25 Useful New Skills To Learn Everyday

When was the last time you learned a new skill? At the start of every new year, I always ask myself what I’m going to do differently, whether that’s to do with my well-being or learning something new that could improve my life in general. I think this is pretty common for most people, including you or you likely wouldn’t have landed on this page! And if you’re like me, you might find yourself all too often getting caught up in the daily hustle and bustle of daily life, telling yourself you’ll learn how to do ‘X, Y and Z’ one day but you never actually get around to it…

But that’s the whole point of this blog, to hopefully find ideas that make you feel good and to make them a habit so you feel good consistently and like you’re progressing.

It seems that whatever it is you want to be successful in, you have to put in the work, over and over again. That’s usually how people grow and make progress. However, many of us don’t have the freedom to spend hours learning new skills every day and that’s what inspired me to write this post.

Maybe you too are looking for new habits to start that will improve your life in some way. I think most people are willing to commit to learning new skills and making it a habit to continue them but sometimes it’s more realistic to do this in smaller daily chunks that make them not only more manageable but more fun at the same time.

There are many new skills to learn every day that won’t feel like a chore but I have put together a list for you to use as inspiration if you’re looking to develop yourself in a realistic manner day by day. If you ask me, they’re helpful things to learn and know and also could be useful if you’re looking to break the mould and get out of a rut. Some of these skills are the things that I personally do or am in the process of trying to do and others are simply on my wishlist that I haven’t started yet.

Either way, I see these skills as worthwhile things to learn that could have a positive impact on your life (and come in handy!).

Quick note: there are many new skills to learn however these are the ones I enjoy doing or learning and deem worthwhile however I appreciate your preferences will be determined by your own personal interests and goals.

With that said, let’s get to it!

1. Reading

I recently saw an article title that said; “58% of children don’t read in their spare time,” and I for sure was one of them, even though I didn’t have today’s technology to distract me like today’s youth. However, reading every day is something that I’m trying to do in some capacity, even if it’s just a little. Reading words from a page seems to be much better for you in terms of your ability to process and truly understand what you’re reading whereas reading from a screen is more visually demanding. Perhaps we are so used to skimming words on devices that we don’t absorb the words as we do in books.

Reading every day is a good skill to learn, I would say, largely because you’re ability to learn new things will skyrocket if you keep reading and getting into the swing of it. It’s also an incredibly mindful activity, a chunk of time that’s shared between just you and the author.

How to start: get a book that aligns with your interests. Start by reading 5 or 10 minutes a day. If you’re comfortable reading more, keep going! Choose a part of the day to set aside and read where you know you’ll be distraction-free. Right before bed can be a convenient time.

2. Cooking

Cooking is one of those things that can feel like a real chore. It’s sometimes much easier to just throw something in the microwave or order in at the end of a long day however I think that cooking is a very worthwhile new skill to learn every day because you have to eat every day! (unless you’re fasting of course!)

Cooking is about much more than throwing on an apron and making a fancy recipe. I’ve learned that by learning to cook you can give yourself a great amount of control over not just your weight but the way you feel overall (if you focus on nutritious food). When you learn to cook you usually end up learning about nutrition and portion sizes. You realise how much better home-cooked food is than the junk you pick up at the store on your way through.

In my experience, the more you cook, the better you get at it and the more efficient you get at it. At the same time, when you learn to cook you usually have dedicated ingredients which could also help you control how much you spend when food shopping.

To me, cooking is right up there on the list of skills to learn because you’ll sharpen it on a consistent basis.

How to start: we live in a world where there are many recipes online and in books and many only take 10 or 15 minutes to cook. You’d also be surprised how many recipes you can cook all in the same pot making your life much easier. There are great books on Amazon or online recipes on BBC Good Food.

Likewise, I have found a lot of inspiration on YouTube where there is a library of endless dishes ready for you to create. Just jump over to YouTube and search for some inspiration. Many channels also walk you through each step of the cooking process so all you’ll need to do is get the ingredients from the store!

