Best practices to learn a new skill

Since the moment I discovered that I need to learn a new skill for a new project, I started to look for the best advises and practices.

About the first twenty hours: How to learn anything fast

After reading and research information on web, some names and techniques have been appeared in repeated occasions, one of them was Josh Kaufman.

Kaufman is the author of the “First twenty hours how to learn anything fast”. He presents four basic ideas to learn anything:

1. Deconstructing a skill into the smallest possible subskills
2. Learning enough about each subskill and to be able to self-correct during practice;
3. Removing physical, mental, and emotional barriers that get in the way of practice
4. Practicing at least twenty hours.

After a first review and further elaborated within the chapters, Kauffman offers more ideas about how to manage these four points.

Deconstructing a skill

1. Choose a lovable project
2. Focus your energy in one skill
3. Define your target performance level
4. Deconstruct your skill into sub-skills.

Learning enough about each subskill

1. Research about the skill
2. Talk with practitioners to set realistic expectations
3. Eliminate distractions in your environment.
4. Create hooks and checklist
5. Make and test predictions.

Remove barriers

1. Obtain critical tools
2. Eliminate barriers to practice
3. Set time to practice

Practice 

1. Create fast feedback loop
2. Practice by clock

…And that is it, if you follow all these steps you can add a new skills in only 20 hours.

If you want to obtain more information about First Twenty Hours, you can check in http://first20hours.com/, the web for the book or checking this video:

Sources:

• http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/The-First-20-Hours-How-to-Learn
• http://first20hours.com/
• http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/07/visual-book-review-the-first-20-hours-how-to-learn-anything-fast-josh-kaufman/