You Should Learn A New Skill While Working A Job

This is how I’m learning a new skill while working freelance jobs

I try to learn a new skill or two every year as a habit. 

Once, I even challenged myself to learn a new skill every month.

These aren’t job skills. They are mostly things I learn for fun like mobile photography, AI, and user experience design. I just enjoy the process of learning.

But recently, I decided to buckle down and learn a new job skill. 

With the advancements in AI, my current career as a content writer does not have the same demand as it used to. So I wanted to learn an entirely different skill as a backup plan.

The new skill I’m learning is front-end web development. As you can imagine, it’s completely different from the content writing work I’m doing right now. 

Learning to code is extremely difficult, especially for people with creative-first thinking like myself. However, surprisingly, I’m enjoying it much more than I imagined.

The main reason for that is that I’m learning this new skill while having an income from my freelance jobs. Because of that, learning to code doesn’t feel like going to school.

I don’t have to force myself to remember the analogies, all the coding terms, or even prepare for exams. I learn by building things that I choose because I enjoy building them.

Having a decent income from a job takes the stress out of the learning process. And it allows you to enjoy learning rather than depending your entire livelihood on it.

I get asked by college students and fellow freelancers which skill they can learn in 2 or 3 months to earn a living or pay off their debts. 

I often tell them to find a job first to cover their living costs and then learn a skill on the side.

If you’re in the same boat, go get a regular job!

As long as it covers your expenses and gives you a couple of hours a day to set aside for learning a new skill or doing some freelance work on the side, it’s the best way to advance your career.

If you’re already working a day job, what are you waiting for? Add a time slot to your daily routine to learn something new.

Just don’t try to learn the most trending skills. Learn something that’s meaningful to you, especially if it complements your career.

In case you were wondering, I’m not taking any fancy online courses to learn coding. I’m following the guides on freeCodeCamp.org and a bunch of YouTube tutorials. I already covered HTML and CSS and now I’m onto JavaScript. My goal is to learn to build interfaces for websites and apps like Netflix and Instagram.

See you next week!

-Roshan

PS: If you’re interested in learning about freelancing, check out my free start guide. Or grab my book, Freelance Like a Pro