I’m willing to bet that most of you reading this have a bright colored sticky note with a hand-written message attached to your monitor right now. And even if you don’t have one now, it is likely at some point in your past you’ve written a quick reminder on one and placed it on the edge of your screen.
So why is that humble little square so impactful? Because it works. It is short, relevant, and appears exactly when and where it is needed — right in the line of fire, mid-task, mid-chaos, mid-caffeine crash.
That sticky note is a primitive form of microlearning, and it teaches us an essential truth: if we want learning to stick, we need to meet people not in a classroom, not in an eLearning a dozen clicks deep, but right where they work.
We live in a world of endless to-dos and attention spans shorter than a TikTok video. Your learners are toggling between Zoom calls, Teams pings, and project deadlines and feel like they’re constantly treading water to stay afloat.
Traditional training asks them to stop, sit down, and study. Microlearning jumps in the deep end with them.
Microlearning is bite-sized content. Things like 1-to-3-minute videos, quick tip cards, or interactive quizzes reinforce knowledge in the flow of work. And when it’s embedded into actual job tasks, that’s where the magic happens.
We know from cognitive psychology (and from trying to recall 10th-grade chemistry) that humans forget. Enter the forgetting curve where our brains begin to delete unused info within days. Microlearning acts as the "Save" button for your brain, offering up relevant info exactly when you need it.
Imagine a customer service rep handling a tough call. Rather than remembering what a trainer said three months ago in a roleplay, she hovers over the CRM field and, boom, a tip appears with suggested word tracks to handle escalating situations. Quick. Relevant. Effective.
Microlearning Embedded: Not Just a Buzzword, a Superpower
Here are a few playful but practical ways to embed microlearning where it matters:
Great question. If microlearning isn’t delightful, it becomes digital wallpaper. Add humor, gamify it, and use memes (professionally and responsibly 😉) to make it feel like less of a chore and more of a break for the brain.
Remember that learners don’t need more content. They need better timed content. Microlearning is not about dumbing down; it’s about showing up at the right moment with the right message.
So, channel your inner sticky note. Be small. Be helpful. Be exactly where they need you.
Need help making learning stick where it counts? Stick a note on your to-do list to contact Ardent about embedding microlearning into your team's daily flow to help you turn everyday tasks into powerful learning moments.