My Self-Education Plan for 2025

And the reasoning behind each learning goal

Every December, I create a self-education plan for the coming year.

It’s a tradition I approach with excitement. I sit down with a mug of coffee, put on some inspiring film music (this year it was the Harry Potter score), and put all my learning goals into a Google Doc.

Under each goal, I write down the books, online courses, and exercises that will help me achieve them.

While the document is meant to be adaptable, I do try my best to adhere to its original recommendations.

It is, after all, not something I threw together in a night of enraptured ambition, but a product of months of solitary self-assessment — of identifying gaps in my knowledge and skill set. It’s also a product of years of self-discovery — of uncovering my new authentic interests that require nourishment.

Why create such a plan?

The plan is a north star that guides me.

It’s also inspiring.

I’ve found that having a well-structured, long considered plan motivates me to read and to learn. Curiosity is great fuel, but in those moments where intrinsic curiosity has “gone fishing”, and a YouTube scroll is open for shop, my mind needs some tangible results to look forward to if it’s going to devote 45 minutes to reading Dickens, studying history, or cooking a new authentic Mexican dish.

This year, I thought it might be helpful to share what I’ll be learning — and, more importantly, the thinking and reasoning behind each part of the self-education plan.

My hope is that insight into how I created mine will help you create or refine your own self-education plan for 2025.

Since my plan is broken into several categories, each designating a certain self-learning goal and the related studies, I think that’s the best way to outline this article.

So, here we go.

Quick notes on the plan: The plan includes about half the books I hope to read this year. The other half will be chosen on a whim. This built-in flexibility prevents the plan from feeling like a cage. Also, there’s a chance I fail to achieve each goal. I’ve done it before. But shoot for the stars and land on the moon, am I right?

Continue my project to become well-read in classic novels

Ever since Covid lockdown when I committed to becoming a writer, it’s been a goal of mine to give myself a proper literary education.

No regret darts across my heart more often than that of having studied economics in university over literature. Not a week goes by where I am not confronted with the awful truth that another one of my favorite writers majored in the subject. At times, hoping for consolation, I have surfed reddit forums asking “is it important that creative writers study literature?” The answers have led me to exploring graduate programs, who now have my email address and regularly send me marketing material.

Unable at the moment to afford such a program, and unsure if it’d really provide me the rigorous exploration of the classics I so desire, I’ve had to take my education into my own hands.

If improving my craft is why I started this project of studying the classics, I don’t believe it’s why I persist. It seems to me that the reason I continue to read classic novels is that I in fact enjoy reading classic novels (most of them, at least). (see 10 tactics to enjoy classic novels)

They transport me to another time, another world.

They offer lessons about life and human nature with a gale wind force that’s hard to find in works of philosophy or today’s longform journalism. Dealing in existential themes that transcend cultures, time, and life circumstances, the stories and characters are almost always relatable to my life in some way. The writing is brilliant — metaphors and poetry abound. And since they’re classics, people are familiar with them (though, this is becoming less common) — and so, I find chances to talk about literature.

These are just some of the reasons that, this year, I plan to read six classic novels.

My Classic Novels Reading List

1. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

2. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

3. The Trial, Franz Kafka

4. Look Homeward Angel, Thomas Wolfe

5. Native Son, Richard Wright

6. East of Eden, John Steinbeck

My Deep Reading Approach

It has become apparent to me, thanks to many failures to complete my overambitious reading plans, that I need to read classic novels slowly and deeply. Otherwise, I whip through them at a rapid pace, miss the wisdom and beauty, and wonder why I’m reading them.

To learn about my approach, check out my article where I detail my 3-phase deep reading system. (Please note that the 11 steps represent a perfect dance, one which I may do only for the novels I love the most.)

Mostly, I focus on doing at least these three things:

• Before reading, learn about the book/author. Wikipedia is fine for this. I just like to know a little about the life and ideas of the writer, as well as why the book is so highly regarded. This gives me ideas of aspects to focus on during the reading.

• While reading, do multi-color marginalia: Use three colors of pen. Blue for plot points. Black for examples of great writing (techniques, choices, etc.). Red for thematic moments. In the margins, summarize the marked passage.

• After reading, re-read your marginalia and capture the best passages. Finally, I’ll re-read the notes I made in the pages, and hand copy the most moving, educational, or arresting sentences and passages into my literary commonplace book.

This year, I’ll also be reading these novels with an old friend who lives a train ride away in Manhattan.

