You know you want to tackle that new standard for CSS you've been hearing about. Or, you know that you should understand how overrides enhance Joomla! extensions and templates. You've heard the term "MVC" or maybe "SDK" but you have no clue what they mean. Maybe you want to learn a new style of writing so you can build that personal blog. But excuses pile up, for instance: you don't have the resources, or your current work load doesn't give you the time, or the best excuse — you lack the brain power. And really, if a client isn't paying for it how can you legitimize the time?
Yet, to stay current and competitive in our cutthroat freelance environment, you must keep learning the "bleeding edge" of your chosen profession, be it design, web development, programming, or writing, or something else. The challenge is to continually keep learning while working. Otherwise, with the tools of our trades changing so rapidly we can quickly get outmoded. So, how can we at least stay on "speaking terms" with new techniques and technology?
Three Internet social networking technologies are there for our use: Twitter, RSS, and Readers. In addition, online social groups aggregate information to make it even easier to keep a handle on what's happening in our fields. Ning groups, LinkedIn groups, and Facebook groups all are our friends.
This article lists the steps you can take daily to keep yourself current. It only takes about a half hour to cull articles you want to read or keep for reference if you do it diligently. Treat this task like you treat your email time. It'll pay off in increased knowledge.
