New Year’s Resolution #5: Learn Something New

This is the first in a countdown-style series of my professionally-oriented New Year’s resolutions.

I love to learn. I am insatiably curious, even when I don’t want to be (or have time to be!). I have a mental list of things that I wish I knew how to do but don’t necessarily have to for my day-to-day work. So this year, I’m going to start checking some things off that list. I’ll start with these two.

PhotoShop
I know the basics, but for everyday photos, I use Aperture. It works fine, except when I’m taking more photos for friends and family that should be professionally edited. Lynda.com will be my go-to resource here. I found a few dozen tutorials from the basic-basics to the more complex/advanced skills I may never need. If you’re a student in the School of Journalism, you have access to Lynda for free. If you’re not, it’s worth the money to subscribe for a month or two.

Music Appreciation 

I work with the Oregon Bach Festival and often lament my lack of classical music know-how. I would love to learn to play the cello, but haven’t figured out how to bend time and space to find the time to do so … this year, a music appreciation e-course it is.

Yale Open Courses has one you can take for free.

Google Analytics 

The basics are pretty intuitive and straightforward and I even know some of the slightly-more-than-basic stuff. But I want to dig in, get to know the ins and out. There’s so much GA can tell you about making content decisions if you know where to look. Plus, I’m a data geek. Google offers an “academy” and even a nifty certification.

What about you? Anything you want to learn this year?