Written by Hannah Cox, founder of betternotstop

So why am I giving you a ton of free online learning tools?. Well, recently I met some friends at the weekend that I have known since I was 19. For those of you that don’t know, I’m about to hit the big 33! Sitting at a cafe table in Scarborough with their partners and young kids I was struck with how different our live’s are. Especially as we had met and all used to run the best student night in town.

So where are we now then?

The DJ is a happily married mother of one. The MC is loved up with a cute nearly toddler. I am still promoter. I’m also on the verge of starting a new art business and film making. I am completely learning on the job. (IT WILL BE FINE).

Pushing yourself to do new things is something so important to keeping life interesting and exciting. Nowadays it is so easy to access the tools and skills to do so. The possibilities are literally at our fingertips. Thanks to phones, computers and free libraries with computer access and wifi. But the internet is a vast, wild beast – full of cat videos and netflix. Sometimes you need to be shown the way… so here are ten ideas to get you started.

So let’s get started then shall we?

Learn to Code : Code Cademy

Here’s some inspiration. One of the 50 best websites built in 2013 was built by two guys who had only been coding for three and one month respectively. As well as teaching you how to code, the site has a ton of success stories of people who have changed career and been able to put their ideas into reality.

Learn to Draw : Drawspace 

A great way to express yourself creatively without a huge outlay of tools – just grab a pencil and paper. Nothing like the two times I have bought an acoustic guitar and watched it mock me in the corner of my bedroom for years.

Learn Yoga: Yome 

Embarrassed about trying Yoga in a class full of bendy models? Let me confirm with you – every class I have ever attended had all shapes and sizes. Anyway, once you start you are so busy concentrating on your own practice you don’t notice anyone else honestly!. But if you are super shy or just broke trying it out at home is easy. Yoga builds muscle strength, flexibility, can help you focus, relax and increase your self esteem.

Get Organised: Unfuckyourhabitat 

This is for those of you that are messy bastards – an extreme cleaning schedule. Also, check out my favourites The Minimalists who I recently talked about in my most recent meetup.

Learn to Knit: Instructables 

Carley taught herself online – so if she can do it so can you.  The videos are super close up and nice and slow so give a good opportunity to really understand and pick up knitting as fast as possible!

Learn to Take Decent Photos: Udemy 

Udemy actually has a lot of different courses from free to pretty pricey but a good starter is this course on how to change from Auto mode on your digital camera to manual. Answering those questions some newbie photographers are sometimes just too embarassed to ask!

Learn Guitar:  Justin Guitar 

With over 800 free guitar lessons this is a great place for you to learn your first chords and the basic skills needed to learn the guitar!

Learn Music Production: LifeHacker 

You’ll be able to record your own music and share it with the world in no time!

Learn another Language: Duolingo 

With Duolingo you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English and more. There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free. It’s a combination of written, translation and spoken (using your computer microphone) so a consistent effort will ensure you are able to understand as well as speak the language quickly!

Learn Ruby: I want to learn Ruby 

After getting some basic programming experience, Ruby is one of the most popular programming languages for web development so a great way to start a career online. You can also try railsforzombies or learncodethehardway

Have I missed any out – what do you, or have you learnt online?