This is an I-Heart podcast.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the new corner office.

Today's tip is to become a webinar enthusiast.

The near infinite number of virtual learning options out there means you can effectively

homeschool yourself. Learn something new during a break once or twice a week, and you will find

life more interesting, even if you're still quarantined. In the old days, when people still went to

things, a number of community centers, libraries, or houses of worship would offer

evening programming. Now, most likely you'd be in a certain stage of life, perhaps retired,

to go to a discussion of Swedish art or Egyptian literature on a Tuesday night. But I've always

had great respect for people who went to such events instead of sitting on the couch watching Netflix.

Lectures and presentations are a great way to make a night a little different and to expose yourself

to new things. These days, all that stuff is on the internet. You could live thousands of years and never

attend all the free webinars out there.

Working from home does not magically give you more time.

However, it does help you escape from some group norms.

In many workplaces, anyone spotted watching a 30-minute video on Swedish art might be seen

as, well, not serious. In others, the expectation is that you use

all breaks to talk with your colleagues. If people can't see you, then you have a lot more freedom.

And I think that's a good thing. So take advantage of this freedom to learn new stuff that,

frankly, will make you a more

interesting person to work with anyway. To become a webinar enthusiast, you need to become

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