Depressing metaphors aside, how can we stay up to date at a sustainable pace? Well, one of the wonders of that relentless pace of change is the large array of options available to you for learning new technologies and best practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’m going to help you put a framework in place to keep up, without sacrificing all your free time. You will leave this article with some practical steps to implement, regardless of if you have a technology in mind that you have been trying to learn for the last 6 months or if you have no idea what the next big thing is but you know it’s coming and want to know what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking to hire the best remote developers? Arc can help you:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u26a1\ufe0f Get instant candidate matches without searching Try Arc to hire top developers now \u2192<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Passive learning can slot into your life without you changing what you’re already doing. Think about the old fable of filling a jar with rocks, then stones, then pebbles, and then sand until everything is full. The rocks and stones are the big things like work, school run, sleeping, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The pebbles and sand are the gaps left around the day, where we can slot in entertaining developer content that makes use of the rest of the time without feeling like work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Technology podcasts and YouTube channels are a great way to keep up to date while walking the dog, doing the dishes, going for a run, or even in the bathroom. You want to find ones that are equal parts informative and entertaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I listen to podcasts at 1.5x speed with silences taken out, and podcast players such as Overcast have Smart Speed that can do this for you. The top two that I listen to are CodingBlocks.net<\/a> and HTML All The Things<\/a> \u2014 both are funny, well-produced, and cover topics from the foundations, such as recursion and data structures, to newer trends, like infrastructure-as-code and Vue vs React.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Audiobooks can be a great way to consume the latest and greatest long-form content, and you can easily knock out a few chapters a day during your commute or morning jog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For those of you who prefer your audio with a visual element, YouTube doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it’s now home to the\u00a0Remote Developer Careers<\/a>\u00a0channel, where Arc’s Head of Developer Relations, David Roberts<\/a>, talks us through topics like\u00a0acing technical interviews\u00a0and speaks with thought leaders such as <\/a>engineering manager\u00a0Marcus Wermuth<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having these on in the background whilst doing something else will raise your base technology awareness significantly with next to no real effort on your part other than popping headphones to maintain your attention as you simultaneously do other rote or manual tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: How to Know When You’re Ready to Become a Senior Software Engineer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Believe it or not, there are\u00a0thriving developer communities<\/a>\u00a0on both Instagram and Twitter \u2014 I should know, I’m very active on both! Instagram tends to cater more to the early-stage and self-taught software developer, whereas Twitter covers the full gamut from coding newbie through to the seasoned veteran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, there are also plenty of dedicated groups on LinkedIn and Facebook. To find the ones that would suit you best, try getting more specific. Rather than joining broad groups for all software engineers, narrow yourself down to your favorite tech stack or the industry in which you work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don’t need to engage if you don’t want to \u2014 simply follow a few of the bigger names and see what pops into your feed next time you’re on the train, watching TV, or generally at a loose end. The aim isn’t to actively study but instead to spend a few minutes each day raising your awareness, chuckling at just how much hate PHP gets, and getting a feel for trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting your homepage to a site like Dev.to<\/a> or installing the daily.dev Chrome extension<\/a> will let you see a handful of headlines a few times a day without much extra effort. If something really grabs your attention and you want to learn more, then the article is just a click away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developer Slack channels and Discord servers are becoming extremely popular, with some having thousands of members. The quality and tone vary among them all, though, so join a few and see what you like. People post articles, have general conversations around a topic, ask questions, and complain about JavaScript. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What’s not to love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: 10+ Important LinkedIn Best Practices for Remote Software Developers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n Arc is the best place to find great remote jobs. Find great remote jobs at top startups and tech companies. Freelance and full-time remote opportunities are available. Unless you’ve really let your tech skills atrophy over the last decade, you likely know the myriad options you have for actively studying a topic. The problem isn’t where to go, but instead finding the time to make it work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before I get to my tactics for making time for self-development, here are a few of my favorite places to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Udemy<\/strong>, Pluralsight<\/strong>, Skillshare<\/strong>, Coursera<\/strong> are all online learning platforms that have paid or free courses ranging from a couple of hours of quick, snappy content to 50-hour monsters that take you from zero to hero if you really need it. The downside here is the longer time commitment, but the upside is you tend to learn a lot. Many people, including myself, have built a career from these places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Educative.io<\/a><\/strong> and AlgoExpert.io<\/a><\/strong> are semi-interactive, semi-video, lots-of-text educational course platforms that understand that many people prefer reading but don’t necessarily want to plow through a big book. Both are fantastic, with my preference being Educative \u2014 if you are prepping for interviews, I highly recommend their Grokking the Coding Interview<\/em> course, no matter your level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re already a software