Tools: AskMeEvery.com

Some of the most helpful learning tools are the most simple ones. We have all been there: we are all exited at the end of a training to do things differently and start applying this or that in whatever way. And then reality strikes... For the trainers among us, we all have been there too: we get people all capable and motivated at the end of a training, only to know that only a handful of people will actually transfer the learning to their work habits. I've attended one of these courses in January. One of the key lessons for me was to ask more for help, and not trying to do everything myself or assume people would not have time or not be willing to give me a hand. So for the past months I've been using the simple service AskMeEvery.com to ask me two questions every day via e-mail: "Who did I help out today" and "Who did I ask for help today?"

What it does

It is a simple tool to prompt you at regular times with a question. It can help to transfer learning by prompting you every day or week about something you intended to do. Did it help in my case? Yes, I found that simply getting this questions you ask yourself helps - even if most days I would delete it immediately and not reply to it - at least you keep your intention fresh in your mind and it helps you reflect on your intention.

How it works

You go to the site, configure your question(s) and which days they need to be send out. You'll get a confirmation e-mail back with your password code. For a fee, you can also have the question send by SMS. After that, you'll get your daily question in your e-mail, and you can also just reply to the message to get your answers recorded. On the website, the system keeps a log of your answers and the longest streak.

Worth stealing

In the spirit of 'Steal like an artist' what is worth stealing about this tool is:
- It is a simple concept, easy to understand, easy to configure. Too often we/I tend to complicate things and have too many features rolled up in a tool or platform. Less is indeed more in this case.
- I liked the fact the tool doesn't require registration - you just configure your question, and you get a password PIN send to you to get access to the report. No fuzz.
- This tool can be used in the '70' of the 702010 framework, and I think we can use more tools to help us learn from experience, track experience and reflect upon it.

Here's the dark side:
The original creator of the tool has paused new registrations for a while, until one of the users who is also a programmer took it over. The reason is that they couldn't maintain the free site anymore, it was costing too much to keep the service open. So now the new developer will need to figure out a way or business model to make the tool sustainable financially. And that is the dark side of a lot of learning tools - are people willing to pay?

This post is part of my series on learning tools.