from his side. It also enables comments from both sides. Like this you have you purchase request and all communication around it in one envelope.
In Conclusion,
Mastering a digital skill needs patience to the stumbling start up steps and dedication. The experienced user level of any digital tool can unfold its potentials. The shallow user can’t do this. Moreover the expert user can use his tool creatively and mix it with other tools to unlock new horizons.
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