Get a membership at the local public library. Memberships are often free or inexpensive, giving you access to thousands of books with friendly return dates. Go to a yard or garage sale. You can stock up on cheap books on a range of topics that you might not otherwise spend money on. Purchase an e-reader to download reasonably priced books and articles from a variety of websites. This will give you instant gratification and more knowledge.
Try to make reading the newspaper one of your morning habits. A newspaper can be delivered to your doorstep before you even wake up, giving you few excuses to use it as a valuable resource in your pursuit of knowledge. Most newspaper publishers offer online subscriptions at a lower cost. If you prefer to receive your information digitally, then you should consider one of the many newspapers available to you at a click of a button. If you work for a company, they usually subscribe to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or the Washington Post. Take advantage of this freebie and gain knowledge while at work.
Pick up a magazine at the local grocery store while your family shops for food. Nobody ever got escorted out of a supermarket for standing in front of the magazine rack for thirty minutes. When you are at a doctor, dentist, or automobile appointment, take advantage of all the popular magazines available to you in their waiting rooms. Usually they have Time, Newsweek, and some entertainment magazines for you to read while you wait.
If you prefer the academic nature of a journal, then join a society that you are interested in like history, biology, or sociology. These societies fund journals and send them to members who are interested in the same fields of knowledge. Go to a university library where you can access hundreds of different journal titles on nearly any academic topic.
Cultivate friendships with intelligent, educated, and experienced people. These friendships will produce stimulating conversations on a variety of topics exposing you to new ideas, perspectives, and understandings. Try to meet up for coffee or tea once a week and discuss anything new you learned or talk about current affairs.
Audiobooks often include commentary by the author, providing you with additional insight to how ideas formed for the book or reasoning behind certain scenes. This information will not only expand your general knowledge on the content of the book but also the writing process and author’s thoughts. You can buy, rent, or borrow audiobooks from a host of places. Instead of listening to music everywhere you go, try to substitute a good audiobook from time to time in your daily commute or exercise time.
Although you attend a seminar or conference to listen to professional individuals, make sure you take notes. Listening will help you grasp the information while writing it down will help you to retain it. Listen for the main ideas of the presentation. All the details are fascinating, but for the sake of general knowledge, it is more important to understand the larger concepts and ideas being presented.
You can locate these clubs and organizations in many places such as online, the classified section of the newspaper, or through friends and family members. Joining new clubs and organizations allows you to meet and widen your circle of acquaintances, which will give you more opportunities to learn from people different from yourself. People tend to read and write about things they enjoy. Joining a book club, for instance, encourages you to engage in something you normally wouldn’t, like reading a book that is outside of your interests.
Try to stay diverse in watching television by watching news programs such as CNN, public broadcasting (PBS), game shows (Jeopardy), and educational programming (National Geographic) with documentaries, films based on facts, and instructional programming (Food Network) to expand your general knowledge. Watching television is largely a passive exercise that does not require a lot of thinking. So, try to limit the number of hours sitting in front of the television.
Many of these search engines are one-stop shops for information. Not only can you search for current affairs with up-to-date information, you can also find out about entertainment, fashion, sports, and what is popularly trending on the internet.
Some of the more popular news alert sites are Google and Fox News, along with BBC and AP News.
There are several websites that provide quizzes on general knowledge, current events, and history. Try taking one of these quizzes on a daily basis to test your general knowledge.
There are currently more than ten million people taking online MOOC classes. By joining, you will be able to communicate with people from all over the world. Taking a MOOC course will give you updated information on various specializations and the possibility of discovering new interests. MOOC’s provide an opportunity for you learn alongside a group of diverse professions and professionals for every corner of the globe.
If you decide to attend university, make sure you take classes in a variety of subjects to broaden your general knowledge. Taking a diversity of classes has shown to make an impact in job interviews, collaborating with colleagues, and contributing to a community.
Extracurricular activities enhance and refresh your mind and body which, in turn, will increase your ability to immerse yourself with new knowledge. Search for other ways to expand your general knowledge by looking out for service projects, event planning, or writing a newsletter. These activities will help you to stay up to date on relevant information.
Check your syllabus. That is where professors post their office hours for that semester. Or, you can usually find a schedule posted to their door or at the department assistant’s office. If you cannot meet during the assigned hours, call or email your professor to make an appointment during a different time.