One of my favourite people to learn from is Gordon Ramsey. Check out this awesome video where he demonstrates some basic cooking skills that have really made a difference to me…

3. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a worthy skill to learn and practise every day in my opinion for several reasons. One of the main reasons is that it can completely rewire the way that you look at the world, even if you practise it for just a few minutes each day. In its essence, mindfulness is the practice of becoming aware of your thoughts and surroundings without judgment or labelling, the things we all do so often.

In my experience, it’s an incredibly calming practice when you become the observer instead of the one reacting to the world around you. Life is busy, it can be stressful and it feels like there are many things pulling at your attention all at once. However, a simple mindfulness practice can be of great benefit if you do it consistently and begin doing it without too much expectation.

Mindfulness is largely different from meditation (where you might follow a guided meditation for set periods of time) and another one of the reasons why I think it’s a great skill to learn is because you can do it almost anywhere and there are many different ways to practise it.

How to start: read this post to find out how you can be more mindful each and every day of the week.

4. Meditation

Similarly, meditation could be a great new skill to learn and practise daily. Many people think you need to spend half an hour or so to perform a proper meditation and whilst you might need to carve out some time each day, it doesn’t always have to be long. One of the great things about the practice of meditation is that there are so many different ways to do it, just like with mindfulness.

For example, you could practice mantra meditations, guided or non-guided meditations or even guided breathing exercises. If you try different types of meditations you’re bound to find one that suits you as an individual.

I think meditation is a skill because it certainly gets easier the more you do it. Like with mindfulness, it’s much easier when you don’t force the issue and question if you’re doing it right and that’s why I enjoy guided meditations. There are many of these on YouTube that you can follow along to for free and you might find you really enjoy them.

How to start: Hop over to YouTube and search for “guided meditations” to begin. Look for ones that will fit into your daily routine nicely. For example, you can watch plenty of 10-minute guided meditations.

5. Writing

One of the most accessible skills to learn is writing. After all, most of us have laptops or paper and pens we can access. Writing is a great skill to have because you’ll always need to do writing in your personal and professional life and it’s a skill almost all employers require.

Most people know how to write to a pretty good standard by the time they’ve left school but have you ever tried to take your writing to the next level? Even with the rise in AI, writing will continue to be a skill human beings need to have.

There’s always space to improve your grammar or sentence structure no matter how good you may think you are at writing (including me!) Writing crosses over into many different professions too for example you might start a blog to sharpen your writing skills or even write a book.

As far as I can tell, there are really no downsides to learning to improve your writing skills.

How to start: One of the best ways to improve your writing is to start reading more. That way you can research the writing structures of other authors and see real-life examples of grammar and wording. If you write on your computer, Grammarly is a fantastic program that helps you correct your grammar and it can be downloaded for free.

6. Be a critical thinker

Another thing I think worth learning and practising every day is critical thinking, something I think we could all use much more of in today’s world. How often are you bombarded and surrounded by the opinions of others? If the news isn’t shouting countless problems in the world at you social media is. Sometimes it’s easy to see something from a source you think of as trustworthy and believe what they say right off the bat.

But it’s more important than ever to think critically every time you’re presented with information as fact.

Critical thinking is the practice of examining information rationally and then coming to your own conclusion based on evidence and rationale.

There is a whole host of disinformation and straight-up nonsense that comes directly from the media which can have a negative effect on you if you take their every word literally. How often have you seen a headline only to read the full article and discover the title is actually a massive exaggeration of the real story?

This is a skill worth learning and putting into practice every day so you’re not easily manipulated. The idea is to not become paranoid but to use reason to find the most likely truth.

How to start: when you’re sold information as fact, ask yourself; does this seem like the most likely scenario? What could be the motivations for the story to be told this way? What are other sources saying?

7. Learn to be present

Learning to be present is an important skill to have. There’s so much to think about, so much to worry about and so much to organise that sometimes you end up forgetting to live your life in the moment.

Have you ever paused and wondered, where have all the years gone?

Sometimes I go away for the week and find myself thinking about work too much. I then get back to work the following week and kick myself for not making the most of my time off. I can count the endless amount of times I’ve done this. I used to think this was unique to me but I’ve since realised that we all do this to some degree.

