Utilise your time and mentally exercise by learning, boosting your ideas and expanding your skillset.
Learning is a journey, not a destination. It’s important to stay ahead with continual education. When was the last time you met someone who didn’t have a full stack of knowledge in more than one particular space? Broaden your horizons and your abilities.
In the new work environment of the past year or so, there’s been more opportunity for online learning, upskilling within your role or training in an alternative area. Whether you’re interested in a subject that directly relates to you personally or professionally, extending your expertise and improving your superpowers will only benefit both areas of your life. After all, if we’re all stuck at home isolating, we might as well be productive right?
Reap the benefits
For those of us who are still feeling some drudgery connected to working from home, or who may consider spending more time at home rather than out and about and in the office this winter for safety reasons; spark your creativity at home and don’t allow your mind to stagnate.
You could use your original commute time or an hour before/after ‘work’ to refresh and learn something new. Whether you are currently employed, seeking a new role, or taking some time out, utilise the calm and stability of your current working environment and discover something new.
Not only is it emotionally uplifting, it’s also empowering – two strange yet amazing ways to feel in isolation.
Check out some online learning platforms
It’s worth investigating and researching programmes and even certified qualifications extensively to see what equipment, costs and the amount of time required to sign up for your new chosen interest.
Some employers may be happy to supply funding to certified courses especially if this is going to enhance your performance within the business. If you’re a leader and you have the capabilities to do this, it’s worth looking at the benefits this will give your team.
Right now there are a lot of offers and free subscription packages available, so it’s worth doing a bit of research now to benefit from these.
To get you started on your online expedition, take a look at some of these platforms:
Skillshare is an online learning platform for personalized, on-demand classes with the world’s best practitioners. From design, photography, creative writing to web development.
Udemy is a popular, generic online learning platform housing a variety of different courses and topics.
Pluralsight is a technology and multimedia-focused online learning platform.
Katacoda is an interactive, tool-based learning platform – and it’s free!
Scotch.io courses for all the major front-end frameworks, various other tools, libraries, and concepts.
Codementor is a live coding mentorship website which pairs you with an experienced engineer.
Google is offering their portfolio of Google Cloud learning resources free online this month, including their extensive catalogue of training courses, hands-on labs on Qwiklabs, and interactive Cloud OnAir webinars at no cost until April 30th 2020. If you’ve missed the deal, fear not, signing up can enable anyone to gain access to cloud experience through hands-on labs, no matter where you are. Learn how to prototype an app, build prediction models and loads more, all at your own pace from the comfort of your home.
Fast learners adopt healthy habits
Reading is super valuable for building your learning technique, it’s also great for your mind to exercise with new concepts, ideas, emotions and patterns. You won’t need to shove your nose into a library’s worth, but you could benefit from picking up a book occasionally. Apparently, if you read a lot your mind is more susceptible to learning better. For example, all the top guys read A LOT. Mark Zuckerberg reads a book every two weeks, Bill Gates reads 50 books every year and, get this, Elon Musk grew up reading two books a day!
Sharing your new knowledge with others will enable you to retain the information better. If you can set up an online study group or join meetup communities, you can build better memory and effectively learn by teaching and explaining it to others.
Taking care of your health will result in a sharper thought process and a happier brain. Switch off Friends, put away the bag of Doritos and revolve your diet around healthy food – vegetables, protein, whole grains, and fruit.
Take a break – little and often works a treat. To help retain information, it’s important to schedule in some downtime and optimise your rest intervals so your brain can solidify all the new research it’s taking in.
These help with forming an effective work from home plan and our daily routines too.
In a climate that’s changing every day, the ability to learn an accessible skill quickly at home will give you an advantageous lead in the world’s current situation.
