Useful ideas should become usable.
RAIN is a practical method for moving from an idea to action, reflection and better everyday choices.
The name has two parts.
IAMRAIN begins with the learner and provides a practical method for turning useful ideas into action, reflection and better choices.
The learner
Identity · Agency · Meaning
IAM describes the human side of learning: who you are becoming, what you can choose to do, and why an idea matters in your life.
The learning method
Read · Apply · Internalize · Navigate
RAIN gives useful ideas a practical path from understanding to action, reflection and better choices.
Learning can change more than what you know.
Useful learning can influence how you understand yourself, what you choose to do and what becomes meaningful to you.
Identity
Who you are, what you believe, and who you are becoming.
WHO AM I BECOMING?Agency
Your ability to choose, act, practise and change something.
WHAT CAN I DO WITH THIS?Meaning
Connecting what you learn to something that matters in your life.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?From useful idea to useful action.
RAIN gives each lesson a simple progression. You encounter an idea, do something with it, connect it to your own experience and decide how to use it.
Read
Discover one useful idea.
Apply
Turn the idea into a practical action.
Internalize
Reflect until it becomes part of how you think, how you feel and how you experience life.
Navigate
Use what you learned to make better choices in everyday life.
One useful idea. One way to use it.
RAIN is the method. A RAIN Practice is a short learning experience that puts the method into action without forcing every idea into a fixed time limit.
Know what this practice will help you do.
Understand one useful idea.
Work with the idea in a way that fits it.
Turn it into a practical action.
Try to retrieve the idea without simply rereading it.
Connect the idea with your own experience.
Choose how you will use what you learned.
Revisit the essential idea briefly before you move on.
Different ideas can require different kinds of learning.
The learning outcome comes first. IAMRAIN can then use techniques and processing modes that help the learner engage with that particular idea.
Learning techniques
Techniques describe what helps the learning happen.
Processing modes
Processing modes describe how you engage with the idea.
The technique and processing mode are chosen because they serve the idea — not because a learner has been assigned a fixed learning style.
Learn better before you learn more.
IAMRAIN Starter: Learn How to Learn is the free six-practice foundation. It introduces the practical learning techniques behind IAMRAIN and shows you how to use the RAIN Method before going deeper into a subject path.
Experience a complete RAIN Practice.
Protect Your Attention takes one practical Focus idea through processing, application, recall, reflection, navigation and review.