In the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” written by Stephen R. Covey, habit #7 is called “Sharpen the Saw”. This relates to what the book calls “Principles of Balanced Self Renewal”. The four component of this Self Renewal includes Physical, Social / Emotional, Spiritual, and Mental. The point of interest here is part of the Mental component which includes your continuing education in topics that are important to you.
With the Internet, personal computers, and many other tools there has been an information explosion in recent years that makes it possible for you to develop real expertise on any topic that is important to you, no matter how specialized the topic may be. Sometimes the modern problem is that there is too much information, and most of us have limited time to devote to conventional means of continuing our education. This is where listening to carefully selected podcasts may provide you with a very attractive solution.
Before going further, it is important to mention that one does not need to have an Apple iPod to listen to podcasts, but the combination of an iPod and iTunes software does make it incredibly easy and convenient for those that want to regularly listen to podcasts. You can use other portable MP3 players that are on the market to listen to podcasts on the go. You can also listen to podcasts even if you do not have any type of portable MP3 player. It is possible to listen to podcasts on your computer. Still another option is to create audio CDs that contain the podcast episodes you want to listen to, and you can play them on CD players that are compatible with CD-R and CD-RW audio or MP3 CDs.
In the first years of podcasting, any of the quality podcasts you could find that were good candidates for helping people with continuing their education were dedicated to technology and computer related topics. This is quickly changing, and the list of content-rich podcasts for just about any topic will continue to improve. Compared to established conventional publishing methods (books, magazines, television, radio…), producers and publishers typically target main-stream audience interests. If you have a specialized interest, in-depth information is typically very difficult to find. A great many of the best podcasts are being produced by individuals and small organizations that have a deep interest and expertise in the topics that they cover. As a result, easy access to quality information regarding specialized topics is getting easier.
The advantage to listening to podcasts to help you “sharpen your saw” is that you can easily utilize time within your day that is otherwise unusable for your personal growth. Some examples…
- The time you spend waiting in waiting rooms for appointments can become personal growth time.
- The time you spend exercising becomes “two for the price of one time” because not only are you sharpening your saw in the form of maintaining your physical health, you are also maintaining your mental knowledge.
- if you spend a lot of time driving, you can record podcast episodes to CD-R or CD-RW discs, allowing you to listen to podcasts while you are driving. Some newer car stereos have a USB port that will let you plug in a USB Flash Drive full of MP3 audio, or some have iPod ports that allow you to connect your iPod directly to your card stereo.
- For those that commute using mass transit, you likely have 30 minutes to an hour twice a day that is probably otherwise un-used.
- Yard work and other similar household chores are never fun, but they have to be done. It goes a lot faster when you can direct your attention to something else. Why not learn while you are working.
- Your spiritual health is another aspect of “Sharpen the Saw”. An increasing number of forward-minded churches are making their pastors’ sermons available in the form of podcasts. Two prominent examples include Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church, and Kerry Shook of Fellowship of The Woodlands.
At this point, I am sure you get the idea. I have set a personal policy that if I am going somewhere, and I think there is ANY chance that I will have 5 or more minutes of wait time, I take my iPod loaded with the latest podcasts that I regularly listen to. To make things easier, iTunes automatically sets up a playlist called “Recently Added”, which contains any new content I have added to my iTunes library. iTunes automatically downloads the latest podcasts episodes from the podcasts I subscribe to, and adds those new episodes to the Recently Added playlist. All I have to do is plug my iPod into my computer periodically, and everything is taken care of for me. All I have left to do is listen to my Recently Added playlist during otherwise unused periods of time. All of a sudden, it becomes much easier to fit this personal improvment activity into your already full schedule.
For those that whish to use an MP3 player that is not an iPod, and do not want to use iTunes, Yahoo offers the Yahoo!Podcasts directory which is a player independent solution.
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