Don’t have 10,000 hours to learn something new? That’s fine — all you need is 20.
Curated from: blog.ed.ted.com
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1. Break down a skill into its components.
Break what you want to learn into smaller, manageable pieces. Let’s say you want to bake your own bread. It’s a multi-step process that includes making dough, letting it rise, punching it down, shaping it into a loaf, and baking it in the oven. You’ll start by identifying the different tools and skills behind each step.
Or, if you choose yoga as your new hobby, begin at home with a video that shows you the basic poses and breathing techniques — and then go try a class.
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2. Learn enough to know when you’re making a mistake.
Get three to five resources about what it is you’re trying to learn. It could be books, it could be DVDs, it could be anything, but don’t use those as a way to procrastinate. After all, you won’t learn how to bake bread or do yoga unless you break out the flour or yoga mat and do something.
Set a limit on the number of resources you’re consulting — there’s no need to buy every book or watch every YouTube video on the subject; there’s time to do that later — and jump in.
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3. Remove any and all barriers to practice.
This may require stowing away your electronic devices while you tackle your hobby. Or get creative and combine your favorite distraction with your new activity. In a TEDxPenn talk, behavioral scientist Katherine Milkman advocates a technique called “temptation bundling” : pairing something you know you love to do with something you’re trying to get yourself to do. Turn on your favorite podcast while you bake, or you could turn your weekly coffee with a friend into a weekly at-home yoga session with the two of you.
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4. Practice for at least 20 hours.
To overcome the “frustration barrier” — that period in the beginning when you’re painfully incompetent and you know it — you must commit to sticking with your new activity for at least 20 hours. By that point,
you will be astounded at how good you are.
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IDEAS CURATED BY
Digital marketing at dentsu. Invested in the symbiosis of marketing, psychology, and design. Photographer at heart.
CURATOR'S NOTE
Writer Josh Kaufman, author of The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything…Fast and The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business, has figured out why so many of us get stopped in our tracks during this early learning period. He has a solution to tackle the problem.
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Pranav P.'s ideas are part of this journey:
Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection
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