Josh Kaufman is the best-selling author of “Personal MBA” and in his new book “The First 20 Hours” he provides a simple roadmap to quickly acquire any skill to a “good enough” level.
The 10 Principles of Rapid Skill Acquisition:
Choose a lovable project.
The more excited you are about the skill you want to acquire, the more quickly you’ll acquire it and stay the course when the going gets tough.
Focus your energy on one skill at a time.
Acquiring new skills requires a critical mass of concentrated time and focused attention. Spreading that time and energy across multiple different skills is a recipe for failure. Instead, choose one skill at a time and move on to the next skill once you are good enough at the first skill and built the habits to maintain it.
Define your target performance level.
Your target performance level is a brief description of what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific your target performance level is, the better.
Deconstruct the skill into subskills.
“Once you’ve identified a skill to focus on, the next step is to deconstruct it—to break it down into the smallest possible parts.”
Obtain critical tools.
“Taking a moment to identify critical tools before you start practicing saves precious time. By ensuring you have the resources you need before you begin, you maximize your practice time.”
Eliminate barriers to practice.
A little preparation to identify and eliminate or work around any distractions (phone, TV etc) or limitations (lack of resources/tools) can increase the odds of success dramatically.
Make dedicated time for practice.
Instead of trying to find time, you must make time. Considering you will still have the same 24 hours in a day you need to proactively identify and eliminate some low-value uses of time to make time for this new activity.
Create fast feedback loops.
“Fast feedback” means getting accurate information about how well you’re performing as quickly as possible. The longer it takes to get accurate feedback, the longer it will take to acquire the skill.
Practice by the clock in short bursts.
Practice by the clock by buying a decent countdown timer and set it for twenty minutes. Once you start the timer, you must practice until it goes off. This simple technique will make it easier to complete longer periods of sustained practice, even when you get tired or frustrated.
Emphasize quantity and speed.
“Skill is the result of deliberate, consistent practice, and in early-stage practice, quantity and speed trump absolute quality. The faster and more often you practice, the more rapidly you’ll acquire the skill.”