
Ask HN: How do you find time to learn new things? - vijayr
Between full time (boring) job, family commitments, volunteering etc how do you find time to learn new things whether it is for career or just out of curiosity? (other than finding a job that has more potential to learn) One of the things mentioned in the ageism article few days ago was older people struggle to find jobs as they don&#x27;t (usually) update their skills. How do we protect ourselves from this trap?<p>My questions are:<p>1. How do you set up a learning schedule?<p>2. How do you decide what to learn? I find myself interested in lots of things and struggle to pick and stick with a couple of topics :(<p>3. I do not want to spend all of my learning time on programming alone - do you do anything to combine learning new programming topics with your other interests?
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bklaasen
I'm 48, so I'm one of those 'older' folks who needs to stay sharp in order to
stay relevant. Don't force yourself into a schedule, be a dilettante. Be
voracious and promiscuous.

The following work for me:

1\. Don't be fearful; learn for fun. Don't beat yourself up for not spending
enough time on learning.

2\. Switch off the television. (I've actually pulled the broadcast TV cable
out of the back of it.)

3\. Switch off the radio. (We don't have any radios in the house.)

4\. Listen to podcasts and audio books on a broad range of topics that
interest you. Be fearless about ditching boring ones. Get a decent pair of
Bluetooth headphones.

5\. Learn how to skim-read books. Take notes as you go. Build up a library of
books you haven't read yet.

6\. Learn how to take notes. (the Cornell method is superb.)

7\. Subscribe to something like Safari online. Watch their videos, browse
their books.

8\. Have many interesting projects on the go, at different stages; some of
them will involve rote practice, some of them will involve working through a
tutorial, some of them you'll already have enough expertise to free-form.

9\. Have lots of computers at your disposal; Raspberry Pis, old netbooks, old
laptops - and one monster main machine with at least 16Gb or RAM and a
Terabyte SSD so you can fire up multiple concurrent virtual machines. Treat
yourself to decent tools!

10\. If you can, turn a room in your house into a pleasant workspace where you
have space to work on multiple concurrent projects. If you already have a room
that's become a place for procrastination, then go to the local library
instead.

11\. Work with different media: pencils, coloured felt-tip pens, paper in all
sizes, keyboards, screens, graphics tablets, cameras, blackboards... Make
sketches. Make lists. Draw diagrams. Throw stuff out.

12\. Get up and stretch for ten minutes out of every fifty. Go for long walks
alone. Take up a sport or physical activity, but not one that has a referee or
is constrained within a rectangle or fixed time duration.

~~~
kat
I agreee your first rule about fear is the biggest for me. I find it much
easier to learn when I'm not worried about 'its taking me too long', 'I'm not
learning the right stuff', 'I need to study more'. When I'm scared of learning
and failing I don't make the time.

Also, I find learning with other people keeps me motivated and pushes me past
the fear. Right now my employer does lunch+learns once or twice a month. I'm
more committed because I don't want to appear lazy at work and its more fun
when you can talk to other people who are also learning and struggling on the
same material.

------
sotojuan
Well, the easy answer is to stop volunteering and attending family/social
events[1]. Check out this[2] blog post for other possible ideas.

[1] Number 3 here:
[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/morebooks](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/morebooks)

[2] [http://rob.conery.io/2015/10/06/how-to-learn-a-new-
programmi...](http://rob.conery.io/2015/10/06/how-to-learn-a-new-programming-
language-while-maintaining-your-day-job-and-still-being-there-for-your-
family/)

~~~
to-too-two
Thanks for sharing those links. Interestingly, I discovered this in Aaron's
2008 reading list:

"DFW’s (David Foster Wallace) suicide hit me very hard. I ended up coping by
reading every piece of nonfiction he’d ever published. He was a brilliant,
tortured man and I see so much of myself in him. His nonfiction was fantastic
and I will consider my life a success if I can do half of what he did."

------
shostack
To simplify the matter:

Prioritize and free up more time.

For some, this means (unfortunately) cutting back on family and volunteering.
For others it might mean cutting back on sleep, or sacrificing a higher-paying
job for one with better hours or more flexibility.

Finding little ways to cram your life full of learning is important, but just
as important is cramming in time to digest/process what you learn so it
sticks, as well as practice it.

Lastly, take a break. Over the past couple of years I've increasingly felt a
sense of disgust with myself whenever I give in to my vice and play video
games. But I also realized that I needed that cognitive downtime to reduce my
stress and stay sane. Don't beat yourself up if you aren't learning every
waking free moment.

Beyond that, I personally find it helpful to read what I'm learning about
while in bed at night, and find related podcasts for my commute. I often also
read on my phone while on the can.

Also, try mixing it up. If you like volunteering in general, but aren't
married to something in particular, see if you can volunteer somewhere that
will help you learn in the process. And if your family commitments require
taking care of kids, consider teaching them programming activities that let
you dabble in new topics you want to learn.

------
tmaly
I have two options for my commute, train or car. I choose the train despite it
being a longer commute as it gives me a chance to work on side projects and
learn new things. You have to just get up every day and find some way to work
on a side project, sort of like working out. Just keep at it and stay focused.
It takes time, but if you do it for a while, suddenly you realize you have a
new skill

------
drakonka
Short answer:

1\. No schedule. I learn when I get a chance to work on my hobby project.

2\. I end up learning the things that are needed for the project and its large
scope

3\. The above involves learning about genetics, snails, reproduction,
inbreeding, consumable rot, and tons more.

