Most if not all professional Institutes, require there members to keep up their studies up to date, and research new ideas. 35 hours per year is almost universal. 

So what do you do, well for me its a roundabout trip  of lecture preparation keeping up with current regulations and continuing down my list of interesting subjects.

This is done partly via self learning, a small amount of lectures from Manufacturers, and a lot of research and academic paper writing, but mostly self learning. on my personal page scaysbrook.co.uk, with all of my CPD activity listed on the  AT-CPD.co.uk website along with a load of tips, and future cpd events where I also list my small spreadsheet of hours spent, my book collection, and  my academic papers.

By far my most useful method of achieving my hours are podcasts, those lectures recorded for private listening. I use two android players to collect and play these Google podcast player, and Stitcher, both available cross platform, although I use a Google Pixel so android is my choice, add to this Spotify, which is evolving into the best podcast / music player ever.

Below I intend to list some useful podcasts. Drop me a line on twitter @scays with any interesting podcast you find. You might want to log onto Stitcher and use the search bar, for whatever style, focus or subject takes your fancy.

Continuing your CPD by research is by enlarge my main route of serious CPD, it's where I explore ideas not covered by manufacturers, or mainstream text books, it's my futurism side. At this level I tend to think a lot, exploring ideas via exploring a concept, often in my mind, making notes and sketching, so often its done in my daybook, I tend to scan these notes and transfer them to my Google Drive, and group like minded thoughts into folders. Often I use Google keep to clip notes or web pages or even voice thoughts that I think appropriate.

Often Google Scholar is a main source of research, looking for papers that explore similar subjects, the beauty of this means is the citations that lead to other like minded papers. This is a dangerous area, I can so often wonder off subject, following interesting papers, which some times leads to new subject matter. 

Another site I use is Academia, its as the name implies, a site for academics to list areas of research and publish papers, its very well populated and makes it a place to search.

For those of you with dogs, walking is almost a way of life with daily if not more trips, I use it to listen to my podcasts,  making notes on my thoughts in Google Keep, its efficient and easy to do, I get some really good ideas this way.  But walking about allows me to see things you miss driving. Quite rightly your mind should be on the business of driving, but walking allows me to just look, and not just at the ground like so many, but at everything, trees, plants, but most of all, above. In big cities, the ground floor is taken over by shop windows, and signs, but just look up and you will see an untouched world of architecture. This simple method has allowed me to refine my detailing, and realise what works and so often what does not.

Most institutes require a record of CPD, that meets a core set of subjects, so a method is required to record your  CPD efforts. Mine is a simple spreadsheet, its populated with simple code to add up hours, and compare with previous years. It works, one day I will update, but at present, I use it to record my hours, but my research list is folders, littered with notes, skeching and links, I have tried, or I am trying mind maps, but with limited success.  My version is stored in Google Drive and obviously as a google Sheet, 

Peer review is one of the ways you can check on research, getting a like minded academic to review your research, does it make sense. Academic papers is a great way to not only distribute the knowledge but get the work checked and published, mostly for free. Google Scholar list my papers and allows you to cite my research into your new work.

I tend to send most if not all my papers to  the Journal of Building Survey, Appraisal & Valuation, not only do I get printed copies of the magazine, but I get a listing via google scholar who must monitor them.  CIAT are also keen on this route to publish.

But and I have to emphasise this, peer review is not for the faint hearted, some comments have been scary, and I wonder what planet they are on, but most have been very encouraging.

I collect photos, most I take with my own camera, and so many are construction or Architecture related, I store them in my google photo and methodically add to albums, and tag as many as I can for searching.

A lot I use as survey notes, some get used within my lectures, and some I print just for pleasure. Is it CPD well yes, I consider it as a learning curve on whats good or bad in construction.

Some I post onto Pinterest, a service thats free to upload photos to , its a service I use a lot to show particular details.