Is the office trying to kill you by boredom?  Do you have nothing to do on a beautiful summer morning?  You want to do something that could augment your income part time?  The management suddenly wants you to operate new software, a new product or implement a new process?  You could learn new skills to increase your productivity or maximize the use of your spare time.

Of course, learning something is not easy for many people like me who tend to settle on things that I could do better.  You need to exert effort and spend time to learn things as it happen.  While learning something can be quite fun, you should not waste part of your time, money, and effort in vain.  You should learn something new the ‘right’ way, i.e., forging what you know to attain what you want to learn.

Learn by using what you know

Learning can be a lot more fun and easier if you will try to learn by using what you already know.  If you’re fond of cooking, why not go up another level and learn to bake some cakes and pastries?  It would be lot more fun if you’re not messing up the entire kitchen.  If you know some techniques with some thread, why not try to learn some pattern making technique, like burlap and crochet?  With some basic knowledge on the things you do, you can forget about the hassles of learning it first and concentrate and doing it best.

Familiarity with gadgets and intricacies that comes with a certain skill would come handy if you want to learn another skill.  This is especially true for technical and scientific skills like carpentry and computer programming.  Save yourself from waste of time and save yourself from unwanted accidents by working on something that you can do without injuring yourself.

Do Not Be Afraid

Ultimately, learning something should give you the results you intended.  If you want to learn some bit of carpentry, you should learn how to make simple carpentry projects and not how sharp the saw would cut your fingers.  When you want to learn how to make cakes, you should learn how to mix a good batter, not how to spoil a good one.  By using a skill you have learned before, you can eliminate these and go straight on what is important.  Its important to make sure that learning process, while maybe difficult, is productive.