Just-in-Time Learning
Learn exactly what you need for your next step, exactly when you need it.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 95%
Just-in-Time Learning is the core of Pat Flynn's 'Lean Learning' philosophy: instead of 'just in case' learning where you cram everything up front, you learn only what your immediate next step demands and implement it right away. The premise is that information is now infinitely abundant, so the person with the most knowledge is no longer the winner — the person who can find and apply the right thing fastest is. Flynn contrasts the buffet-line over-consumer, bloated and lethargic with information, against the lean learner who acquires knowledge surgically. Mistakes made in action become the guardrails that keep you on track. The skill of the future is knowing what to ignore.
Origin
After being laid off from his dream architecture job in 2008, Flynn fell into his old habit of consuming hours of podcasts daily, getting pulled toward a hundred different ways to make money. His mentor Jeremy from Internet Business Mastery told him to 'stop learning and start doing.' Flynn wrote a 74-page study guide over three and a half weeks by only learning each next step as it came — the site went on to earn over seven figures.
Core principles
- 01If information were the answer, we'd all be where we want to be.
- 02Treat information as abundant, not scarce — the brain hoards it like a scarce food source.
- 03Every yes to new information is a no to something you already committed to.
- 04Find the right resource for the right moment and implement immediately.
How to run it
- 1
Distinguish just-in-case from just-in-time
Audit what you're consuming and separate 'might need someday' learning from 'need for my actual next move' learning.
Pro tip The car-commute podcast played 'just because you have the time' is the classic just-in-case trap.
- 2
Isolate the single next step
Break the goal down and ask what step one actually is, then ignore everything past it.
Watch out Seeing the whole mountain of required skills at once is what talks people out of starting.
- 3
Find the minimum resource for that step
Locate the single resource, tool, or person that gets you through this step and nothing more.
Pro tip Flynn only needed the sales-copy appendix of an entire 300-page book, not the whole thing.
- 4
Implement immediately, then repeat
Apply what you learned before moving on, let the result reveal the next step, and learn that step only when you reach it.
Watch out Re-learning everything before each step reintroduces the overlearning you're trying to escape.
In the wild
Flynn built a website to help people pass an architecture exam, then wrote a study guide by learning each step only as it arrived — writing in Word first, then finding someone to format the ebook, then discovering Ejunkie to sell the PDF, then adapting a Mad-Lib sales page.
→ The study guide went on to make over a million dollars selling to architects.
Having never invented anything, Flynn applied lean learning to build a camera tripod product, figuring out patents, prototyping, and manufacturing one just-in-time step at a time.
→ Launched on Kickstarter in February 2019 and made about $415,000 in 60 days.
Common mistakes
Consuming as procrastination
People keep learning because they're scared of the action they know they need to take; more consumption just delays the result.
Learning the whole thing before starting
Trying to master formatting, sales copy, and marketing before writing page one nearly makes the project feel impossible and gets abandoned.
Is it for you?
Best for
Entrepreneurs and creators paralyzed by information overload who keep 'preparing' instead of shipping.
Not ideal for
High-stakes domains (medicine, aviation) where comprehensive up-front mastery is legally or safely required.
From the transcript
“If information were the answer, we'd all be where we want to be. But we're not.”
“You have to just stop learning and start doing because the more that you consume, the more time it's going to take for you to…”
From the episode
Pat Flynn: The Surprising Productivity Hack Helping Entrepreneurs Achieve More
Pat Flynn