It takes 20 hours to become good at something

Imagine a world where learning a new skill to a degree of “good enough” takes roughly 20 hours.

You have probably heard of the phrase “It takes 10,000 hours to master a skill”. Perhaps it takes 10,000 iterations to master something. But what about learning something new? Like driving a car, a motorcycle, using a camera, some new software, or a life skill?

With a proper approach, those things can be learned in, give or take, 20 hours.

How does this 20-hour rule work?

First of all, you have to ask yourself these questions:

• What do I want to learn?
• Why do I want to learn it?
• How am I going to use this new skill?

Answering these three questions is crucial to keeping yourself on track. They will hold you accountable and provide guidance when you are learning this new skill.

Let’s take a look at an example of photography.

What do I want to learn?
I want to learn photography.

Why do I want to learn it?
I want to learn photography so I can take pictures of my products.

How am I going to use this new skill?
I will take great-looking pictures of my products in order to increase the conversion rate.

Now that you have answered these questions, let’s find the subskills.

Subskills are a set of skills closely related to the primary skill.

If we look at the example of photography, the subskills would be composition, managing aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure, photo editing, and, of course, more.

So, you know that in order to learn basic photography, you need to know something about composition (the way objects in images are put together to create a great picture), how to manage camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO), and how to edit your photos.

Knowing that, let’s prioritize these subskills.

Say, photo editing can wait as it’s not the primary subskill.

What you need is to focus on composition and managing camera settings.

Most cameras take care of aperture and other settings for you automatically.

So, the most important subskill for you now is composition.

The second most important subskill is managing camera settings (for manual shots).

And finally, how to edit your photos.

Follow this list and make it your goal to check all the boxes in roughly 20 hours.

Also, make sure you keep track of your progress. It’s crucial to have some reference points so you know how much progress you have already made. Maybe you will become good at something in less than 20 hours. That would be amazing! You could just keep on practicing with your newlyfound burst of motivation.

In conclusion, ask yourself the three questions of what and why you want to learn a skill and how you will use it. Find the subskills, break them into small chunks, and prioritize them. You will need to do some research. But that’s the rule with any other activity out there. Make it your goal to do it in 20 hours. Keep track of your progress. And finally, enjoy your new skill!

But if you fail - try again in a few weeks or months. Revise the subskills, do some more research. Maybe you don’t really enjoy it? If nothing helps - feel free to reach out. We’ll see if we can find a solution.