Endless Ways To Learn Something New

I read a fair amount. Last year I finished 31 books, which seems like a lot but I know people that read lots more than I do. The number one comment that I have received from people when they find out I am a reader is that they just don't have time to read. There are times that I don't have a lot of time to read, or I just get out of the habit so recently I tried to find some new ways to continue to learn, consume more information and read more. I thought I would share some of the things I've learned, hopefully they are helpful for you to discover new ways to

I've always preferred physical books over electronic, and probably always will, but there are some
benefits to eBooks that I've learned. Now I am always reading at a minimum two books at the same time, one electronic and one physical. I don't always have the ability to carry a book with me, but I always have my phone. You don't need to buy a Kindle, just find the Kindle app and you can read on any device. I also like that it can sync across devices too if you have a tablet and a phone. I will find myself taking out the electronic book and reading even if I only have 5-10 minutes. Just the other day I found myself in a situation where I had an hour to kill and no WiFi, but my current read was downloaded and waiting for me. If you are a note taker like I am, no worries, you can highlight and comment like you would normally.

The other benefit with eBooks is you can find some great deals without having to comb through the shelves of a used book store. Four years ago I signed up with BookBub.com and daily I get an email summarizing low cost, and sometimes free, books for the categories that I select. Since then I've paid a total of $10.67 for 24 books.

Another thing I've started doing more is listening to podcasts. If you feel you don't have time to read you can often find time to listen on the go. For a few years now I have listened while mowing the lawn or when on a bike ride. I've found myself listening more in the car as I drive around town now as well, just $25 for a Bluetooth adapter for my car and I'm ready to go. The other feature I just discovered is that you can change the playback speed, I've found that most podcasts I can listen to at 1.2 or 1.3 times speed and still fully comprehend what is being discussed. Allows me to cover more ground in less time. I miss not being able to take notes when a good idea hits me, but there are trade offs I guess to everything. Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and hundreds of other apps are available to you. Related to podcasts are audio books, which I know some people really like but I haven't done.

That is just a couple things that I've done and expanded recently. Really the options available to us today are endless, it is just a matter of choices. How do you want to consume information? What best fits into your lifestyle? I would encourage you to try some different things. Most of these are free, certainly to see if you like it. Usually the thing that gets in our way is simply our telling ourselves that we don't have time.

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