Thursday, 9 October 2008

Use technology to stay updated

A key career skill is to keep your skills and knowledge up-to-date. Continuous learning is not a buzz word, it is an essential part of a successful career.

Fortunately, there is plenty of information out there.
Unfortunately, there is plenty of information.

Use technology to easily stay updated. Let me share what I do. I'm certainly not advocating that it is the best or only way, but I've been experimenting for a few years and this is my latest approach:
  • Understand what a RSS feed is. Basically, uptodate information gets 'pushed' to you rather than you visiting dozens of sites.
  • Use a Reader to subscribe to RSS Feeds from the websites that you want to stay up to date with. I use Google Reader.
  • Subscribe to great sites. I recently found Business Spectator. A great way to quickly hear about breaking news.
  • Check your reader regularly. I use a reader on my phone (HTC Touch, I know, it's not an iphone). So whenever I have a spare 30 seconds (traffic lights, lift, coffee queue...) I do a quick check.
Don't be afraid to use technology. Book in 20 minutes to set this up. You'll get this time back in the first week.
Posted by

1 comment:

Darren said...

Hi Edwin, I agree an RSS reader is an extremely worthwhile investment. A great way to keep up to date with new info across a range of known sites that you are interested in. Certainly much quicker than regularly visiting each site to see if there is new information. Prior to setting up Google Reader I used to go nearly insane with frustration visitng SMH.com.au and the TheCourierMail.com.au only to find that there was no interesting new content. Now I have lots of news and other sites of interest in my RSS reader (probably too many) and there is never any shortage of new and interesting information to read. Just not enough time to read them all though ;)

From a career perspective I think an RSS reader is critical. If you are looking to break into a field, keep up to date with best practice or develop your profile amongst your peers an RSS reader is a key tool.

Personally, I subscribe to the blogs of my clients (including yours), the key executives of companies I do business with and other key sites and bloggers in my industry. By checking my RSS reader regularly I am aware of any new postings within a day or so of it happening. This then allows me to post comments on their sites (like now). A good way to develop contacts and further business relationships. All good from a business, personal and career point of view.

Best video I have seen explaining an RSS reader is here.

http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

Cheers, Darren
www.evolutionmarketing.com.au
follow me on www.twitter.com/dflood

12 February 2009 at 09:30

Post a Comment