It’s essential to stay current in your career, especially if it centers on technology. The #1 way to stay up-to-date is to become and remain a practitioner – learn by actually working with specific technologies “hands on”. Second – continuously track state-of-the-art changes. And third – expose yourself to as much information as possible about specific technologies, related businesses, and information from people who are driving change in technology.

Here are some ideas and resources to consider in maintaining technical currency:
• build something (website, mobile website, mobile app)
• set up a hosted domain account and deploy what you build (this is not expensive)
• subscribe to as many magazines and newsletters (virtual and real) as you can read
• get specific “how to” books on technologies that you want to learn
• learn a computer language – then learn another
• subscribe to podcasts – mix tech podcasts in with music for your commute
• visit tech blogs on a regular basis
• set build goals to learn from (build a ______ to learn _______)
• devote x hours of your own time to doing and learning *
• try it yourself, then Google for help, then ask an expert
• keep a tech journal for recording ideas, new finds, and progress
• build a catalog in Evernote by clipping example pages, articles, and links
• make a personal homepage with links to consistently good information sources
• attend tech conferences – volunteer to help

* You can learn on the job but you become an expert by investing your own time. ~Larry Landis