Learning to be present sounds so simple yet it can be hard to do in practice but when you think about it, the present moment is all you ever have so it’s important to appreciate it and make the most of every moment you have.

How to start: read this post as a starting point. When you find your mind drifting off, ask yourself; “is it really necessary to think about this right now?” Most of the time the answer will be NO. Give yourself the permission to enjoy the present moment because, like me, you’ll soon be back in your office chair wishing you had stayed present whilst you were out doing the things you love with the people you love. Keep practising this skill every day, even during things that seem mundane.

Be mindful of the occasions where your mind wanders, be kind to yourself and see your wandering mind for what it is, something that will happen from time to time. Then gently nudge your focus back to right now.

8. Gain deep focus

Focus these days is hard to achieve. In the West, we’re often led to believe that being able to multitask is crucial, something to strive for. Some of us wear it with a badge of honour. However, in my experience, it can hinder your productivity.

Last year, author Johann Hari published his new book Stolen Focus – Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How To Think Deeply Again. This is a fascinating insight into today’s ‘attention crisis’ and I found myself searching and watching Johan on many podcasts where he describes in detail how many elements of society have hijacked our attention span.

He says that US students today can only focus on one thing for up to 65 seconds at a time which to me is rather shocking but it makes sense, for example, how long can you sit at home without looking at your phone? Many of us sit with the TV on but we keep reaching for our devices.

It seems there are many things that pull at our focus these days because after all, attention = money, especially when it comes to the flashing apps on our phones. Being able to focus might seem like a trivial thing but when you assess your own ability to stick to one task for long periods of time, you might be surprised how your own attention span has been shortened.

Focus these days is a skill, something that is valuable and will only serve you well and that’s why it is an important skill to learn.

Where to start: I recommend reading Johann’s book as a starting point (or watching a podcast with him like the one above on the DOAC channel) so you can learn for yourself how your focus might be getting hijacked without you even realising it. In his book, Johan describes techniques you can learn to reclaim your focus so you can be more productive and ultimately feel like you again amongst all the noise.

9. Learn to say no

Learning to say “no” is a skill, sometimes an uncomfortable one. I’ve been told on many occasions that I was ‘too nice’. I don’t want to be mean either but in reality, saying “no” isn’t mean at all, it can relieve a lot of stress in your life and help you to manage your time better. It’s common to say “Sorry but…” when all you really want to say is “no,” because you don’t want to upset or let someone down.

Saying “no” lets people know where you stand. It stops you from doing things you don’t actually want to do which can remove a lot of stress from your life. People will also respect your honesty when you say it like you mean it.

Where to start: Practice saying “no” without saying sorry first and saying it like you mean it. You don’t always have to give people a reason. After all, your time is valuable.

10. Learn a new language

A great new skill to learn every day is learning a new language. Whenever I meet someone from another country who can speak my language too, I always feel really impressed. I’ve always wanted to learn a new language myself but have put it off for years. I enjoyed learning French for example at school but never took my education any further after that. However, there are many benefits to learning a new language.

For example, you’re able to talk to people fluently when you go on holiday and you could even land yourself a high-paying job. Being able to speak multiple languages is a skill that most people don’t have which is why it can be so valuable.

Where to start: You could go online and find books or videos where you can learn basic phrases. However, one of the best resources out there right now is Babbel (not affiliated) where you can learn 150 different languages. It’s free to try and not intimidating at all. Just sign up for a free account, select your language, your goal and the amount of time you’d like to spend practising each day.

11. Money management

Money can be a great source of stress for many people, especially when you don’t have enough of it. Truth is, most of us have felt the pinch at some point or do consistently. Learning the skill of looking after money is something everyone should have but many of us don’t always get taught it.

Much of the best money advice revolves around only spending what you can afford on any given day, something I personally subscribe to. If you really want something expensive, it’s sometimes better to save up for it instead of getting it on credit.

If you can learn the skill of money management, you’ll find you’re less stressed and able to focus on other things in your life.

