5 Strategies for Integrating New Skills into Daily Practice

Are you ready to move from  “learning” into doing ? 

Today we're sharing 5 strategies that can help you integrate new skills into your daily practice, to reduce that overwhelm and remember what you've learned.

Co-hosts Jessica and Coral are here to show us how to keep that momentum going, so those skills don't just stay in a notebook, but actually begin to show up in your day to day.

Coral has some practical, approachable steps that anyone can try, regardless of your role, your team structure or where you're based. 

The hope is that as you listen, you can take what speaks to you and adapt it to suit your own work and life.

And don't feel compelled or overwhelmed that you have to try them all at once, or even all of them at all. You can just take what works for you, remix, adapt and pivot.

Links and resources from this episode:

• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: practicingconnection@oneop.org 

OneOp Academy is a free online series designed for anyone interested in positive change, whether you're an educator, community leader, student, or just passionate about supporting families.

This year's Academy spotlights the unique challenges facing military connected youth, from mental health to resilience education to community support.

 Explore the 2025 OneOp Academy and register today at oneop.org/series/2025academy

Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hi. Thanks for listening to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica. Today we'll be talking about how to move from learning into doing, specifically five strategies that can help you integrate new skills into your daily practice. My co-host, Coral, is here to guide us through today's practice. Hey Coral, how are you?

CORAL OWEN: Hey Jessica. I'm doing really well, thanks. I just finished facilitating a workshop last week and one of the things that came up in conversation was how energizing it can feel to leave professional development opportunities, but a week later it kind of sometimes fizzles. It's not a bad thing, just, you know, noting reality.

And that's actually exactly what we're going to talk about today is how to keep that momentum going, so those skills don't just stay in a notebook, but actually begin to show up in your day to day.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yes, I am so looking forward to this topic. I love this. Keeping those notes in the [00:01:00] notebook often happens to me. I can relate to that so much. So I'm really looking forward to hearing about what these practices are you're going to be sharing with us, and we would love to hear what strategies you use to apply skills in your work or daily life.

Send us a note at Practicing connection@oneop.org. We see and respond to every message and we can't wait to hear your ideas. 

- break -

Okay, let's get into it. Coral, can you walk us through these five strategies for building new skills into daily practice?

CORAL OWEN: Absolutely. So these are practical, approachable steps that anyone can try regardless of your role, your team structure or where you're based. And so we're going to be walking through each of the five, and I'll share each one, along with some examples as well. And so my hope is that as you listen, that y'all can take what speaks to you and adapt it to [00:02:00] suit your own work and life.

But please don't feel compelled or overwhelmed that you have to try all of them at once, or all of them at all. You can just take what works for you as always, or you can remix them.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Right.

CORAL OWEN: 100%.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, this sounds great. Let's get going.

CORAL OWEN: Awesome. So yeah, let's get right down to it. So the first strategy is all about micro goals. So when we learn something new, it can feel overwhelming to apply it perfectly straight away. Micro goals break the skill down into bite-sized manageable actions. And so, if you just learned a new communication technique, for example, your micro goal, it might be to use it just once during a single meeting this week.

Small steps can make this skill less intimidating, and it also gives you little wins that build confidence. It's like training a muscle. It just, you know, builds that strength and momentum over time.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: I like that, it's less sort of, “How do I overhaul everything,” and more, “How can I try [00:03:00] one thing in one moment?”

CORAL OWEN: A thousand percent, and we're also reducing that friction to start by just a monumental degree. So, okay. Our second strategy is one that we actually highlighted in the January 16th episode at the start of this year. A personal favorite, not to play favorites, but this one is habit stacking, and the idea here is pairing your new skill with something that you already do regularly and often automatically. 

For instance, if you review your to-do list every morning, you can immediately follow that with applying a new productivity technique that you've learned, such as tackling your highest priority task first. And essentially this existing habit that we anchor into it becomes the trigger for the new one that you're cultivating.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, I think, if I remember right from that episode, you had a fantastic example of like when you make your coffee, 'cause you know, you make coffee every morning, that you pair that up with something else. I don't remember what that was, but I do remember it was a [00:04:00] great example because I also make coffee every morning.

So, super practical. I use this often myself.

CORAL OWEN: Absolutely. And yeah, taking advantage of what's already working with your daily rhythm helps keep this very approachable. And you'll note that this is going to be a trend throughout all of these strategies, is to really just grease the skids so that you can feel like you can take action easily, quickly, and keep it sustainable.

And so straight into our third strategy, which is daily reflection. So at the end of the day, each day, you can briefly check in with yourself asking, “How did I use my new skill today? Did I use it?” Again, these don't have to be massive practices. This one can just be a 30 to 60 second check-in, and maybe it's a brief note in your planner or, I know a lot of people were using bullet journals a while back.

