3 Secrets To Maximize Learning Without Sacrificing Time

There’s only 24 hours in a day. That’s a haunting number for every entrepreneur because not only do you have to manage your business, but make time for family, meditation, exercise, nourishment, and sleep. What about self-improvement and education? How do you fit in time to learn new marketing techniques or ways to improve your skills? It’s hard. That’s why I’ve implemented these three ways to maximize learning without sacrificing time in my life. This has worked wonders for me as I hope it will for you!

Since I was a child, my grandpa had one lesson he always taught me; “The second you think you know everything, you know nothing at all.” He was a hardworking man who not only taught himself to read, but to work his way up until he become a tugboat captain. He was also right. Limiting yourself to the point where your mind isn’t open to improve and be better will make you obsolete. That’s why I make learning and improving myself a priority in my life!

Schedule Time For Yourself Every Week

You can’t sacrifice time if it was already accounted for in advance. It’s important for your health to schedule breaks from work, so schedule a learning break. Every week I try to block off a few hours dedicated to learning. Whether it’s to experiment with some code, read a book, take a course, or even catch up on my [never-ending] “saved for later” blog list.

If you don’t make your own work schedule and can’t block time off at home then utilize your lunch hour at work. Schedule a few times per week to power through that marketing course instead of going out with coworkers.

Setting Limitations For Yourself

Setting limitations motivates you to push yourself and look for new solutions. Creativity thrives upon limitations. When working on a personal projects, I try to set some sort of caveat about the way it’s done.

My limitation on the Garett Southerton landing page was to animate it without using any raster image formats – no PNGs, JPGs, or GIFs. This limitation forced me to learn how to use SVGs (a code based image format that allows scaling without distortion) with animation movements based on code, along with the fallback methods and making it all work on mobile as well. In other words, step out of your comfort zone!

Swapping Music For Audiobooks

This is one of my favorite learning secrets ever! For the past few years, I’ve been swapping out music for audiobooks, webinars, live streams, etc. Swapping out music during long commutes, running on the treadmill, or even when designing has become beneficial to me.

Some of my favorite tools to do this are Audible, CreativeLive, and TED Talks. You don’t have to completely give up music, but the times you do swap for audio will be worth it.

How do you maximize learning without sacrificing time? I’d love to hear some of your secret tips so tweet me (@GarettCreative)!