Where to start: make sure you know how much money you have and check your balance on a regular basis, this can be done with an internet banking app so you can dip in when you need to check. It also saves you from having to go to a bank to see what you have left. Plan for the month ahead and work out how much you realistically need to spend on each day. Creating a budget is vital for the health of your bank balance, it helps you realise how much is going out and how much is coming in. When you know your income and expenses like the back of your hand, planning becomes much easier. If you’re looking for a fantastic money resource, check this one out for some awesome inspiration.

12. Learn to play an instrument

I began to learn the guitar when I was 14 but threw in the towel too early. Now, I kick myself. Boy, I wish I could play an instrument like a guitar. Learning an instrument is a great way to do something mindful and creative. But one of the main reasons why it’s such a valuable thing to do is because it’s a skill you can keep crafting over and over. The more you do it, the better you get! In fact, the best musicians in the world are the ones who make their music a priority. It’s also kind of a cool thing to show off!

Where to start: Once again, there are many free resources online like YouTube where you can learn to play an instrument to a pretty good standard all for free.

For example, check out this beginner guide video if you’re looking to learn to play the guitar:

13. How To Read Body Language

Almost everyone knows that when someone looks you in the eye it means they are engaged and listening to you but there’s a whole host of other body language signals going on at the same time that you may think don’t mean anything. To me, the world of body language is fascinating. All the subtle movements someone makes can mean different things.

Learning the skills of body language is a great thing to learn because it can help you to understand other people better, their emotions, and their intentions and could even land you a job role.

Understanding body language is important for some specific job roles, for example, detectives who interview suspected criminals. It’s a subtle skill that many people don’t understand but if you can practice learning it it can give you an edge in many areas of life.

We’ve all had those moments where we’ve looked at someone and without saying a word to one another, could tell what they were thinking. This is the beauty of body language.

The best part is that you can learn this skill every single day with every interaction that you have from talking to your partner to those you come into contact with at work.

Where to start: There are a bunch of free resources out there that can help you to learn body language. You can also find easy-to-understand books on Amazon for beginners or check out this fascinating video published on the Wired YouTube channel below.

14. Resilience

Resilience is a skill, not something everyone is born with. It’s something you practise or are forced to develop through hardship. Without resilience, it’s much harder to face the world and everything it throws at you. When you think about it, is anything actually easy? is anything worth doing actually easy? In my experience, no, the easy things are not the things I find worthwhile or give me a sense of purpose.

Each day will bring challenges and if you don’t have a sense of resilience you’ll find even the small things frustrating and difficult. Resilience is important because it allows you to keep your cool in stressful situations. It gives you confidence in your own abilities, allowing you to face your challenges head-on.

I think we all have resilience within us, but it’s up to us to tackle challenges, and not settle for being comfortable all the time. If you can make a habit of this, the reward is a confidence that money can’t buy.

Where to start: there are many ways you could go about building resilience in your own life but something that has worked for me is creating my own challenges through intense exercise and learning new things. Voluntarily doing hard things tends to build resilience. Create that workout plan and just do it. Jump into learning that new skill and don’t give up. You might surprise yourself at what you can achieve if you just keep going.

15. Being patient with others

“Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself,”

Marcus Aurelius

Being patient with others is another thing you can learn to do every day and something that will serve you well in the future. Being tolerant and patient with people means remembering that everyone is at different points in their lives and going through different situations. It’s about remembering that you can only control yourself and your own reactions, not other people, no matter how badly you’d like to.

This is a skill to learn because…people will often really test your patience!

Reacting to others in an angry or frustrated manner often just makes things worse all around and prolongs the upset. Being patient with others allows you to focus on yourself and practice self-discipline.

Where to start: When someone is angry with you, be mindful of how it makes you feel, for example, do you feel your heart race faster? Remind yourself you don’t have to react in anger. Similarly, when someone is testing your patience, ask yourself if you really need to get involved and if their behaviour really needs to affect you. Practice being mindful of your instinctive reactions to catch yourself when you feel like reacting. Head over to this post to find out how you can be more mindful in everyday life which can help with this.

