Growing up a 'smart kid', I never really learned how to learn. Things either came to me naturally and instantly, or weren't something worth spending my time on. As a medium-smart adult I now find myself wanting to get better at things that I have never been good at. It's not wanting to be well rounded, but realising that I neglected things that interest me just because they were too hard.
Recently I've given two days a week to self paced study at the library. It's weird and new to me. For the first few days I didn't know what to do with myself. On day four I made a list of all the things I want to learn, then crossed out things that I know I will cover in Uni. What's left is my own problem. From there I split my things up into three boxes: practical at location, which can only happen in a particular place or with specific equipment; note taking and reading/listening, for topics learned by osmosis; and practical anywhere, for topics that like demonstrations.
The second two boxes are what I do at the library now. Before I leave in the morning I pick one practical and one note-type (today's are networking and websiting), and I bring my laptop, the relevant notebook, and some snacks. I've found online structured courses for all of my notetakings, like CISCO NetAcad, and I just sit and work through them. When I get bored I play a quiz or eat a snack, and swap to the other topic.
For now, I've only picked things that I know I can figure out on my own, or things that I know a friend could help me with if I get stuck, because I know I will feel soooo demoralised if I can't finish what I started.
It feels nice to be learning again, even if I'm starting at absolute ground zero with a lot of this stuff.