Longer answer:

For me it used to be easy - I have a hobby project I've been wanting to make
for 10 years. The scope is huge and all I ever do is learn new things while
working on it. Last year my kitten got very sick and is now disabled. He needs
a lot of attention, medication, etc. My schedule pretty much revolves around
my work and this fricking stupidly loveable cat. Now there's not as much time
for me to work on the hobby project, so not as much time to learn. However, I
am constantly learning new things at work too so it's not so bad. I do the
best I can but remind myself to slow down and relax sometimes. Having your
life revolve around work and this living thing that depends on you can get
really stressful, so if I don't work on my project for a day or two and just
relax I don't beat myself up over it.

------
Effie-Ioannou
You need to either become a lot more organized, have a specific time for
everything, which means you get no time to rest, just constantly do stuff
(apart from sleeping of course, you will achieve nothing without that) Or
sacrifice something, I tried both. had no social life or a relationship then
though. I trained twice a day, tried to learn spanish, study for uni and a
job. I had no time to see friends. I was very fit and i have two records in
powerlifting , i havent really learned spanish, uni went okay and now I have
my own business too. It's too much but doable. I was quite happy, a little
tired but I didn't keep it up. Just set a time, obviously work is compulsory,
unless you can work less ( but also sacrifice some income) then say 3 times a
week you work out, or set a time like one hour this week i will do this and
one hour i will do something else.Make yourself a schedule.

------
apryldelancey
1\. I make myself carve out at least 2-3 hours per week to learn something
new. If I start reading/watching something that doesn't measure up to my
expectations I "fearlessly ditch it" much like bklassen suggests with boring
topics.

2\. Choose what will be the most beneficial for furthering your current
situation. For example, I'm currently focusing on learning more Python
programming as it is necessary for an algorithm I am creating.

3\. To keep myself creative, I've taken a hands-on art class (yes, my first
one), read some mindless fiction, and did an online language course. I fully
believe in broadening your experiences and exercising parts of your mind that
you don't use as much.

Hope all of that helps, best of luck!

------
33a
Something has to give. Either take off from work earlier, set boundaries for
yourself around family commitments, or scale back some volunteering. You need
to make space and time to be relaxed and learn stuff.

------
seekingcharlie
I am learning piano again, after a 3 year break. I work from home at the
moment, and when I feel that I need a break from coding, I walk into the next
room and play the piano for fifteen minutes. It's therapeutic and helps to
build muscle memory.

Startup hours are really difficult for learning new things, particularly when
you're hearing Slack buzz every 30 seconds. I've learned to completely shut
off email, slack, any communication. If it's important, they'll call me.

I have no idea how people with kids find the time to learn new things.
Respect!

------
beckler
I'm trying to keep up with new technologies, and it's a challenge.

Right now, I usually pick one thing I want to learn and then focus on it for a
few days to a few weeks at a time.

The problem is finding time. Usually anytime I think I'm bored, I immediately
get up and start reading/doing tutorials/etc on whatever I want to learn.

It takes some discipline, but once you start, it's pretty easy to make a habit
of it.

------
gonyea
I consider "learning new things" to be part of the employment terms. When
solving problems, go a few levels deeper than you might actually "need" to.
You usually end up with a more informed, elegant and robust solution.

You also enhance your overall knowledge and stay interested. That's a benefit
for the employer too! Otherwise you'd just go elsewhere because you're bored.

------
IpV8
I am a contract software engineer, so when I start feeling really stagnant
that usually means it is about time to start looking for the next contract. I
pick jobs that make me learn a new industry and/or technology. I am the same
way as you, it is very hard for me to learn new things at home, as there are
way too many other things going on.

~~~
vijayr
How do you find clients to give you work in technology that you haven't worked
in before?

~~~
IpV8
Staying at the cutting edge helps, I picked up an Angular job when it was
brand new, and thus nearly impossible to hire an expert on. Also I try to find
stuff that is similar to where I have worked. For example same technology
stack, different industry. Or different technologies, same industry. This way
my expertise can keep me relevant for the company, but the contract is still
interesting enough to keep me highly motivated. This all sounds great in
theory, the truly hard part is getting to know enough people so that there are
enough jobs on the table that I have any choice.

------
we89ahg
Even though they're expensive and I could just learn on my own, enrolling in
classes helps me because I feel pressure to show up, and I also get a chance
to meet new people learning the same thing. Taking a 3-hour class once a week
after work for 6 weeks really adds up.

------
hexomega
I sign up for news letters and add interesting articles i come across to
Pocket, and then I read those while commuting to work. I'm trying to wake up
at least one hour earlier in the morning and do another hour after work, but
that's not always possible.

------
angryasian
isn't this really a question of how do you become "actively motivated" vs what
you sound like as "passively motivated". Example a lot of people will say they
want to start a business or have tons of ideas, but do very little to act on
it and this is what I would consider to be "passively motivated". Not trying
to humblebrag, but when I want to learn something even with an incredibly busy
schedule I find a way. The last thing I do is ask questions on the internet on
how I should do whats best for me to learn.

------
runcougar
This is such a good quetsion. Self-paced learning has a awful retention rate.
I would love to learn to code but it's really difficult to find the motivation
to do it after a full day of work.

~~~
cJ0th
I don't know but given the way you phrase it, i.e.

> I would love to learn to code

you don't seem to have any concrete goals. No wonder that there is no
motivation!

Imagine you want to buy a new laptop and you find this site where there are
really low prices - sometimes.

Now would you find the motivation to (learn how to) write a price tracker if
it would help you save a lot of cash?

------
oweiler
Before I had a car I've worked on sided projects during commute. Now I try to
get up early half an hour before I'd have to to work on side projects or watch
presentations.