16. Be frugal

Being frugal is a great thing to learn every day (or whenever you spend money) because it can save you a lot of stress and money simultaneously. Being frugal means being sparing with your money and there are many small ways you can do this that add up to leave you with more money at the end of the month.

Where to start: One of the best ways to be frugal is to research what you need from the grocery store before you go. This way, you’ll get an idea of how much your shopping comes to before you even step through the front door. Create a list and stick to it. Do this religiously so you never pick up that extra thing you see near the checkout. You can also look for the cheapest option. Most stores have their own versions of food that are just as good but a lot cheaper. And don’t forget about coupons. Always check to see if there is a free coupon for whatever purchase you want to make.

This skill seems obvious but many people overspend on lots of small things without realising it.

17. Simplicity

The skill of simplicity is a beautiful thing. Why? because living a simplified life isn’t easy in a complicated world. You can always make things more simple, giving you less stress and the ability to focus on what actually matters to you. The best part about this skill is that you can simplify every area of your life from relationships, work, exercise and money.

Where to start: begin by looking at the messiest areas of your life. Ask yourself how you can simplify this. For example, you might find that your home is often messy with clothes hanging over chairs and dishes that build up around the sink. Perhaps you could create a structured daily routine that allows you to complete mundane household chores in the morning before you leave for work, giving you more time in the evening. Or you could go through your clothes and chuck away the ones you never wear anymore. If you enjoy working out at the gym but find it too much to go to and from it in the evenings, could you exercise at home to the same standard by finding a good workout routine online? If you feel pulled by friends who want to see you too often, simplify things by telling them “no” like we talked about above and give them set days when you are happy to meet up.

18. Positivity

Positivity doesn’t exactly come naturally to me but the more I practice it, the easier it gets. Developing a positive mindset is a vital thing to learn every day. The benefits are obvious but for me, the main reasons you should learn to have a positive mindset is that it creates a lot more opportunities for you, you feel more at peace and you have a greater sense of gratitude.

Where to start: Read this post for some inspiration about how to keep a positive mindset. There are many ways you can cultivate a positive mindset but these are the things that have worked for me.

19. Gratitude

I see gratitude as a skill because it’s often difficult to do (or keep doing). It’s easy to take things for granted, especially the things you use every day and the people you speak to every day. But gratitude can do a lot for you when it comes to your mood, your outlook on life and your overall sense of well-being. When you practise gratitude, there’s no room for anger or upset. But it does have to be practised, over and over until it becomes a habit. The best part is, you can practise gratitude in any area of your life.

Where to start: I once heard a story about a man who would lie in his bed for 10 minutes after he woke up to think about how grateful he was to have two healthy legs. Sounds a little silly on the surface but I think starting with something like this can be a great way to pull your attention and gratitude towards the things you use every day, the things that are vital to keeping you going. You can do something similar to this or you could practise gratitude for a couple of minutes each morning, meditating on the people and things you love.

20. Have no opinion

There are so many things in the world that are trying to get your attention and so many things to have an opinion about. But do we really need to pay attention to everything that happens? Researchers have found that the average person consumes around 74GB of information per day. 500 years ago, the average person would consume 74GB in their entire lifetime. And every year that passes, we process another 5% of information. It’s no wonder we find ourselves burned out from time to time. The media throws continuous information at you as does social media. There’s an opportunity to have an opinion about 1000 per day. But the skill of choosing to have no opinion can set you free and allow you to concentrate on the things that actually matter.

Where to start: the next time you read or watch something that triggers an emotion inside of you, ask yourself; do I really need to be affected by this thing? Is it within my control? If the answer is no, choose to have no opinion, choose not to comment or share it.

21. Self-confidence

Self-confidence is a skill. Of course, some people seem to be born with oodles of it but not everyone is so lucky. But without self-confidence, it’s hard to progress in any area of life. This is a skill to learn and practise every day because it’s far easier to get home from work and turn the TV on instead of trying to push yourself out of your comfort zone. This takes constant repetition. For example, I used to be very shy, not wanting to go anywhere new or speak to anyone I didn’t know but I quickly realised that was getting me nowhere. So how do you build self-confidence in a practical way?

