Are you up for the challenge of learning something new today?
Not so long ago, when you want to pick up a skill, it meant enrolling at the community college or by taking classes on cooking or poetry at night school.
Enhancing your skills or developing new ones has become easier these days, courtesy of technology. Now, you are literally holding in your hands the opportunity to develop yourself professionally and personally.
Learning is now accessible for almost everybody. If you’re connected to the internet then you are just clicks away from becoming smarter, more adept at a skill, or being better informed about current events.
Being committed to continuous learning is one of the greatest secrets of successful people. Continuous learning is the hallmark of a growth mindset, and it opens up opportunities for success in all aspects of a person’s life.
Mainly, by learning something new each day, you gain valuable experiences to help you deal with challenges in a positive way.
Today, we will give you 21 fun tools to help you learn something new every day.
With the rise of virtual learning, these tools maximize the use of the internet and your smartphone or computer to help you in your learning goals. In addition, you could check out over a hundred new skills that you can learn today in this post.
So, here are the tools to help you develop or strengthen your love of learning to help you reach the success you’ve envisioned for yourself.
1. Curiosity
Do you get excited about new information? This app will provide you with a daily feed of interesting tidbits of information from different areas of interest, such as science and technology, geography, personal growth, and more.
The app presents these pieces of facts and trivia in individual posts that feature the text and either an image or video (for the visual learners). It enables you to digest the information in less than ten minutes.
2. CuriosityStream
If you are fond of documentaries then you've hit gold with this streaming television service. The streaming service offers the best quality documentaries that are guaranteed to enrich your mind and broaden your knowledge.
Gain in-depth understanding about world cultures, historical events, and evolution (just to name a few topics) featured in their documentaries. What's more, the annual fee is very affordable.
3. Gaia
Gaia is another streaming service that provides enlightening documentaries.
If you are in search of resources for alternative healing, truth seeking, and personal transformation, it offers over 8,000 exclusive videos that will help expand your consciousness and manifest your reality in keeping with your true self.
4. Coursera
If you are interested to take a course on a certain topic, this massive open online course site can help you.
The site provides well-curated courses created and delivered by well-known and respected universities around the world such as Stanford, Wharton, University of Toronto, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
You can choose from nearly 3,000 courses, such as those on recruiting and hiring, successful negotiations, and even writing professional emails, joining over 30 million online learners from all over the globe.
For a fee, the site offers a Specialization certificate, which you receive after completing individual courses that are part of a Specialization program.
If you want to learn more, check out our in-depth Coursera review.
5. Udemy
This site is another legit learning platform available online. There are free and paid courses offered on the site. (We've gathered the best free Udemy courses in this post.) It boasts of over 100,000 online courses available on diverse topics.
The instructors are professionals and experts in their chosen fields. Currently, courses obtained from Udemy are not accepted for college credits. Nevertheless, it is a popular site for those looking for courses aimed at improving career-related and technical skills.
6. Hackaday
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Hacks are products and software modified for some other purpose than what was originally intended. If you are an engineer or an engineering buff, Hackaday is the ultimate learning and entertainment blog for you.
The site is an interesting mixture of tech tidbits and hacks served fresh every day.
Ever wanted to make your own scratch card or are you wondering how 3D scanning works? This site has the details.
Regular readers have a strong support community where members motivate each other in their pursuit and creation of new projects.
Visit site here.
7. Duolingo
If you want to learn some languages, this app is of great help. Its gamified approach keeps everything light and interesting as you grapple with a new language's syntax and tenses.
To gain mastery in each aspect of a language, you must pass challenges in speaking, comprehension, and translation. There are also multiple-choice quizzes at every level to review and reinforce learning.
Your progress and commitment are recorded in the app as “streaks”. You increase your streak by how frequently you use the app to learn a language.
8. YouTube
When it comes to learning new thing every day, YouTube has become the “go to” platform.
Whether you're looking for video footages of the latest trending news, want to brush up on your knowledge about world politics, or vowed to learn a new skill before the end of the month, YouTube has an answer to all of these.
The online video giant is a treasure trove of videos and channels for you to learn anything each and every day. Learn how to fix your home, play an instrument, cook like a Michelin-starred chef, paint like a pro, and other skills.
Despite the numerous ads it is a great way to increase your knowledge. And the best thing about it? The video tutorials are for free.
9. College Info Geek
For iOS
If you want to learn how to navigate through college and come out of the journey successfully, this podcast channel is your best friend.
Listen to in-depth recommendations and tips for how to be an effective student (getting better grades), learning life skills (paying off student loans and proper budgeting), boosting your productivity (time-management and organizing strategies), and preparing for your career (how to pass a job interview).
You can do your chores and learn something at the same time with this channel's daily podcasts.
If you’re a fan of listening to podcasts, here our list of 31 of the most informational and inspiring podcasts that can help you learn something new.
10. Google’s Fact of the Day
This hidden fun trick in Google spits out interesting factoids when you type either “I'm feeling curious”, “fun fact”, or “fact of the day” on the search box. Hit the “ask another question” button for another interesting trivia.
You could literally spend hours on the search engine, reading random snippets of general information that may be useful to you. It is an educational past time that allows you to learn something new every day.
11. TED Talks
TED talks are a fun and inspirational way to learn new things. They are also quite motivational. They can get your fired up about your new ideas.
This site features a video library of engaging, inspiring talks about “ideas worth spreading”. These videos are for those who wish to have a better understanding of our world.
