There is so much demand placed on us everyday. With everything from Zoom meetings to Zumba classes – and all the essentials in between – it can be difficult to fit anything more into our schedules! But despite the busyness of life, it is still possible to achieve consistent daily growth. If you desire to know how to learn a little more everyday, you’ll be happy to find the solutions may be much simpler than you think.
Knowledge really is the currency of the realm and it directly converts into better blogs, monologues and dialogues. The simple truth is that as a podcaster, the more you know, the more content you can create.
Making daily learning a part of your routine first hinges on discipline, but then swings wide open into sweet inspiration! An investment here, an intentional tweak there, and you’ll be well on your way to maximizing the learning potential hidden in your day! Read on and check out our 6 tips for learning a little more everyday.
First things first…
1. Schedule Time
Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree in a contemplative mood when he was struck (literally!) by a question that resulted in his discovery of the law of gravity! Ideally we’d all have life changing moments of inspiration, where insight and intuition collide and we uncover deep truths. After all, spontaneity is the spice of life, right? Well, man can’t live on spice alone! We need the “bread” of planning and preparedness.
If you don’t plan for it, it will not happen. If we don’t schedule learning into our daily routines, then we will not learn as effectively as we can. Indeed, we may be hard pressed to engage in any learning activities at all.
The next time you sit down to plan your day or week, set aside a window of time in which you will do nothing but learn. If you don’t use a planner yet, I strongly encourage you to start! It could be on your phone, your laptop, or good old pen to paper. I notice a clear difference in my daily productivity when I follow a scheduled plan as opposed to simply allowing my day to unfold with no set structure.
Start with fifteen minutes and allow this time slot to grow gradually as your capacity to learn increases, Sit with that musical instrument. Complete a lesson in that language learning app. Finish a chapter of that marketing book. This scheduled time should be treated as sacrosanct! Those few minutes of the allotted twenty-four hours in your day will eventually add up to be a game changing investment in the quality of your podcast.
2. Join A Book Club
Okay, hear me out – don’t shoot this down right out the gate! We all agree that books are awesome, and clubs are widely considered to be cool, but when you pair the two together…something seriously uncool seems to emerge! But there is another byproduct that we cannot disregard – accountability!
Accountability is the key ingredient that comes from starting a book club, or joining one. Reading is one of the most ancient means of learning new information. And scheduling time to learn, as discussed in Point 1, is a pretty straight-forward strategy to ensure daily learning. But we can sometimes fail, miss an appointment, and let ourselves down. When we invite other people into this daily learning commitment the stakes become higher.
You’re now dealing with the schedules of other people! You’re now managing the expectations of fellow learners! By joining a book club you will be held accountable to learn and report back on your opinions and experience with the text. Trust me, I’ve learned from my own mistakes that there’s nothing worse than delaying and detracting from someone else’s schedule. You could meet online every evening, or in person once a week and use your daily reading time to prepare for the meeting. Taking the step to invite others into your daily learning journey through membership in a book club may be the very investment you need to take your daily learning journey to the next level.
3. Write!
When asked about his songwriting process, a notable songwriter responded by saying: “Songs are like butterflies, you have to catch them before they fly away. I have to write down my ideas as soon as they come to me, or I may never get them back again.” This poetic simile can be applied to the process of daily learning!
Ready for some big investment advice? Buy a notepad and a pen! Write down ideas, curiosities, and especially, questions. Did your friend make a profound statement over coffee today? Make a note! Did you hear a term that you’ve never come across before? Jot it down! This is all about building the habit of staying sensitive and keenly aware of things that you simply don’t fully understand. It’s the practice of cultivating wonder. It’s the discipline of staying open to new facts and information. By doing this you will grow in knowledge, and also compile a pretty impressive repository of ideas and topics for your podcast content.
There is also a second angle to the effectiveness of writing as a means of learning. Writing is very much like a muscle. The more you do it, the stronger and more proficient you will become. You will serve yourself not only by developing the ability to think well, but by developing the ability to write well. As you write daily, whether it be in an informal journal or an official blog, you will grow in your knowledge of the craft. This is one daily habit that will force you to learn and grow every time you do it.
Related read: Should I Add Blogging To My Content?
4. Take An Online Course
An online course is exactly as the name suggests, but here’s a helpful definition from Online Course How, a web based resource for creating and selling online courses:
“An online course is a way to learn a new skill or gain some new knowledge from the comfort of your own home. They can either be paid or offered for free. Some are offered by educational institutions, while others are produced by experts in their field.”
Check out the full breakdown here: What Is An Online Course?
Opting for an online course as an avenue for daily learning and improvement is especially effective if you have other full time obligations and commitments (such as podcasting, working a career, raising a family) that would make the traditional classroom learning approach inconvenient at the very least, if not impossible.
The beauty of online courses, much like the podcasting world, is that courses are offered on a diverse range of topics and you have a great chance of finding courses that appeal to your specific needs or interests. It’s convenient, and you can work through modules at your own pace. Online Course How acknowledges that the most important thing for an online course is for it to be engaging and to deliver a clear outcome. This is the perfect setup for a daily approach to building knowledge – a course that is understandable, enjoyable, and will leave you more knowledgeable.
5. Spend Time with Others
Investing in connecting with other people in a social, relational way may be a great way to learn every day. Try connecting with those unlike you, and see what nuggets of truth you can come across.
Children embody an awe and wonder about the world around them, they are always continually learning. And they’re good at making the most profound statements…and frustrating guardians with the age old, one-worded question: Why? Albert Einstein famously remarked “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Spend time with the kiddos in your life and see if they can stump you. And when they do, take the steps to better understand their question. You will learn in the process.
Spend time with seniors! People who have lived more life than you may have more knowledge on certain things – and will certainly have more wisdom! Honor them by asking questions about their life. Present issues and dilemmas you may be facing and see if they can lend a fresh perspective. Visiting with grandparents, or lonely seniors, will do both you and your mature friend a world of good, and that’s outside of the knowledge you will gain!
Building friendships with people from different cultures is also a great way to learn organically. They may speak a different language, eat different food, and have different opinions on everything from politics to sport! Spend a little time together with these friends. It’s an easy (and oh so fun!) way to learn on the daily.
6. Listen To Podcasts
This one is so obvious you may have overlooked it. Podcasts! Figure out what you’d like to learn. Pinpoint what you need to know. Then go searching! Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts are just three examples of countless places where you can find and enjoy podcasts. The beauty here lies in the search bar, you can get specific and find the very thing you want to hear about and learn about that day. Listen to a podcast that explores a topic in your field. Or go way “left field”, and explore a topic that is totally new to you.
Once you find a good podcast, settle in and work your way through a season, listening to an episode every day. If it’s a daily podcast, even better!
In Conclusion
It’s possible! You can do this! You can learn every day. Start with being intentional about your time. Join a book club, sign up for an online course or start following a podcast! Write your ideas down, and capture those daily doses of inspiration. And don’t overlook the untapped value that lies in the people around you, be intentional about building special friendships and then be open to learning from your friends. Employ these tips and watch yourself grow as a daily learner!