Not sure if that's still in vogue. But, you know, maybe it's just a little bullet that you mark in whatever your strategy: voice, memo, et cetera. The point is [00:05:00] simply to capture both the successes and the challenges. And this reflection also reinforces the new action. Helps you see patterns and trends over time.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, seeing those trends is really helpful. I did this for a while where I had a couple of personal goals, because unfortunately I tend - fortunately or unfortunately - I tend to prioritize work. And so I had this period of time where I was trying to prioritize some personal goals. 

And I have to tell you, it was super motivating to see the trend of when I was tracking it, to see the trend of, that I was actually spending time on a goal that I had. So you might not even realize you accomplish something a few times a week until you start to look at that. And that's what I noticed as well. Like I actually was doing the things that I wanted to do, but they were taking up less space in my brain.

And so because I could see the tracking, it helped to create some more momentum to keep it going.

CORAL OWEN: Exactly. And I think too, the piece here [00:06:00] is that these, you know, micro goals are, you know, things that we're really breaking down to be so bite sized. It is such a brief touchpoint within our day that sometimes you even forget that you did it yesterday, the day before. 

So having that concrete documentation where you can see that trend over time, it really just reinforces, “Oh, okay, I'm actually doing the thing.’ And then, you know, that doing of the thing, it can grow and grow over time into whatever you hope it is becoming. À

Alright. Our fourth strategy is creating reminders and queues. So again, you might see a little bit of overlap in some of these, and that is okay. For this fourth strategy, reminders and cues, it really comes down to the fact that we are juggling a lot, all of us. 

I know that to be true, and so sometimes a helpful nudge can be exactly what we need. And so this reminder or cue can look as simple as a sticky note on your monitor, on your desktop, whatever.

Sometimes calendar alerts are helpful, even digital prompts like [00:07:00] notifications or, you know, an alarm that is labeled on your phone. Whatever it is. So just a simple example might be if you want to trial a new question technique, you can set a reminder for your calls or your meetings that says simply, “Use open-ended questions.” 

And things like this, these tiny triggers, what they do is they just help bring that skill to the forefront of your brain when you actually need it. Rather than having it done in a notebook, where you have to like go look for it and, you know, just again, it's just it brings it to top of mind when you actually have the space to use it.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That is really, I mean, that's just so realistic. Without reminders, even the best intentions can get lost in the shuffle of a busy day. And can I just say, as someone who teaches interpersonal communication, the example you used of getting a message that you've sent to yourself that reminds you to use open-ended questions is just wonderful.

CORAL OWEN: Thank you. Yeah, and this is really, it's not about [00:08:00] willpower. This one specifically, it's about designing your environment so that skill has space to show up. 

Alrighty, bringing it on home. This is our final one, but certainly not the least of them all. And that is building the skill into meetings and processes.

And I know this might seem it's a little bit different in flavor than our other four, I like this one though, because it's really cool and you'll see why here in a second. But this one is, it's all about weaving your new learning into the structures that already exist. 

So, again, just for instance, to give this a little bit more, give it some legs, you might volunteer to lead a portion of a meeting where you're using that skill, or suggesting to add it to the team workflow. And the magic of this one is by embedding it into your regular work patterns. You make it part of the culture of, you know, your work team or, you know, your day-to-day life.

And it's not just an individual endeavor any longer.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: This one feels [00:09:00] really impactful, because it's not only enforcing your learning, but it's reaching entire teams, and it's kind of starting to build in maybe a culture of using the new things that you're learning.

CORAL OWEN: Yeah, exactly. This is truly one of the best ways to sustain change of any sort is when others are a part of it. It doesn't just live in your head, but it becomes part of our collective practices.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, I really appreciate you sharing these strategies with us because they were super clear and super actionable. Thank you so much.

CORAL OWEN: Thanks Jessica, and since this one did have, you know, quite a number of things that we touched on, I just want to do a real quick recap just to bring it on home. 

So, as a reminder, the five strategies we discussed today were micro goals, habits stacking, daily reflection, reminders and triggers, and building skills into meetings and processes.

And again, just as a very warm reminder, you do not have to [00:10:00] do all of these at once. You don't have to do all of them ever. Just simply start with the one or two that resonate most with you, and then build from there and see what happens.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Or don't build. You don't have to even build. If you don't, if it works really well for you, then just keep going with it.

CORAL OWEN: Absolutely.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That's it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to share it with a friend or colleague. We'll be back next week with a new episode.

Until then, keep practicing. 

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection Podcast is a production of OneOp and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, US Department of Defense under award number 2 0 2 3 4 8 7 74 3 3.