Think about a typical day of a typical person, it started by the morning choirs, then the typical working day of 8/9AM to 6/7/8/9PM, and then it is time to enjoy dinner and family live. There is almost no time set aside for learning.
However, in today's industry, technology has been evolving so rapidly, and new ideas and new methodology have been developing almost on daily basis. If you only know what you knew 5 years ago, your knowledge is already out-dated. It is not that people do not want to learn. It is that, just like exercise, it is hard to maintain a healthy habit of learning.
I found that the following are most helpful. Basically, it all boils down to identify and keep a roution that works for you :
- in your weekly agenda, set aside a fixed time slot for learning only. For example, every Wednesday night, you will come home early and spend 4 hours learning;
- subscribe to a set of learning materials. I acyually perfer paper format (vs. electrical format), because it forces you to read it. The following is the minimun you should have
- your local newspaer
- your financial reading, including Business Week and Wall Street Journal
- professional journal in our field of business. For example, if you are an engineer, you may want to subscribe to Applied Physics Letter. If you are in management position, you may want to have Harvard Business Review.
- Make an effort to take all the learning and training opportunities offered by your company. It is not only excellent opportinities (for free), it is also a great way to show your boss that you are still on great growth path (and hence more opportunity for you).
Just like exercise. Most of us probably brought at least one set of treadmill at home, and most of us probably only used it less that 10 times in our life. The reason people join Gyms is because you are forced to do the exercise, because you paid money for it and it will get wasted if you do not use it. Above simple roution is also designed to keep you engaged in continous learning. At the start, it is not as important as what your learned as what roution you keep. After a while, you will really figure out what's important for you to learn to maximize your career.
Happy Learning !
