Well, I have an idea on why that is. Often, student freelancers spend most of their time during the school year working on school work and client projects that they know they can take on with their current skillset. But once things start to slow down, it is easy for a student freelancer to start seeing more and more things changing, and more and more things added to the list of things they need to learn. This is what I mean by playing “catch-up.”
It seems to be a never-ending race to learn all of the newest things since the last time (probably since winter break or even last summer) you took the time to learn the newest things. Be it new trends in the industry, new software or operating systems, new hardware, or just new terminology, it is tough for a student freelancer to stay on top of all of the changes constantly going on.
Take for example a student web designer: they spent all year working on really great projects for both school and freelancing, but this summer they noticed tons of changes in the web design industry, such as the popularity of responsive web design and the growing use of HTML5 and CSS3. Not to mention, if they haven’t learned WordPress before the last school year started, chances are they are feeling pressure to learn that too. How can a student freelancer stay caught up with everything while still going to school, without waiting until the summer to start learning new things?
Take time every week to learn something new
Easier said than done I know, but if you could just set aside one hour every weekend to go through a tutorial online about an area that you don’t know, then that is roughly 25-30 hours of learning time you don’t have to catch-up during the summer time. If you could even set aside more than just an hour, then more power to you!
Stay up-to-date with current news in your industry
It is much easier to stay up-to-date with the news then to try to read about it later. One of the best ways to stay up-to-date with what is going on in your industry is to follow well-known sites on Facebook and Twitter, and actually read their links. I recommend following them on Twitter more than on facebook so that you can cut down your distraction with other things going on on Facebook.
Over time, you will start to see a pattern in the things that are talked about and focused on. Those things that are repetitively brought up in the industry are the ones that you should spend the most time learning about. Like my example above, responsive web design is a huge thing right now with tons of articles and tutorials being published every day. This is something that you could pick up following web design sites and tech industry sites and just casually reading their updates on the daily basis.
Prioritize and Conquer
It’s impossible to know everything. It’s impossible to learn everything too. Don’t focus on every single new thing that you come across. The best way to do it is to figure out what is mentioned the most or is the most pressing to learn, and go from there. Prioritize the things you want to learn based on it’s relevance to you and your freelancing, the amount you already know about the subject, and how popular and/or or pressing it is to learn based on your industry.
Start integrating it with school projects
Want to stat using a new technique but can’t find the time to learn it? Find a school project in which you can use that technique. This not only forces you to learn it for your school project, but also helps you stay caught up in being one less thing you need to learn later. Plus, in the academic setting, you can always get help when you need it if you find yourself having a hard time learning it.
Do you find yourself always playing catch-up when you get a break from school? In what ways do you play catch-up in your field of freelancing?