LUDA and LUTS

LUDA and LUTS are a couple of acronymns I've used to help master skills, tasks or concepts. If you really want to get good at something, you have to accomplish certain steps along the learning path to obtain your goals. These acronymns are a sort of algorithm to help you along that path.

 

 

LUDA

LUDA stands for Learn it until you Understand it, then Delegate and Automate. This generally applies to physical tasks or items of work. For example, if you want to file your taxes, you should apply LUDA to that task. You'll need to learn the different aspect of taxes and what's allowed and what's not.  Once you have learned enough about tax codes and law, you should have enough understanding to file your own taxes. At this point, you can then look to delegate to a CPA or automate by using technology to send all your receipts and forms to a CPA to take care of.

 

Why not just skip to Delegating and Automating?

In the previous tax example, you might ask yourself why waste time learning and understanding when you can just offload the task to a CPA? You certainly could do that, but how would you know if your CPA took advantage of all the deductions possible? How do you know if the CPA is a good one or a mediocre one? If you don't learn and understand first, you run the risk of missed opportunities and being taken advantage of.

 

 

LUTS

LUTS stands for Learn it until you Understand if, then Teach it and Solidify it. This acronymn applies more to mental understanding and skills.  Maybe you want to be great at calculus or you want to be a great painter. You can use LUTS to get you there. Using the calculus example, I can learn, read about and practice doing calculus until I begin to understand what calculus is and how I can apply it to solve certain problems. If you just stop there, you can use calculus to solve problems but you still might not understand it fully. To take it to the next level, you need to teach it in some capacity. By explaining the concepts and helping other learn it, you will be forced to think about the subject in new ways you otherwise wouldn't. This added exposure to the topic will help you solidify your understanding and make you great at it.

 

What if I don't want to be an expert at some things?

You don't have to be an expert at everything you learn and do (unless you want to). You may not care about being a great car mechanic if you are a cardiac surgeon. Sure you need to drive to work, but having a deep understanding of mechanical systems may not really help you in your job. But as a heart surgeon, you better have a deep understanding of the heart and it's related systems. Whether it's in your job or your personal interests, you need to decide the areas in your life that require or demand that you have an expert knowledge of something.

 

No Shortcuts

Applying LUDA and LUTS to the areas you want to be good at doesn't mean that you can take shortcuts and not put in the time needed to get really good at something. To get really good, you're going to have to learn and understand. This might take a few days for simple things and years for others. As you develop skills, look for others to mentor. You can then teach and/or delegate concepts and tasks to others to help them on their path to following LUDA sand LUTS.