So six trips to the Peculiar Pub, a favorite dark dingy bar in the West Village stocked with beers from over 100 countries, will be in order as well.

Understand what makes a great coming of age story

Many of my favorite novels and films are coming of age stories.

• David Copperfield

• Martin Eden

• Perks of Being a Wallflower

• Little Women

• Dead Poets Society

• The Graduate

I think it’s because at 28, I have just, in some way, finished my own coming of age, so the material is incredibly relatable.

This year, I’d like to learn more about the genre by reading some of the best coming of age stories written in the last few decades. A fun exercise, it also is a preparation to, one day, write a story of my own.

In On Story, Robert Mckee, the famed screenwriting teacher, writes:

“Each of us owes an enormous debt to the great story traditions. You must not only respect but master your genre and its conventions.”

Therefore, in reading these books over the year, I hope to glimpse some principles that make a great coming of age story.

Contemporary Coming of Age Novels Reading List

• A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

• Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver

• Atonement - Ian McEwan

• My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante

• The Book Thief - Marcus Zuzack

Gain footing in autobiography literary genre

There are 4 major reasons I’m reading 5 classic autobiographies this year:

1. In The Well Educated Mind, my favorite book on classical education, Susan Wise Bauer suggests autobiography as one of the five categories all people should study, and offers a list of books to do so.

2. Autobiographies are practical, providing you with role models and hardwon life advice. I’ve deliberately chosen some authors who achieved goals I wish to achieve — for example, Nabokov is a writer, Frederick Douglass a thinker and autodidact, and Mary Sarton, a novelist and poet who led a deep, contemplative life.

3. I recently read “The Education of a Wandering Man,” an autobiography of Louis L’amour, and found it riveting, which made me want to read more books like it. (I even wrote an article on 7 lessons on reading from Louis L’Amour).

4. I am in the midst of a long-term DIY degree in the humanities, and this fits in neatly as a DIY course.

My classic autobiography reading list

• Confessions - Augustine

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

• Speak, Memory - Vladimir Nabokav

• Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey

• Journal of Solitude - Mary Sarton

My approach to learning from autobiographies

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, “Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life.”

Therefore, as I read, I will be on the lookout for wisdom and tactics that I can apply to my own life.

I will also be admiring beauty and truth along the way, and capturing it in my literary commonplace book (or my Knowledge Lust commonplace book if it relates to self-education).

Side Note: Autobiographies are also a great literary form to include in a morning wisdom reading routine.

Learn more about contemporary issues, especially in the Western World

Over the last five years, I’ve focused primarily on reading old books.

This year, I think it’s time to come out of the crypt, peek outside, and see what’s going on. I want to get some informed, considered perspectives on modern life from contemporary books, not just news articles, podcasts, and short-form videos.

Therefore, I’ll be reading 10 books on issues from technology addiction and anti-intellectualism to the faults of America’s criminal justice and education systems.

Many of the books I’ve chosen are written by people I’ve listened to on podcasts. I’ve tried my best to create a balanced list, which includes views from those on the right and left. Most of them, though, at the outset, strike me as objective, centrist analyses and criticisms of modern society and culture, but we’ll see!

Modern culture and society reading list

• The War on the West - Douglas Murray

• Amusing Ourselves to Death - Neil Postman

• Anti-intellectualism in American Life - Richard Hofstadter

• The Extinction of Experience - Christine Rosen

• The Earth Has a Soul - Carl Jung

• The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander

• The Marxification of Education - James Lindsay

• Liberalism and its Discontents - Francis Fukayama

• Empire of Illusion - Chris Hedges

• Consequences of Capitalism - Noam Chomsky and Marv Waterstone

Research the topic of self-education, especially as it relates to reading books and studying the humanities

My blog and newsletter are both about autodidactism, reading, and self-directed study.

Therefore, in an effort to write deeper, more informed articles about these topics, I thought it high time to more systematically study them.

You’d think this would’ve be obvious to me from the start. But I have a certain tendency to ignore the practical and embrace the romantic. I could very easily convince myself that reading classic novels would make me a better Substack writer about education than reading about education itself!

It was Louis L’Amour, the Western writer, who finally drove home to me the notion that I should be reading about the topics on which I write.

In his autobiography, he writes:

“Although involved with studying the Far East, I at no time neglected my study of the American West. Much of what I was writing concerned the West and it was my duty as a writer to present as honest a portrayal as possible. To that end I was not only traveling the country but reading approximately thirty books a year on the West in many aspects.”