developer working with an engineering team, you’ve got some great potential mentors right there in front of you. Whether you need long-term guidance or just someone that has all the answers, make use of the connections you have around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re in between jobs or if your colleagues at work aren’t an ideal option, there are other places you can look. Check out local or online networking events for developers and engineers to start with. Look through your LinkedIn connections to see if the ideal future mentor is already in your circle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t forget to pay this forward later on in life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: How to Network: a Guide for Remote Software Developers & Engineers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of us have busy lives and packed schedules. However, we are all busy in different ways, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach for carving out time to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The obvious one is to simply ask your employer to use some work time to do personal training. While that would be great, most engineering managers and CTOs can’t afford too much (if any) of this self-development time, often not more than one day a month. If you need to learn containerization and DevOps from scratch, that’s not going to go very far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Treat your learning time like it’s an important doctor\u2019s appointment. Schedule it in your calendar, put a reminder on that event for 10 minutes before, and stick to it. Half the battle sometimes is just getting up and doing the thing. Making it easy for you to stick to a plan will go a long way to getting on and doing a course or reading a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be realistic. Set yourself a small, easily attainable goal at first, and increase your commitment with success. Don’t aim for 10 hours a week right off the bat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This one requires you to be in a comfortable financial situation, which, as developers, many of us are fortunate enough to be in. We spend 40+ hours a week working for our employer being paid to do work. Don’t then spend another 5 hours a week doing chores and housework that you could potentially afford to outsource at a much cheaper rate than you earn at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It might feel decadent and expensive, but if you have identified a gap in your skills, then think of it instead as an investment in your future. Spending $500 a month for 3 months could mean that your laundry, cleaning, gardening, and odd DIY jobs get taken care of. Now imagine, for example, that by the end of that time, you have a new skill that could add $10,000 to your annual earning potential. You might think a little differently about that expense!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have batch-cooked for nearly 10 years. One evening a week, I make two large, single-pot meals full of vegetables, protein, and spicy, delicious flavors. I then freeze it all down and have them for lunches and dinners over the next 10 to 12 days. Home-cooked meals become a 15-minute break rather than an hour of deciding, cooking, and cleaning. That extra 45 minutes a day is a big win, and easily enough for two Udemy videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the technology we have these days (which, as developers, we’re actively contributing to creating!), there are plenty of other parts of our life we can automate. Set up auto-payments for your known monthly bills. Get your groceries delivered right to your door. Buy a Roomba. Don’t like shopping for new clothes? You can even automate that with monthly clothing subscription boxes! (Check out Stitch Fix, ThreadLab, Trunk Club, and Wantable Fitness to get started.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: How To Use Social Media Thought Leadership To Level Up Your Developer Career<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people start with big goals for self-study and extracurricular learning without really making any changes to their life to make that feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Add a podcast to your commute, watch a YouTube video at breakfast, or follow a few people on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you know what you want to learn, then just aim for 15 minutes a day of active study. It might feel pointless and inconsequential, but 15 minutes per day for just one year is more than 90 hours!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get some small wins under your belt, and slowly move up the commitment level as you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also explore HireAI<\/a> to skip the line and:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u26a1\ufe0f Get instant candidate matches without searching <\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/a>Try HireAI and hire top developers now \u2192<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Developers often find their schedules too busy for learning and growth. Here’s how to make time to build new skills and still have a life outside of work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":48,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-growth"],"yoast_head":"\n
\u26a1\ufe0f Identify top applicants from our network of 350,000+
\u26a1\ufe0f Hire 4x faster with vetted candidates (qualified and interview-ready)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nPassive Approaches<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Audio and video<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Social media<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Communities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"work](\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/talent-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Talent-blog-CTA-banner.png\")
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Sign up here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nActive Approaches<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Educational course platforms<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Find a mentor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Finding the Time to Learn on a Busy Schedule<\/h2>\n\n\n
![\"software](\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/talent-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/busy-software-developer-schedule-1024x678.jpg\")
1. Plan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Buy some time back<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Automate some of your life<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Set Yourself Up for Success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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