The age-old adage that says, You can’t teach an old dog new tricks isn’t necessarily true. Any dog, young or old, can learn to do new things if you devote enough time and energy to the process of learning.
And the same holds true for humans! With enough time and energy, anyone can learn anything that’s worth learning — or so says Josh Kaufman in his book The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything. Fast!
Break it down into smaller tasks
getting through a 20-hour computer course or reading a book takes effort, but you can make it easier on yourself. The first step is to break big tasks into smaller ones that are more easily digestible.
Then ask yourself, What’s one thing I could do today to get closer to my goal? The act of checking off an item from your list will help keep you motivated along your journey. Know that you don’t have to complete all 20 hours in one sitting.
For example, if you’ve set aside four hours over two days and find that it’s not working for you, maybe try a few hours one day and then finish up on another day when circumstances allow it.
Don’t worry about creating a full-blown course at first. Just break down whatever you want to learn into smaller chunks, focusing on one skill at a time. Need to learn a language?
Break it down into phonics, nouns, grammar, and verbs. Want to get in shape? Focus on exercise regimens for now; you can always build other elements (like nutrition) later.
The first thing to do is break down your overall goal into smaller tasks. For example, if you want to learn a language, then your first step would be to figure out what resources are available and how long it will take you to learn basic vocabulary.
The next step might be looking up some common phrases in both English and Spanish that would be useful while traveling, so you can practice on your way to your destination.
This type of chunking allows you to focus on one task at a time rather than trying to tackle everything at once. 20 hours seems like a long time, but when broken down into digestible chunks, it goes by pretty quickly!
Take it one step at a time,
If you want to get really good at anything, you have to practice it frequently. It’s not enough to just spend 20 hours in a row practicing something, though. To make progress and reach your full potential, aim for 100% focus on one thing at a time.
This means splitting up your time into sessions with breaks in between, and dedicating each session to mastering one aspect of what you’re trying to learn. This can be applied to virtually any skill you’re trying to master: language learning, guitar, cooking, or building a website.
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell makes a compelling case that in order to learn something new, you just need to spend 10,000 hours doing it. It doesn’t sound like much — just 20 hours a week for five years.
But when you consider how long it takes most people to learn new information and skills (myself included), it might come as a surprise. Learning can take place in different ways — watching YouTube videos, having conversations with an expert, or just doing repetitive tasks.
Learning how to do something new, from scratch, is overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. If you break your goal down into smaller steps and work on one piece at a time, it won’t seem as daunting or scary.
By breaking up tasks into manageable chunks — and setting sub-goals for yourself — you can learn almost anything in 20 hours or less.
Practice, practice, practice
When it comes to learning something new, you just need 20 hours of practice. A 2015 study on deliberate practice and expert performance found that most people will master any task if they invest about 20 hours in practice.
The researchers analyzed a sample of 12 high-achieving groups (including three Olympic gold medalists) and used a sophisticated algorithm to figure out how much time each person had invested in their craft.
By analyzing 10 separate performance measures for each individual, they concluded that world-class proficiency requires at least 20 hours of intense practice per week. Don’t believe me? Read on…
Learning a new skill may seem like a long and tedious process, but time flies when you’re having fun. Also, remember that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing — if you set aside just 20 hours over one week.
For example, you will see results. With practice, your skills can become muscle memory that requires little to no effort! Do you want to learn how to play guitar? Just need 20 hours of practice. Do you want to get good at public speaking? Just need 20 hours of practice.
Are you studying for a certification exam? Just need 20 hours of practice. Of course, not everything can be mastered in just one week or two weeks, but it is absolutely true that most things can be learned over a relatively short period of time — 20 or 30 hours at most.
Become an expert faster with speed learning techniques,
It turns out that you can learn any new skill or subject 20 times faster than you think. The key to doing so is spacing your learning over several periods.
For example, if you’re trying to learn a new language, spend an hour practicing on day one, another hour on day two, and then take a break for three days before coming back for your third session of study.
The rest helps your brain integrate what it learned during those two sessions into long-term memory. The more times you repeat that process — spaced repetition — the more quickly you’ll retain what you learned without having to work as hard.
One of the best ways to learn a new skill is to teach it. When you’re struggling to explain something, you really understand it.
And once you’ve learned something, sharing what you know with others is an incredibly effective way to solidify your knowledge and make sure that knowledge sticks.
This isn’t just true in your professional life; it also holds true for learning how to code, speak a new language, or even build a new habit.
We’ve all got a lot on our plates these days, so it’s easy to look at those how to become an expert in 20 hours or fewer infographics and roll your eyes.
But while it takes time to become an expert, you can get there in much less than 20 hours. The trick is knowing how to speed up your process by using these three techniques.
Pick what you’re passionate about,
learning is more effective when you’re passionate about what you’re learning. What are you truly passionate about? Find something that piques your interest — learning a language, piano, computer programming, even math — and set your sights on it.
Rather than focusing on how long it will take or how hard it will be, remember: If you can dedicate just 20 hours of your time and effort to achieving something, then anything is possible.
It’s natural to want to learn about everything, but instead of trying to become an expert in every topic, it might be better for you to pick one thing and specialize in that. That way, you’ll have time and energy left over for other things in your life.
Learning shouldn’t feel like work, so if you find yourself struggling through a class on medieval poetry or how to use Microsoft Excel, chances are you’re taking on too much at once. Instead of trying to learn everything in existence, focus on one thing at a time.
Choose one topic that really interests you and dives in. Not only will it make your learning experience more enjoyable, but it will also make you seem more knowledgeable and engaged when talking about what you love.
Build your confidence
One of the hardest parts about learning something new is staying motivated to keep going when you’re not seeing immediate results. It’s easy to fall into a trap of thinking that because you aren’t good at something right away, it won’t be worth your time to continue.
However, by staying motivated with small wins and checking in with yourself frequently on how much progress you are making, your chances of losing interest go down significantly.
Remember that it takes most people about 20 hours of practice for something new to become second nature — so think about that when you start feeling like giving up. It could just be weeks away from being awesome!
It’s important to feel confident in your skills and abilities when you’re learning something new. For many people, that means practicing until you feel competent — but with research-backed techniques like spaced repetition, not just endless hours of rote memorization.
If you study 20 minutes a day for two weeks, spaced repetition can help you remember a concept or language basics much longer than if you study for an hour once a week.
Do something that scares you every day. Leave your comfort zone. Pick something hard and try to learn it. The first few times, you’ll probably be terrible at it.
After a month, though, you’ll be competent at it and, better yet — you’ll have built up an incredible amount of confidence that will carry over into other areas of your life.
Stop comparing yourself to others
A common problem people face when they’re learning anything is feeling like they don’t know enough — or comparing themselves to others who are further along in their studies.
Learning isn’t a race, and you shouldn’t let it be. Focus on what you can do today to improve your knowledge, instead of dwelling on where you might be in six months or a year from now.
Each step you take towards improving your skills will build your confidence and keep moving you forward, so don’t forget to celebrate small victories along the way!
Comparing yourself to others is one of the easiest ways to prevent yourself from learning. Not only does it lead you to overestimate your flaws and underestimate your strengths, but it also makes you compare yourself in areas where you may have no frame of reference.
In short, comparing yourself to others is a recipe for inaction — and inaction will not help you learn anything. Instead, focus on what’s directly in front of you and try not to worry about how much or how little progress someone else seems to be making.
It’s easy to fall into old habits of measuring yourself against other people, but it’s a habit that keeps you from reaching your full potential.
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