The speakers in these talks come from diverse disciplines and personal and professional backgrounds. Select a video that sparks your interest.
There are topics on global issues, technology, business practices, and the arts, to name a few. There are also TED talks on mindfulness, procrastination and stress management. The talks are available in more than a hundred languages.
I have written about TED talks before. Collecting “themes” of TED talks together to make them easier to find on specific topics. Interested in TED talks? Check out some of these topics.
12. Skillshare
Skillshare is another learning community that offers classes online. Most of the courses offered are interaction focused. (Here's my full review of Skillshare.)
This platform gives importance to project-based learning. Thus, courses usually require the student to produce something tangible at the end of the coursework.
There are courses on visual arts, public speaking, business and marketing, photography, and many more. They have over 27,000 classes available (and counting). Coursework in this site, however, is not creditable for college but more for skills enhancement.
13. HowStuffWorks
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This site has a massive collection of podcasts, videos, and illustrated articles that explain a wide category of topics from the flu to Elon Musk's plan to colonize the planet Mars.
You'll learn a lot from the following shows exclusive on this app: Stuff You Should Know for you to ponder on; BrainStuff for tidbits of information that make you smarter; Stuff They Didn't Want You To Know for those who are into conspiracy theories; and TechStuff for the techies.
14. Useless Facts
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This site contains thousands of factoids that may or may not be useful. When you go to this site, you have a choice of being flooded with factoids that are funny, about animals, related to sports, or regarding food.
There is also an entire section dedicated to factoids about Chuck Norris (e.g. “Chuck Norris was a character in all six Star Wars Movie. He was the Force.”) There is a member's area where you can also add factoids for other people to enjoy.
15. Scitable
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If your interests tend to lean towards genetics, evolution, biology, and nature, then this site is for you. The site was created by Nature Publishing Group, one of most respected science publishers in the world.
Thus, you'd expect to see a vast library of information on the topics mentioned earlier. The site is also a social network for science educators, researchers, and students alike. The site provides a supportive community for collaborative learning.
16. LitLovers
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Do you love literature? Here's an online site that is composed of well-read individuals.
It's a resource of all stuff related to literature. The site's creator, Molly Lundquist, was a former English lit teacher who had an idea of putting up a site for people who are interested in getting the most out of reading and making it an enjoyable learning experience.
With this goal, the site provides a LitCourse. It is composed of 10 lessons that are designed to enhance one's enjoyment of reading fiction.
17. Blinkist
Blinkist is an app that gives you the the important “cliff notes” versions of over a 2,000 non-fiction books. It's ideal for those who would like to learn more but hardly have time to sit down and read a book. (Here's my full review of Blinkist.)
The app allows you to listen to the books' summaries through audio. The summaries are 15 minutes long. It has a couple of advantages.
By listening to the “blink” or summary of a book, you will get the gist of what the author wants to get across and you can then decide if it's something you'd like to read in depth or not.
If you have a massive reading list, and little free time, this is an excellent service. The way they do the overview gives you a good idea about the content of many great books. This can let you just spend the time fully reading the ones you know will interest you the most.
18. Highbrow
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Get bite-sized courses delivered daily to your email, courtesy of this site. The courses aim to fill in the gaps of our general knowledge.
Popular classes from the site include improving your ability to hold meaningful conversations; the fundamentals of neuroscience to better understand your brain; practicing mindfulness, improving your relationships; and productivity hacks from successful people around the world.
The lessons segments you'll receive in your email are easy to digest. You can easily learn something new over your morning coffee.
19. LifeHacker
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Improve your life and learn something new and interesting every day with this weblog. The site has numerous accolades from users who can't seem to get enough of the useful info they learn through it.
Through the site, you'll get in-depth tips and hacks about a wide range of topics for all aspects of your daily life. There's information on how to manage your money wisely, practical cooking tips, and strategies for managing your health and well-being. Articles on technology are available as well.
20. Magoosh
This app provides the perfect venue to increase your personal words arsenal. There's nothing like knowing what certain words mean and how they're supposed to be spelled.
It has been originally designed to assist adults taking their GRE. However, even if that's not your purpose, the app is still a great tool for expanding your vocabulary.
There are different ways to approach your vocabulary practice when you use this app, and all are focused on helping you master the common and difficult words that appear in GRE tests.
21. Yousician
With this app, you can learn how to play a musical instrument even while you're on the go. This is ideal for beginners who want to learn how to play the piano, guitar, ukelele, and bass. There are also voice lessons.
The app works by providing feedback and guidance as the user plays on a real instrument.
Those learning how to play music with this app can view tutorial videos, mini games, songs for practice — and all are designed to help you master your chosen instrument.
Final Thoughts on Learning Something New Every Day
So there you have it — tools to help you learn something new every day.
Which one is your favorite from the ones mentioned above? Are you using an app that’s not on our list? Feel free to share your thoughts on the comments below.
Another fun way to keep your mind sharp and help you learn new things every day is by engaging in leisure activities like hobbies and sports.. If you want to try out new hobby ideas, I suggest you check out this post to show you the benefits of hobbies.
And if you're having trouble remembering the material you're trying to learn, then The Feynman Technique can help you solve this issue. Watch the video below to learn more.
And don’t forget to reward yourself every once in a while when you’ve completed learning a new skill. It helps keep you feeling motivated about your journey to become the best that you can be.
Finally, if you want to level up your productivity and time management skills, then watch this free video about the 9 productivity habits you can build at work.
