How Learning Works: Components, Systems, Loops

Goals and planning are vital as well. In the article, it's lumped into mentoring and coaching. Still, as a primarily self-taught learner/builder of teaching tools, this is often the most challenging part of effective learning and the most valuable part of mentoring/coaching. Knowing or finding a way to learn what to spend time on or not arguably makes a more significant difference than all the other pieces together. Because if you're learning the wrong things, or sometimes just in the wrong order, you'll never achieve the results you desire.

This is exactly what makes research difficult. There is no way to know what is the next best step.