Learn @ Work—Ideas E Book

How to Learn @ Work

nigelrobertson@me.com

Learn @ Work is a movement to promote life-long learning.

Did you know?

Science has long believed that you are born with a fixed number of brain cells which decay as you age.

It turns out that new research has just revealed this to be false. If you force yourself to constantly learn new things, you can generate new brain cells.

Curious people:

Are more comfortable in social settings

Are more adaptive to changeAre more tolerant of others

Get more promotionsHave more friends

Did you know?

This eBook contains a bunch of great little ideas you can try.

Life-long learning is about simple habits.

So here goes...

Read a newspaper you’ve never read before.

Try one from a different country.

Subscribe to a trade journal or magazine outside your field.

Scan for ideas you could use in your business.

Take language lessons.Learn French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, whatever.

The point isn’t to become fluent. If you aim for that you may never start.

Just take a few lessons.It’ll stretch your brain in whole new ways.

Take a piano lesson (or ten).

Instead of doing

try

the cryptic.

your

usual crossword,

Start your a book club with five work buddies.

Calculate how much $2.50 a day at Starbuck’sadds up to over220 working days.

(That would buy a lot of books).

It’s about $550.

What does your local community centre’s website offer for continuing education?

Photography, dance, rock climbing, creative writing, Zulu warrior face-painting?

Pick something way outside your comfort zone.

Try it.

Listen to some really good podcasts.

iTunes U

Grammar GirlManager-Tools

CBC’s Quirks & Quarks

Scientific American

They’re free at iTunes.

Pick a random issue from the front pages.

Ask 5 people today for their opinion on it.

Learn how to say “tell me about yourself” in 5 foreign languages

Scan 5-7 newspapers a day.

Make it your mission to spell correctly without relying on spell checkers.

Read one “...For Dummies” book per month.

Keep a journal and reflect on what you learn each day.

Start sentences like this “Help me understand how...?”

Vote.(And study the issues first).

Teach something to someone.Preparing to teach is the best way to learn something.

For fun, pick a random topic.

Give yourself 2 hours and Internet access to learn as much as you possibly can.

Try it with a buddy and compare notes.

Read a book that your customers would benefit from.Talk to them about it.

Become a self-proclaimed expert on their issues.

Ask questions in meetings that are designed to help your peers learn.

Volunteer to study an issue your business faces and write a recommendation.

If male, ask a woman for her perspective on an issue.

If female, ask a man.

Why?Why?Why?Why?Why?

Ask why five times. The truth is then revealed

Write a short ebook (like this one) in powerpoint.Send it to 10 friends.

See what happens to your idea.

Write down three professional goals.Put it in your wallet.

Choose one next action for each goal.

Job shadow someone in your office who does the work furthest removed from what you

do.

Swap positions with your boss for a 1/2 day.

Load audio business books onto your iPod.Listen to them in the car or when exercising.

Look up a random word in Wikipedia.Use it in sentence today.

When you hire — hire someone smarter than you.

Embrace a cause.Learn about it.

Organize something for it.

Break down one piece of archaic bureaucracy at work.Start by asking, “why do we do it that way?”

Read your:

to learn what else it can do for you.

Most of us use less than 10% of the available features.

VCR manualCell phone user guideExcel manualPowerpoint help screen

Go somewhere you’ve never been before.

Eat food with friends at a restaurant that serves food you’ve never heard of.

Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.

How many “f’s” in this sentence?

Sometimes you can learn just by looking at the world differently

(try reading the sentence backward to count the f’s)

There are 6.

How to Learn @ Work

nigelrobertson@me.com