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Twenty minutes.
That’s about the length of a coffee break, part of a morning walk, or the time you might spend scrolling through your phone without giving it much thought.
What if, instead, you used those 20 minutes to learn something you’ve always wondered about?
September Is Healthy Aging® Month is all about looking forward, trying something new, and staying engaged with the world around you. This year’s theme, “Curiosity Has No Age Limit,” is a reminder that learning as you age can begin with something as simple as following a question that interests you. There is always another question to ask, skill to try, place to discover, or subject to explore.
And you don’t have to enroll in a semester-long course to get started.
Why Keep Learning?
The National Institute on Aging describes cognitive health as the ability to think, learn, and remember clearly. Among its recommendations for supporting cognitive health is a simple one: keep your mind engaged.
Research has explored what happens when older adults tackle genuinely new and challenging activities. In one study cited by the National Institute on Aging, adults who learned digital photography or quilting showed greater improvement in memory than participants engaged in less cognitively demanding activities. The NIA also points out that the evidence about the long-term cognitive effects of particular activities is still developing — so beware of programs promising that one game or exercise can somehow guarantee a sharper brain.
More recently, a 2025 study of more than 12,000 U.S. adults age 65 and older found that participation in educational or training courses later in life was associated with better cognitive function over time. The study does not establish that taking a course causes better cognition, but the findings add to research examining the potential value of continued learning as we age.
That gives you one more reason to follow your curiosity.
Why 20 Minutes?
There is nothing scientifically magical about 20 minutes.
That’s the point.
Twenty minutes is simply short enough to feel doable. You’re not committing to becoming fluent in Italian, mastering watercolor painting, or understanding the entire history of ancient Rome by next month.
You’re giving yourself permission to begin.
Set a timer. Pick one subject. When the 20 minutes are up, stop — unless you’re having too much fun to quit.
What Could You Learn?
Try a new language.
Learn five words today. Tomorrow, learn five more. Practice how to order breakfast, ask for directions, or introduce yourself. If there’s a country you hope to visit someday, start with its language.
Explore a place you’ve never been.
Pick a city, national park, country, or region and find out what makes it distinctive. Read about its history one day, food the next, then music, architecture, traditions, or landscape.
Go back in history.
Choose one event, person, or year and follow wherever it leads. The Library of Congress Today in History collection uses material from the Library’s digital collections to explore events in American history and offers links for digging deeper.
Learn about art, science, or culture.
You could spend weeks wandering through the free Smithsonian Learning Lab, which brings together millions of Smithsonian images, recordings, texts, videos, and other resources covering art, history, culture, and science.
Figure out one piece of technology.
Instead of saying, “I’m terrible at this,” choose one thing. Learn how to organize the photos on your phone. Try a video call. Explore artificial intelligence. Learn to edit a picture, create a playlist, or use a feature you’ve been ignoring.
Try something creative.
Draw what you see outside your window. Learn three chords on a guitar. Practice taking better photographs. Write the first paragraph of a family story. Try a new recipe and find out something about the culture it comes from.
Learn something about your own family.
Identify the people in an old photograph. Call a relative and ask about a story you’ve heard for years. Research an ancestor. Write down a memory you don’t want the next generation to lose.
And sometimes learning can bring people together. Take a class, join a club, practice with a friend, or ask someone to teach you what they know. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that strong social connections are important to both physical and mental well-being.
Start With One Question
You don’t need a syllabus.
Start by asking yourself:
What have I always wanted to know how to do?
Or:
What am I curious about right now?
Then give it 20 minutes today.
Do it again tomorrow if you want to.
A month from now, you may know a little more about Spanish, photography, astronomy, your family history, your smartphone, or a destination halfway around the world.
Or your first question may have led you somewhere completely unexpected.
That’s the fun of curiosity.
Your Healthy Aging Month challenge:
Choose one thing you want to learn and give it 20 minutes today.
After all, curiosity has no age limit.
