If you haven’t already looked, Tool #18 is Supermemo – the ultimate tool to remember anything. It is practical and will save you time learning all this new material.

I recommend you use Supermemo to learn the following:
• Programming languages
• Word, Excel, Access and Windows features you have difficulty remembering
• Marketing principles
• Websites you want to recommend to clients
• Accounting jargon
• IT and business buzzwords that make you sound professional, educated and informed.

The Supermemo website has an interesting article written by a computer programmer. He explains how he used Supermemo to help him get Microsoft Certified and become a programmer for Microsoft.

I’ve only just come across this program one month ago and already I have learnt some php programming, all the capitals of the world, all the capitals of the US States, some SQL statements, my online merchant account set-up instructions and more.

This has been one of the best software packages I have ever bought. However, it only works if you do. You need to consistently review the material it calculates is due for review on the day it recommends. If you don’t, it carries forward to the next day. I currently spend 5 minutes per day for 500 items and this is falling as they get transferred to my long-term memory.

Don’t make life difficult for yourself. Use Supermemo.

The best place to get your learning material

For books, I recommend www.amazon.com. They offer big discounts when compared to your local bookstore and you can read reviews of what other purchaser’s think of each book.

I used to go to my local bookstore, check out the book to see if it covered what I wanted. If I liked its style I would then order it from amazon.com. I’ve saved myself a fortune this way, even after taking delivery charges into consideration.

Websites can also have excellent learning material. For example, I wanted to learn some of Paintshop Pro’s features. I went to www.directhit.com (my favourite search engine) and typed Paintshop Pro tutorial. It came up with a list of excellent sites and I took it from there.

As a general rule, I’m not a big fan of using online sites for learning programs as:
1. I find it more difficult to read information on screen
2. When reading on screen, I cannot see my program at the same time!

I would have to switch back and forth using Alt+Tab but this is still less than satisfactory. (For those who don’t know, pressing Alt+Tab at the same time will cycle through all open windows.)

One way around this is to have two monitors connected to your PC. A dual monitor setup allows you to see your application and your training material at the same time. When I first saw this in action I was amazed at how efficient it all looked.

How to learn and get paid for it!

Some of my greatest learning came when solving client problems. Sometimes I would be stuck there for hours, scratching my head over what to do. The difference between using a computer as a hobby and using it as a pro is that you discover endless nuances with the software applications. You pick up a little bit of knowledge here, a little bit there and day by day you grow more proficient.

If you are faced with a new situation at a clients premises and you clearly are having major difficulties, you can always cut a deal with a client.

You can say “Look, I haven’t come across this situation before and it is taking me much longer than anticipated. I don’t feel its fair charging you at my full rate so I’ll cut it to one third my normal rate for this part of the work, OK?”

This will satisfy your client and take some of the pressure off you for not solving the problem fast enough. And you still get paid something.