On Saturation: When You Know It’s Time to Do Something

In grad school, I learned about a very interesting concept called “saturation.” I’ve thought about it a lot since, and how it applies to me in life, specifically as a freelancer. Allow me to explain:

WHAT IS SATURATION?

Simply put, saturation is a goal line for qualitative (more on this in a second) researchers. They want to know that all possible feedback has been received, so they can begin analysis. When results/feedback from their research participants start to repeat themselves, researchers assume they’ve reached saturation.

For context, qualitative researchers, in short, study the human experience via formal observation, surveys, interviews, etc., as opposed to a quantitative researcher, who, as the name implies, analyzes data via statistics and complicated math. I was not a quantitative researcher. Can you tell?

HOW DOES SATURATION APPLY OUTSIDE OF GRAD SCHOOL?

I’ll offer my own personal example to help make the connection: I love to learn, but I often use education as a crutch because I lack the confidence to make a move. So, I keep reading, downloading, researching, etc. because I’m under the guise that I’m “doing something worthwhile.”

In reality, I’ve reached the saturation of knowledge on that particular topic and have yet to wring out my sponge (on the fence over whether this metaphor is clever or stupid). Case in point: freelance writing. I have spent, um, a lot of money on more courses, more downloadable PDFs, more webinars, more you name it, because I think I’m doing it—writing, a business, freelancing, fill-in-the-blank.

But, I’m not doing much at all except absorbing more information, a lot of which isn’t really new anymore, because I’ve reached saturation.

ALWAYS KEEP LEARNING. ALWAYS KEEP DOING.

I have to emphasize that learning and doing aren’t mutually exclusive but should rather happen in tandem. What that tandem looks like for you takes experimentation, but you’ll know for sure if you’re doing a whole lot of saturating without expending any of that knowledge.

Possessing knowledge is definitely empowering, but the actual doing builds the confidence you need step by step, which I talk about here. Learn and do or learn not and do not, there is no try (that doesn’t really work, does it?).