A mentor gave me an interesting challenge a few years ago, one that has stuck with me ever since. She challenged me to take 15 minutes a day to learn something new and to share with her what I learned. I thought what could I possibly learn in 15 minutes? Little did I know, I would learn a lot.
How do I do this? Below is a list of sources I use to learn in 15 minutes a day.
• TED Talks – If a topic comes up at work or in the news that I want to learn more about, then there is likely a TED Talk about it. Normally in less than 15 minutes, I can hear an international expert share a story and some data about an important idea or concept.
• Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) – SSIR is my go-to periodical for what is going on in the social sector. Their articles and blog are filled with helpful research and data that I can apply in my everyday work.
• News Websites – Oftentimes, I will take 15 minutes to read about the same topic(s) from various news sources, to get a fuller picture of what people think and say about those issues.
• LinkedIn and Twitter – I will take 15 minutes to look at articles influencers on LinkedIn and Twitter are posting and referencing. You can often find influencers by topics who curate the content they share to specific subjects. This is helpful when you only have 15 minutes.
• Coursera – Coursera provides free, online, higher education courses from some of the world’s best institutions and thought leaders on hundreds of topics. While you used to wait until a class began, they now offer a variety of classes that you can take whenever. The videos from instructors are often 15 minutes or less, depending on the topic and course module.
What are your favorite resources for daily learning?
Meredith Benton is part of the GovLoop Featured Blogger program, where we feature blog posts by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Blogger posts, click here.
A lot of times I’ll just do a YouTube search on a subject and the words training or webinar. I also go to federal/state agency websites and browse their education/learning/training sections. Or even contact them directly asking for more information as they have physical media/pamphlets that they will send by mail for free.
Anthony, Those are all great ideas. Thanks for sharing them with us.
Govloop.com and CodeProject.com ( a technical resource for developers)
Penny, I hope Govloop is on everyone’s daily list! Great recommendation with CodeProject, too. Thanks for sharing!