As someone who absolutely loves learning, I’m constantly on the hunt for new skills — especially those that could make a huge difference in my day-to-day life. Recently, over on Reddit, a Reddit user posed the question, “What’s a skill that takes only 2 to 4 weeks to learn but could genuinely change your life?” and these 31 responses have me super excited to try something new:
1.
“First Aid. It could change someone else’s life far more than your own, but that someone could be a friend or relative, making it life-changing for you as well.”
2.
“Mending clothes is the most useful everyday skill, and it costs almost nothing to start. Modern clothes are constructed terribly.”
3.
“You could become decently skilled at cooking in a month if you tunnel focus. From there, you can take control of your health, finances, and if you get really good, it can help your dating and sex life.”
5.
“How to fingerspell and some basic signs in your local sign language. Get the basics of sign language, and you can learn new signs as you need them — it will make a big difference in your ability to communicate when you’re older. Hearing loss is a strong cause of cognitive decline and dementia because you lose your ability to socialize. Hearing aids are a long way from perfect.”
6.
“If you work in a large company, Excel. Or some sort of data visualization software. People will think you’re a genius.”
7.
“Treading water. Being a proficient swimmer takes time, but treading water is one of the first things they teach you in adult swim, and it will buy you precious minutes. Next is floating. “
8.
“Self-control. It’s way easier than you think — start with delayed gratification. You can have the things you desire, but when you want them, you have to set an arbitrary time frame that you have to wait to get them. Start with absurdly easy time frames, like five minutes. Keep extending the delay until you feel like you have better control over your impulses. It happens surprisingly fast and will start bleeding into everything you do. Suddenly, you will find yourself rationally navigating even the most impulsive situations.”
9.
“Typing. I took a computer class in high school where one or two weeks were dedicated to typing/tenkey, and I work in a highly scientific field now where I watch senior scientists peck at the keyboard to write up their papers and emails, and it takes them FOREVER!”
10.
“Take an inexpensive, short course related to your career. A little certificate can go a long way, especially since most of your colleagues aren’t getting them. Do a couple a year, and when you’re searching for a new job or trying for a promotion, you’ll have a lot to show.”
11.
“A really stupid one: juggling. It’s not about learning to juggle; it’s about training your subconscious to catch things that you’re barely aware of. You can drop a glass bottle you’re drinking from, and your other hand will shoot out and catch it on the way down before you really realize what’s going on. It’s the kind of quick reaction time that even sports don’t teach you, but if you do a sport like baseball, it will help make your catches more automatic.”
12.
“Learning how to communicate clearly and confidently. In just a few weeks, you can improve how you explain ideas, set boundaries, and express yourself. It helps in interviews, relationships, negotiations, and even daily conversations. People often underestimate how powerful good communication really is.”
13.
“Correctly brushing and flossing your teeth. Remember, kids, only floss the teeth you want to keep.”
14.
“Gratitude. Take one to three minutes every day before you go to bed and write down/say to yourself three things you are grateful for in your life or that happened that day.”
15.
“Learn to sing healthily, for the health benefits. Singing well requires precise coordination of so many muscles you never think about, and striving for that often reveals tensions in your body you don’t realize you have, literally from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Additionally, musicianship (taught properly) requires combining a whole range of cognitive processes that humans don’t do in any other form; musical practice is truly unique in this way.”
17.
“You could get an amateur (ham) radio license in a few weeks of study and be able to communicate with people all around the world, not to mention become more capable of surviving major disruptive situations and crises. In major emergencies, access to communication is everything.”
18.
“Working out regularly. It’s a lifetime journey of learning, but it only takes a few weeks to start feeling comfortable in the gym and get over the worst soreness from starting weight lifting. Someday, if you’re lucky, you will be old. Working out regularly can be the difference between being in an assisted living facility and living independently. (Also, being strong is ridiculously fun.)”
19.
“Basic video editing. Seriously. I learned the fundamentals in like three weeks by just messing around with DaVinci Resolve’s free version, and suddenly people were asking me to edit their videos for events, social media, etc. It opened up side-income possibilities I never expected. Plus, once you can edit, you can create content for yourself, which is a completely different skill that changes how you see storytelling, pacing, and communication. Even if you never make money from it, knowing how to tell a visual story is incredibly useful. The hardest part, honestly, is just getting comfortable with the software. After that, it’s just practice, and you get better at it week by week. Totally doable in four weeks with an hour or two daily.”
20.
“Basic DIY. Being able to fix small issues around the house/car/etc. can save you a lot of money, stress, and time, and help you create a space you are genuinely happy with. Start with some basic tools and add to them as you tackle new projects. It also helps you maintain your property, so you spend less money on replacements.”
21.
“Yoga. Since learning yoga, I’ve fallen in love with exercise, and it’s changed my habits. I feel a great sense of accomplishment every time I master a new yoga pose. And consistent exercise has definitely made my body better; I no longer get out of breath after climbing just a few flights of stairs like before.”
22.
“Heimlich maneuver. I saved a kid in class one day. He was turning purple. It was so surprising how hard I had to do it to make the piece of candy come flying out of his mouth.”
23.
“Welding. With the advent of extremely inexpensive machines and YouTube, it’s very accessible to almost anyone. Almost every personal project I get involved in includes welding, and I frequently collect some handsome paychecks with those skills, too.”
24.
“Researching information and sources. So much BS is fed to society that knowing what a good source and good information is is critical to making good decisions. People make decisions every day, so this is huge in the long run.”
25.
“How to can and properly freeze fresh food, and some degree of butchery. How to garden a multitude of vegetables and bake bread. Plus, how to read topographic maps and properly use a compass.”
26.
“Learning to fold. People think they’re achievers if they go all-in. But sometimes you have to call a loss a loss and not go down the drain of sunken cost fallacy. The quicker you get out of a dead end, the better. The best poker players aren’t the ones that go all-in in a heads-up because they have a full house — the best poker players are the ones that can fold with a full house on hand because they know they’re gonna lose to a better hand.”
27.
“Tying basic knots correctly. Learn to tie a bowline, half hitches, taut-line hitch, square knot, and maybe baker’s knot. You won’t ever struggle to untie things, and you don’t need 10 ‘granny’ knots to keep things from coming loose.”
28.
“Speed reading. It only really takes focus to read words on a page without making your internal voice speak them to you as you go. You’d probably be surprised how much you can comprehend accurately by letting your eyes do the work by themselves.”
29.
“Cutting your own hair. I learned during COVID, and now I save $500 a year and have a fresh cut every week.”
30.
“In the corporate world, public speaking. Getting out of your shell a little bit and having an opinion will do wonders for you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen underperformers get promoted over workhorse engineers simply because they speak up more in company meetings.”
31.
And finally, “Cold approaching. I don’t mean picking up women to sleep with them, I mean the broad art of being comfortable with striking up conversations with strangers. It typically takes a few weeks of regular practice to get over nerves, but here are some things that have happened for me by approaching strangers: future business partnerships that netted me thousands of dollars, new career opportunities, invitations to parties I didnt know about before, new best friendships, free healthcare (they happened to be a doctor who I became best friends with), etc. Simple networking can change your life!”
Now I want to know: do you have any tips for skills folks can learn quickly that could change their lives? Let us know in the comments. And if you’d prefer to remain anonymous, you can use the form below.