Louis read over 100 books per year, many of them classics, and I’m in no way at that point as a reader, so I think 7 will suffice. Plus, I already read articles and watch YouTube videos and lectures on the subject.

My reading list for reading and self-education

• The Great Tradition: Classic Readings on What It Means to Be an Educated Human Being

• The Pleasures of Reading in a an Age of Distraction - Alan Jacobs

• Why Read? - Mark Edmundson

• Leisure: The Basis of Culture - Josef Pieper

• The Abolition of Man - C.S. Lewis

• Rescuing Socrates - Roosevelt Montás

• The Science of Self-Learning - Peter Hollins

My approach

I have a commonplace book for capturing useful ideas and quotes about these topics, as well as my own reflections on them.

My plan is to get better at using my notes as inspiration for articles.

Improve my descriptive prose writing

I love to write fiction. I consider it my calling.

Over the years, I’ve identified some weaknesses in my craft. One of them is descriptive writing. When I compare my descriptions of settings, characters, and emotions to those of Dickens, or Donna Tartt, the chasm is frightening.

Therefore, this year I’ll be embarking on a close re-reading of Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, a coming of age novel that blew me away with its immersive powers and descriptive, specific prose.

I will be hand copying the novel in a notebook.

By slowing down and considering the choices she makes, I hope to notice and internalize her techniques.

After each close reading session, I will write in my journal, bringing one aspect of her writing into my own, thus getting 1% better at one of many writing skills.

Upskill for freelance writing so I can charge more

I started freelance B2B SaaS blogging four years ago. It’s how I currently make a living.

Since my initial self-directed training, I haven’t really systematically tried to improve my blogging skillset, other than by writing a lot of blog posts.

I’m at a point where I need to charge more to make writing about SaaS worth it. I’m engaged. Weddings are expensive. And money is becoming more important the closer starting a family comes on the horizon.

The problem is that I’m a bit scared to do so. I suspect that this fear of charging more comes from a sense that I’m not good enough — that I don’t deserve those high rates I see top tier bloggers charging.

So, this year, I’m going to take some courses to learn some new best practices and techniques. This, I believe, will give me the confidence needed to demand those higher rates. It will break that self-limiting belief.

I also think it will enliven the thrill of blogging, since I’ll have new techniques to test out.

One course I plan to take is “How to Write a $1000 blog post”. I’m unsure how many others I’ll take, but I’m planning on about 2-3.

I’ll also be reading more blog posts from top B2B blogs, like HubSpot and Zapier, and seeing what they’re doing that I’m not.

Learn to cook 20 authentic Mexican dishes

When someone asks me my favorite food, I always answer enchiladas verdes, with carnitas tacos and carne asada burritos coming close behind.

I thought, why not actually learn to cook my favorite foods? As well as some other authentic Mexican dishes I’ve never tried before?

My reason was that, first and foremost, it’ll make cooking dinner more fun, since I’ll be trying new things. Second, my fiance will love it. And third, I’ll come away with some new cooking techniques and knowledge about Mexican cuisine.

So I set the goal of cooking 20 Mexican dishes this year.

Hopefully it’ll shake me out of my current cooking rut where I rotate the same 10 dishes.

May 2025 be a year of learning and growth

When creating your self-education plan for 2025, try to create reading and learning goals that are in line with the long-term vision for your life.

For example, if you’re aiming for a well-rounded education in the humanities, maybe this year you’ll read 3 classic works of literature, 3 of history, 3 of philosophy, and 3 of art.

If you have some skill or area of expertise you wish to develop, read books on it.

I’ve found the best way to stick to a study plan, without teachers breathing down your neck, is to come up with strong personal reasons for achieving your goals.

So, when forming your plan, I’ve found creating a “why” section below each goal explaining why you’ll pursue this course of reading or practice.

This ensures the goal is worthy of making it onto your plan. If your reasoning is anything but honest and strong, ditch the goal. You only have so much time to spend reading.

Now, if you don’t have a vision of where you want to go, reading widely across genres and subjects is a surefire way to develop one. It’s how I formed mine. Reading exposes you to other lives, belief systems, and ideas. Some will resonate with you and become part of your own ever-growing philosophy of life.

Regardless of where you are in your self-education, I hope this year is made more interesting by the systematic pursuit of new knowledge, wisdom, and mastery.

If you’re looking for self-education goals and ideas, here are some articles that will help:

• 14 ways to educate yourself every day (+daily self education examples)

• How to create an annual reading plan (an 8-step process)

• 10 unique reading goals for this year's reading plan