For working professionals, the importance of continuously developing new skills and expanding one’s knowledge is clear. Staying competitive in the job market means keeping up with things like technological advances, industry trends, and changes in business best practices. Nevertheless, making the time for learning can be challenging amidst the pressures of an already packed work schedule. With projects piling up and emails overflowing one’s inbox, making space for professional development is easier said than done. Yet with the right systems and strategies in place, busy employees can strike an effective balance between their job and learning new skills.
Streamline Your Schedule
The first key to integrating learning into a busy lifestyle is efficiency. Assess how you currently spend your time, both during the workday and outside of working hours. Look for pockets of time that tend to get wasted, something along the lines of long lunches, commutes, scrolling social media apps, television watching, etc. Even just 30 minutes a day of reclaimed time could go towards skill-building; it all adds up over the course of a week or month. The aim is to create open spaces in your calendar into which you can schedule learning activities, which prevent them from being pushed aside.
Set Attainable Goals
Well-intentioned aspirations to dedicate entire evenings or weekends to learning are usually not realistic when you have other obligations. Instead, set small, frequent goals that are actually achievable for your lifestyle. Maybe it is listening to a career-related podcast during a daily walk, or else waking up 30 minutes earlier to take an online tutorial. Build up from small goals to develop a habit, rather than burning yourself out trying to do too much at once.
Integrate Learning into Down Time
Take advantage of little blocks of downtime that make up most non-stop workdays. While commuting on the subway or waiting between meetings, you could listen to industry lectures or relevant audiobook summaries on your smartphone. Over lunch at your desk, take 20 minutes to browse an educational blog or journal article instead of spending the time on social media. In those small free moments of daily life, you can sneak in some simple learning tasks.
Invest in Efficient Resources
Make what limited time you have available count by investing in learning resources that are tailored specifically for busy professionals. Look to reputable providers of career certification programs, such as ProTrain College, that understand the unique constraints of working learners. Many of these offer self-paced online courses that have flexible schedules and the ability to download materials for offline viewing. Choose those resources with succinct, condensed content that cuts out the fluff so that you absorb knowledge rapidly. Subscription services allow affordable access to literally thousands of up-to-date business and technology skill courses, all from one place.
Make Space for Balance
Amid the push to optimize every spare minute for professional development, build in time to simply recharge. Burnout will sabotage even the most well-intentioned learning plan. Do some fun hobbies, socialize with people outside of work and career training circles, stay active, and prioritize adequate sleep. You may get slightly less formal learning done, but you will retain so much more.
Remember Your “Why”
When motivation lags, reconnect to the reasons you wanted to improve your skills and knowledge in the first place. A higher salary or job promotion may still be years away, so anchor yourself in the progress made and abilities gained right now. Investing in yourself is never wasted time.
Conclusion
Adopting efficient habits, utilizing materials designed for working professionals, planning strategically, sticking to a schedule, and allowing some breathing room means a busy lifestyle does not preclude continuous learning. With the right approach, they can actually complement one another.
