How can I manage time after 8 hours of office?

How can you improve your learning skills you ask? Well, there is no such thing as learning skill. There is just learning. How do you do it? By jumping in the water and not looking at it!

Go learn. Do or do not, there is no try, remember? :)

Here's what I can suggest -

  • Read. Read. Read.

I take a 10 minute break every hour or so in office to read a book on my tab. I also collect interesting articles. Articles take about 10 minutes to read and are perfect for office reading!

Instead of wasting time listening to office non-issues, I like to do what I love best. Read. It opens your mind and refreshes you!

  • Learn a new language -

Nothing like learning a new language. It opens up the doors to a new culture. It is like becoming a child again. It is fun! You will easily get weekend batches and it would be really refreshing to go sit in a classroom again.

  • Pick up something completely out of your comfort zone

Always thought you can't move a muscle and are not meant to dance? Well, whoever says you have to dance for others? Go join a dance class. We are so used to being and trying to be perfect in work that we forget what it is like to suck at something once in a while! It can be eye opening! And it can also be fun!

I remember trying to learn maths! Well, after a point I gave up again. But I hope to return back some day. :)

  • Do that thing you always wanted to do

Remember telling your engineering college friends that your true passion was studying art history? Or music? Well, do it now. Too often we are stuck with "I wish I had done X instead of Y". OK. So you couldn't do X professionally and now seems too late or too risky. Why not still do something about it? Go take a class. Learn. Read. Write about it on Quora! That would give you immense pleasure and will add to your knowledge.

I had always known about my love for philosophy but never even thought of studying it because of the typical thinking of- "Meh, how will I earn money with it?" Fair enough. Three months of in corporate and I realized I needed to do what I loved! Just for myself. To learn something new. To read about it. To write about it. I took up an online course and am enjoying every minute of it. What's more, when the office expects me to write articles on Legal compliance, I quietly slip in philosophy into it! Who thought they would end up becoming successful?! Haha. :)

  • Do something physically strenuous

Not just for a healthy body but for a healthy mind. Go trekking. Swimming. Running. Dancing. Pick sports. Yoga. Anything. But feel the pain in your muscles at the end of it. Enjoy the pain.

  • Do something you don't like sometimes

Don't like cooking? Learn a new recipe from YouTube. As a challenge! Don't like dressing up? Do it for the fun of it. (This was tried by me recently and the result was hilarious. It included some really bewildered looks from my parents and friends! It also resulted in the office admin actually mistaking me for someone else! In her defense, she hadn't seen my face and was talking from behind. Real fun.)

We are stuck up with our image. I realized a lot of it was even disliked by me but I adhered to it because I had a reputation to maintain. Now I know that I have the right to change and I am the only one who needs to allow it!!

  • Do something for another person

This creates bonding and the bonds are real! Speaking nicely is one thing. But actually going out of your way and doing something for the other person is totally different. You can also do activities that help the poor and underprivileged. For many, this can be deeply satisfying. A bunch of people from our office teach in slum schools on weekends. Others go to the ground and teach games and other activities to slum children on weekends.

Opening our eyes and learning about other's lives can be enlightening.

  • Find an activity where you think you can lose yourself

That to me is really cathartic. For me, its music. Find something that will work for you. Don't go by other's definitions of losing oneself. Find it out for your own self. I mean for all your know, your losing could be a game of candy crush. Whatever works.

  • Travel - Real exposure to the world and learning!

Indians have a very limited idea of travel. We travel only when we have a lot of money and can spend it on lavish hotels. That's vacation and that's good too. But I say travel in a very expansive sense. May be it could be travelling within your own city. Places you have never explored. Mediums of transport you have never tried. Anything that will expose you to the different reality. Far different from your own!

  • Go in your cave. Find it.

This may well be a very introvert thing to do but I find myself doing it and enjoying it. Zones in my life are 'me only'. I get to contemplate then. Think about things. Ponder. Come up with ideas. Anything.
During those times, I am disconnected from the world. I may go watch a movie on my own or sit in a cafe reading and having a meal. Or I may just not feel like chirping all the time. These moments for me are deeply reflective for me and much required.

See if this works for you. If it does, find your cave and escape every now and then! And don't let others make you feel guilty for it. You aren't weird, you are probably just an introvert. 1/3rd of the world is.


All of the above is learning. Jump. Pick one and jump. You will love it.

Lastly, know that life is not just about learning in the narrowest sense (Learning a skill for example). It is also about living happily. With joy. So anything you pick, should be towards that! Learning will always happen. Even when you aren't looking for it.