[j_baker]

Part of it is that you need to find ways to justify learning things. It's really easy to learn things that have a direct impact on your job. You may be different, but I know programmers who won't even learn things that directly impact their jobs. And unless it will take a very significant chunk of time, it's usually pretty easy to make this kind of learning transparent to clients and managers. You might be surprised at how much you can learn just by spending the extra couple of hours learning to do something the "right way" rather than just sticking to what you know.

Of course, if that's something you're already doing, kudos. Now, if we're talking about things that don't apply to anything at all, your choices are either going to have to be:

1. Find a way to "sneak in" an hour or two a week if it doesn't interfere with your tasks. 2. Learn it on your own time.

If your management/clients aren't going to allow option 1, you may just have to decide whether you want to learn on your own time or if you want to find a job where you can spend a bit of time learning.