Where to start: Check out these habits for building self-confidence. One thing that helped me gain more self-confidence was to weigh up what the worst-case scenario would be if I walked up and started talking to a new person. It turns out, you might end up looking a little silly but that wouldn’t be the end of the world. The most likely thing that would happen is you simply end up having a conversation with that person. If you keep putting yourself outside your comfort zone, you soon realise you’re capable of much more than you originally thought. This is a challenging skill to learn but a very worthwhile one.

22. Utilising the breath

Breathing exercises are a huge part of meditation. The breath is usually the one thing that is used as an “anchor” during such activities. I used to think of breathing exercises as silly, something for only people who did yoga. But it wasn’t until I tried the Wim Hof breathing method that I realised the power of the breath. It’s the one thing we all share in common but so many of us don’t realise it’s potential to make us feel good. Developing breathing techniques is a skill and something I now work on more often. My favourite method by a long shot is the Wim Hof breathing method. It’s an exercise that doesn’t take long yet it has a powerful effect on the body. I began to use this technique when I was feeling incredibly stressed. It helped calm me down and increase the time I could hold my breath.

Utilising your breath to regulate your nervous system is an incredibly powerful skill to know which is why it’s making this list. If there’s one thing I’d recommend trying right now, it’s this breathing technique.

Where to start: Watch the above video and take it slowly. If you can’t do more than one round, keep practising each day until you feel comfortable progressing.

23. Staying calm

Staying calm is a valuable new skill to learn if you often find yourself stressed especially at work. Stress from your boss, stress from your colleagues, bills, relationships and life in general can do you harm both mentally and physically. Stress has a variety of negative effects on the body which can lead to health conditions. Learning to stay calm is one of those skills that only you can do for yourself which is why it’s so important to learn.

Where to start: Check out this post for some tips on how to stay calm. I would also say that many of the skills to learn in this post can help you to stay calm. For example, learning breathing techniques is a very accessible thing to use when you’re feeling stressed.

24. Humour

The skill of humour is a great skill to learn and practise, especially if you’re feeling stressed about something. At any point, you can choose to laugh about something, no matter how absurd. This is the art of not taking everything so seriously, including yourself. Humour allows you to laugh at things. It allows you to remember that you don’t always have to take things so seriously. It also allows you to blow off psychological steam, pent-up energy that’s been weighing on you. How good do you feel when something makes you laugh? and how good do others feel when you make them laugh? Humour can also help you to improve your relationships and your perspective.

Where to start: There are many ways to engage with humour. One way is to remember that life itself is absurd. We’re living on a giant rock in an infinite space, arguing about a bunch of silly things that don’t really matter when all the time we have no idea why we exist or what it all means. In 100 years, none of this will matter so you may as well find the funny side of life, do the things you enjoy and not take everything so seriously.

25. Basic repairs

Basic repair skills are an important skill to have. If you can repair your own belongings you’ll have to pay out less money and you’ll be able to pass those vital skills down to your children. Interestingly, 20% of adults in the UK lack the basic skills needed for changing a lightbulb and more and more people are lacking basic repair skills that will help them avoid paying for someone else to help them. In my opinion, the vital repair skills you should know are changing a light bulb, sewing clothing, changing a plug fuse and various types of cleaning.

Where to start: Thankfully, there’s a whole bunch of resources out there that teach DIY for free and my favourite resource once again is YouTube. If you don’t have anyone who can assist you in person, you’ll find lots of tips for fixing things up around your house or apartment on the video-sharing site. Check out the video above that describes how you can repair and keep things in check in your own home.

New skills to learn to improve your life

I believe these skills are practical things to learn that will actually have a positive impact on several areas of your life. If I had to start anywhere I would first learn how to cook because this is such a vital skill and can add so much positivity in the way you feel. With the right nutrition, you’ll have good levels of energy that will spur you on to want to learn new things as a result.

Do you have any new skills you’ve learned lately? Let me know in the comments.