15 Websites To Learn A Skill On Your Own Time (Without Disturbing Your Schedule)

Are you too busy to learn something new?

We get it. While new technology and communication tools have made it easier for us to become more productive, keep in touch with each other, and learn anywhere, it’s also buried us with too many options.

Since there are so many things we can be doing at any one time, there never seems to be enough time in the day to learn a new skill, like how to speak Spanish, pick up a new hobby, or play the piano.

Luckily for us, there are amazing websites that already exist to help us learn something new without disturbing our busy schedules.

If you feel like you’re too busy, check out these 15 websites today:

1. Skillshare

What you can learn: Design, marketing, business
Type of learning: Recorded video lessons

All of us have a skill that we can teach others, which means we can also learn from others. Skillshare has designed an entire company built on this concept.

With your membership, you can have access to over a thousand classes designed to teach you everything from marketing and business to design and more.

2. CreativeLIVE

What you can learn: Photography, money, software tools
Type of learning: Live broadcasting

CreativeLIVE differs from Skillshare in a couple of ways. They provide a free, live broadcasting of their classes, then you can buy the full version which you can keep forever. They also have some world-class experts teaching on their platform, including New York Times Bestselling authors, Pulitzer Prize winners, and top entrepreneurs, all sharing their craft.

You can learn just about anything — software, design, photography, business, and much more.

3. Rype

What you can learn: Foreign language (Spanish)
Type of learning: Live one-on-one coaching

Have you ever thought, “I’m too busy to learn a language.”?

Think again. Rype is a website that provides private Spanish coaching, specifically for busy people. You can get unlimited one-on-one Spanish lessons with your membership, anytime, anywhere.

How is it specifically built for busy people, you ask?

With coaches around the world, they allow you to book lessons at any time of the day, any day of the week, whether it’s a relaxing morning on a Sunday or 3 AM on a weekday (for the nightowls).

No matter how busy you are, now you can always find the time to learn how to speak Spanish. You can try it for free to see if it’s right for you and decide for yourself.

4. MonkeySee

What you can learn: General
Type of learning: Recorded video lessons

MonkeySee is like Youtube, but specifically dedicated to short, educational videos.

You can watch thousands of videos on dozens of different topics, like parenting, personal finance, gadgets, and more.

5. HowStuffWorks

What you can learn: General
Type of learning: Articles and videos

Have you ever wondered, “How does X work?”

HowStuffWorks is a destination built specifically to answer every type of “how it works” question by giving you a dedicated article explaining it in detail. Travel, money, electronics, computers, and more — you can learn just about how anything works on this website.

6. Podcasts

What you can learn: General — business, health, love
Type of learning: Audio recording

Podcasting is not only an app or website, but it’s an entire industry. It became a hit over a decade ago, but only returned to fame a few years ago after the smartphone became mainstream.

Just like Youtube, you can subscribe to different shows based on business, health, relationships, comedy, and much more.

7. Lumosity

What you can learn: Mathematics, pattern recognition, memory retention
Type of learning: Gaming

Got some time to kill while you’re stuck in traffic, waiting for the bus, or taking the train? Why not improve your brain?

Lumosity offers free and premium games that have been specifically designed to improve your memory, math skills, and more. It’s available on desktop or your mobile, so you can enjoy it at home or take it with you wherever you go.

8. Duolingo

What you can learn: Foreign languages
Type of learning: Gamification

If you want a fun, free, and easy way to learn a language, then check out Duolingo. Now with over 50 million registered users around the world, Duolingo is recognized as one of the top free apps to learn a language.

9. Hack A Day

What you can learn: Life hacks
Type of learning: Articles

Hack A Day is a website that teaches you new hacks that you can apply in your life. If you’re into unique or weird facts that you can talk about with your friends, then this website is worth checking out in your spare time.

10. Khan Academy

What you can learn: Mathematics, physics, coding
Type of learning: Video lessons

Khan Academy is an educational platform developed by Salman Khan. This website caught the attention Bill Gates, who stated that Khan was his favorite teacher. I personally used it during my university days, as they make complicated topics seem incredibly easy to understand.

Most of the topics taught on Khan Academy are fairly academic topics, like Calculus, Mathematics, and Physics, rather than general topics like business, design, or marketing.

11. Udemy

What you can learn: General
Type of learning: Video lessons

Udemy is recognized as one of the top leaders of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) industry. They’ve got a massive library of educational courses, but compared to CreativeLIVE or Skillshare, the quality isn’t as high. Nevertheless, you can find very affordable and free courses that you can take advantage of.

The one benefit of Udemy is the quantity of content they have, and you can find courses on anything from LSAT and SAT preparation to history, which is something that won’t exist on many other MOOC websites.

12. Codeacademy

What you can learn: Coding
Type of learning: Gamification, learn by doing

With software eating the world, learning how to code is starting to become as standard as knowing how to use Microsoft Word. The good news is, you don’t need college or innate talent to learn. Codeacademy provides a unique and fun solution to teach you how to code by doing, instead of through textbooks.

HTML, CSS, JS, or Ruby on Rails, you can learn by building your own projects using their program.

13. Startcooking.com

What you can learn: Cooking
Type of learning: Video lessons

Startcooking.com is like having a personal chef trainer wherever you go. Whatever dish you want to cook, chances are you can find it on this website and get a step-by-step tutorial on how you can make it in your kitchen.

You’ll also notice that they classify each dish in terms of difficulty, so if you’re new to cooking, you can always find the low-hanging fruit.

14. edX

What you can learn: General (university subjects)
Type of learning: Live and recorded video lessons

Wish you’d gone to Stanford University or Columbia University? Now you can, for free.

edX, a non-profit organization, empowers you to take online courses from the world’s best universities. You can get a free stream from the lectures of these top institutions and learn anything from business, marketing, economics, and more.

You can watch it online anywhere you are in the world.

15. Lynda

What you can learn: General
Type of learning: Recorded video lessons

Lynda allows you to learn a new skill on your time. It’s not a whole lot different from Skillshare or Udemy, but Lynda does have a larger library of content to provide. They’ve also just been bought out by LinkedIn, so it may be an essential integration that you will see on the professional networking website as well.

They provide a 10-day free trial to explore thousands of classes before you decide if it’s right for you.

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