Strategies to learn new functions in new releases?

Questions
1

Each new release of Mathematica has functions that I should be using in my regular workflow.

The problem is that I develop habits–and when in a hurry (which is the usual case), I fall back on those old habits. Many of these of my go-to work-arounds that are simplified by newly introduced functions.

For example, I should be taking more advantage of Query[…] and CurryApplied and OperatorApplied, but I don’t take the time to dig in and make them part of my normal workflow. I recently dug in and starting using Indexed with TagSet and made a task much much simpler.

So, here is the question: What are the best strategies for long-time users to stay current? How do you make sure you are using the best-and-newest stuff? How do old dogs learn new tricks?

It may seem silly, but this is a serious question.

2

Good question! This is sort of trivial, but at least for a start, I always dedicate usually about an hour (which is a lot of fun actually) to go through Summary of New Features in docs when the new version is coming out. For example for V12.2 that is already running in the cloud:

For those functions that catch my eye I would play with examples of functions in doc pages until I get a feel of them. That’s maybe planting a seed of new habits for the new functions.

3

Whenever I learn a new function I try to forget another. Or at least forget an option. I find this helps keep a lid on all the voices in my head.