How to Learn Anything… Fast!
Life gets busy. Has The First 20 Hours been on your reading list? Learn the key insights now.
We’re scratching the surface here. If you don’t already have Josh Kaufman’s bestselling book on accelerated learning, order it here or get the audiobook for free to learn the juicy details.
Introduction
“Lots of books promise to change your life. This one actually will.”
– Seth Godin, bestselling author of Linchpin
Have you ever wanted to learn a foreign language, play a musical instrument, or gain another skill but found it too daunting? It can feel like too much hard work. It can feel like you don’t have time to learn something new. But if you break the process down into manageable goals and make your learning more efficient, things begin to feel more achievable. You’ll be amazed at the skills you can learn through short, focused practice sessions. The First 20 Hours gives you the tools to do exactly that.
The First 20 Hours is about rapid skill acquisition: picking up new skills as quickly as possible. You can go from knowing nothing to performing well in a very short period. It could take 20 hours or less.
“A blockbuster in the making, The First 20 Hours breaks down the learning process into simple and effective steps with real-life examples that inspire. After reading this book, you’ll be ready to take on any number of skills and make progress on that big project you’ve been putting off for years.”
– Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup
About Josh Kaufman
Josh Kaufman is an independent business teacher, education activist, and author. His TEDx talk on The First 20 Hours is one of the top 25 most-viewed TED talks published to date. Kaufman’s website, joshkaufman.net, was named one of the “Top 100 Websites for Entrepreneurs” by Forbes in 2013. He is the bestselling author of The Personal MBA, which shares the secrets to business success.
Kaufman’s books cover topics including business, entrepreneurship, productivity, creativity, and applied psychology. Collectively, they have sold over a million copies. Kaufman says his aim is “to help you make more money, get more done, and have more fun in your day-to-day life”. His research has been featured by The New York Times, The BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Fortune, Forbes, Time, Wired, Fast Company, Financial Times, HarvardBusiness.org, and The World Economic Forum.
StoryShot #1: Use Rapid Skill Acquisition to Learn Within 20 Hours
You probably have a skill you have always wanted to learn. Maybe it’s playing the piano, doing well on the tennis court, or becoming conversational in French. It is never too late to learn your chosen skill. One of the most common regrets is not pursuing a skill earlier. People often quickly give up before even learning the basics, because they believe it’s too late.
However, you can use rapid skill acquisition to kickstart your experience. By using this technique, you can become competent in the skills you want to learn by putting in 20 hours of work. These 20 hours will allow you to learn the basics, but skill mastery will take longer.
The first few hours of learning something new are always the hardest; this is where most people give up. That said, if you break your initial 20 hours down into an hour of practice per day, you will rapidly improve.
You will find it much easier to continue building your skills after you’ve completed the first 20 hours. Once you get through the first 20 hours, you’ll have significant practice under your belt. Further practice will then be easier. To make the most of these initial 20 hours, adopt the ten principles of rapid skill acquisition.
StoryShot #2: Apply the Ten Principles of Skill Acquisition
Kaufman offers ten clear principles to improve the efficiency of your skill acquisition:
- Choose a lovable project.
- Focus your energy on one skill at a time.
- Define your target performance level.
- Deconstruct the skill into subskills.
- Obtain critical tools.
- Eliminate barriers to practice.
- Make dedicated time for practice.
- Create fast feedback loops.
- Practice by the clock in short bursts.
- Emphasize quantity and speed.
StoryShot #3: Learn Your Chosen Skill by Focusing Your Energy
There are probably many skills you’d like to acquire. But the first step of rapid skill acquisition is choosing to focus on one. Start by making a list of all the skills you’re interested in, and pick the one most exciting to you right now. This excitement will help you stay motivated through your practice.
Kaufman followed this exact prescription when choosing a new skill to pursue. Though windsurfing was on his list, it had been years since he was in the sea. He had previously been a water-sports instructor at a Boy Scouts camp. He had an innate passion for aquatic activities since he was a child. He quickly got excited about the prospect of being back at sea to windsurf, bringing him back to something he missed.
It’s tempting to try and dive into several skills simultaneously. But the second principle of rapid skill acquisition is to focus all your energy on a single skill at a time. Don’t be tempted to combine learning to windsurf with learning Spanish and playing the ukulele. Use your time wisely when trying to learn something new, since you may only have about an hour a day to dedicate to it. Trying to learn multiple new concepts at once would mean slow progress, which is not motivating at all. Did you know you can achieve a magical “flow” state by spending more time focusing?
Practice in 20-minute bursts so that you can focus all your energy on your chosen learning task. These bursts should involve deliberate and consistent practices. Quantity and speed are more important than the quality of your learning. The faster and more often you practice, the quicker you’ll acquire the skill. To help with this process, Kaufman offers 10 major principles to adopt for effective learning.
Learn on the Go, Highlight, Take Notes, Read While You Listen, Get Infographics, PDF, more content, Create your own library…
For the best experience, get the app
StoryShot #4: Apply the 10 Major Principles of Effective Learning
As well as his 10 principles for skill acquisition, Kaufman also shares 10 principles for effective learning:
- Research the skill and related topics.
- Jump in over your head.
- Identify mental models and mental hooks.
- Imagine the opposite of what you want.
- Talk to practitioners to set expectations.
- Eliminate distractions in your environment.
- Use spaced repetition and reinforcement for memorization.
- Create scaffolds and checklists.
- Make and test predictions.
- Honor your biology.
StoryShot #5: Choose Your Skill Level
Deciding how proficient you want to become at your chosen skill is the third principle in rapid skill acquisition. This is called your “target performance level”. It’s important because if you can envision the end goal, it’ll be easier to get there. Decide what level of skill is “good enough” for you. For example, if you’re learning to play an instrument, consider whether you want to play a few songs by heart or jump into a jam session.
Kaufman offers an example from his own life to explain the importance of choosing your skill level within a specific skill domain. He was attempting to learn to play the ukulele and identified a specific goal of playing at a conference that his friend was organizing. He was asked to lead a talk about rapid skill acquisition. Kaufman thought this would be an impressive demonstration of the concept. He would show how much progress he had made through rapid skill acquisition in just 10 days. Kaufman had identified his specific skill level and a clear goal. So, he effectively focused his energy and advanced his ukulele skills.
Rating
We rate this book 4.5/5.
How would you rate this book?
Editor’s Note
This article was first published in early 2021. It was revised on 19/01/2023.
Disclaimer
This is an unofficial summary and analysis.
PDF, Free Audiobook, Infographic, and Animated Book Summary
This was the tip of the iceberg. To dive into the details and support the author, order the book or get the audiobook for free.
Did you love the lessons you learned here? Comment below or share to show you care.
New to StoryShots? Get the PDF, free audio and animated versions of this analysis and summary of The First 20 Hours and hundreds of other bestselling nonfiction books in our free, top-ranking app. It’s been featured by Apple, Google, The Guardian, and The UN as one of the world’s best reading and learning apps.
Related Book Summaries
- Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley
- Mastery by George Leonard
- Ultralearning by Scott Young
- The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo
- Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
- The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin
- How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil
- 10 Days to Faster Reading by Abby Marks-Beale
- The 4-Hour Chef by Tim Ferriss
- The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman
- Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Peak by Anders Ericsson
- How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler