When young, people want to learn a great deal, master every skill and have an intense thirst for knowledge. Over time, too many things demand our time: work, family, children,… “Free time” becomes a luxury, and we stop thinking about learning something new. You may even have heard someone say, “I do not even have time to read.”
Josh Kaufman, author of “The First 20 Hours” and someone deeply passionate about learning new things, decided to find the answer to the question, “How long does it take to master a skill?” The answer he received, however, seemed rather impractical: 10000 hours!
Josh discovered that the rule applies to research at the expert level: people who want to reach the very top of a field and become legends. Josh Kaufman firmly stated that when learning something new, the first 20 hours are extremely important and enough to understand the most basic skills. Those first 20 hours are also when you learn fastest, best and most effectively.
The aim is not to become an expert, but to become sufficiently good at the skill you want.
It takes only 45 minutes a day for about 1 month, but you need a smart approach and must invest your time as effectively as possible. There are 4 basic steps:
1. Skills Analysis:
Many skills can be broken into smaller subskills. Once a skill is structured this way, it becomes much easier to identify the most important subskills and decide which to practice first. Start by breaking what you need to learn into smaller parts and practicing the most important ones.
For example: When learning a musical instrument, knowing just a few chords is enough to play a song's melodies. If you want to learn a new language, learning its 2000 most common words gives you command of 80% of that language.
2. Choose the right tools for yourself:
Choosing too many reference sources is an excellent excuse to postpone learning. You need only 3 to 5 reliable, carefully chosen sources to achieve your goal, such as books, magazines, and DVDs,…
3. Overcome barriers to learning:
Identify possible distractions and eliminate them immediately so you can focus fully on what you want to learn. Make the best use of your time.
4. Practice for at least 20 hours:
Feeling incompetent makes us think we are stupid, creating another obstacle to our goals. Invest at least 20 hours in learning something new, and you will naturally overcome that unpleasant barrier.
Kaufman said: “The main barrier to mastering a skill is not intellect but emotion. We fear failure and embarrassment. Feeling stupid is not pleasant.” Overcome your personal barriers and try learning a new skill with this method.
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