Josh Kaufman helps you optimize your learning process.
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00:00 How do we learn?
00:01 How do we learn things quickly?
00:02 How do we learn things in a way that allows us to go
00:05 from knowing absolutely nothing about a skill
00:09 to being really good in a very short period of time?
00:13 There's one idea that keeps coming up
00:16 over and over and over again, the 10,000 hour rule.
00:20 It takes 10,000 hours to learn something.
00:24 It's not true, and thank goodness it's not true.
00:27 The order of magnitude of going from knowing
00:29 absolutely nothing to being really good
00:32 is about 20 hours, not 10,000.
00:36 And the method, very broadly, has five steps,
00:39 and they're very simple.
00:40 The first is decide exactly what you want.
00:43 What do you want to be able to do?
00:45 What is it going to look like when you're done?
00:47 What are you going to be able to look at yourself
00:49 and say, "I did this thing that I've always wanted to do."
00:52 What does it look like?
00:53 The more clearly and completely you're able to define
00:56 exactly what you want to be able to do,
00:59 the easier it will be for you to find ways
01:02 to accomplish that desired end result
01:06 as quickly and efficiently as possible.
01:08 The second thing that you do
01:11 is what I call deconstructing the skill.
01:13 So most of the things that we think of as skills
01:18 aren't really just one skill.
01:20 They're bundles of smaller sub-skills
01:23 that we use in combination with each other.
01:26 For example, driving off the T and chipping on the green
01:30 have very little to do in common with each other.
01:33 Very few skills overlap there,
01:35 but they're both important
01:37 if you want to be able to play golf well.
01:39 So instead of trying to learn the global skill,
01:41 you break it apart into these smaller parts
01:43 and you practice the most important sub-skills,
01:46 things that you're going to use most, first.
01:49 Now, the third part is researching.
01:52 Researching just enough
01:54 that you're able to identify the most important sub-skills,
01:59 but also understanding and being able to self-correct
02:04 as you're practicing.
02:05 Go out and find three to five books, courses,
02:09 DVDs, trainers, people or resources
02:12 that can help you do that initial deconstruction.
02:15 Now, the trick is don't allow that research
02:19 to become a form of procrastination.
02:22 The best approach is to pick three, four, five resources.
02:27 You don't go through them completely.
02:29 You skim them.
02:30 Identify the ideas that come up
02:31 over and over and over again.
02:34 So those are the things that you should know
02:36 so you can self-correct as you practice.
02:38 And those are the sub-skills
02:39 that you should probably practice first.
02:41 The fourth part is removing barriers to practice,
02:46 making it easy to sit down
02:50 and actually do the thing you want to get better at.
02:52 So in our lives, we have thousands of distractions.
02:58 During the practice process, turn off the TV,
03:02 block the internet, close the door, turn off your cell phone,
03:07 remove the distractions that can take your focus away
03:12 from whatever this thing that you're trying to practice is,
03:15 and make sure that that time that you have set aside
03:18 to practice in a way that was going to make you better
03:21 is as undivided and focused as possible.
03:25 And fifth, and very importantly,
03:28 pre-commit to at least 20 hours
03:31 of focused, deliberate practice before you begin.
03:35 And that's really it.
03:38 There's no magic to it.
03:39 It's just focused, strategic effort
03:42 invested in something you care about
03:45 and something that is going to be rewarding to yourself.
03:48 Learning, the process of learning is not difficult.
03:53 What we're doing in this process
03:54 is really just removing all of the frustrations,
03:58 all of the barriers, all of the things that get in the way
04:01 of us sitting down and doing the work.
04:04 Even in the busiest schedules,
04:05 if you can clear a half an hour to 45 minutes a day
04:09 to sit down and finally learn
04:11 that thing that you've always wanted to learn,
04:13 you will be astounded, absolutely astounded
04:17 at how good you've become in a very short period of time.
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