I've been coding for about 15 years, and these are the strategies that work best for me: 1. If the framework or language contains paradigms that are new to you

I've been coding for about 15 years, and these are the strategies that work best for me: 1. If the framework or language contains paradigms that are new to you, start by getting a learn-by-doing book like a pragmatic programmer guide, and work your way all the way through it. 2. Start doing little projects that are personally relevant to you. These can be anything: little math problems from projecteuler, data analysis problems, technical interview questions. Which projects you choose are less important than you being motivated to sit down and actually finish them, solving both the easy and fun parts and the annoying "shovel work" parts. 3. Sign up to teach someone (friend, coworker, meetup group) what you just learned. The pressure of the impending performance will force you to deepen your understand of the new topics. This is also known as the "Richard Feynman method of learning"