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The science of how to learn new things could become one of the main applied disciplines of our time. Each of us acquires many skills and abilities throughout our lives. No matter how different these skills may be - from baking a cake and searching on Google to playing Beethoven sonatas and writing scientific articles- they are based on a set general principles. Understanding these principles would make learning a more understandable and painless process.

Psychology has been approaching the formulation of these principles since its inception. Ebbinghaus curve, which shows the rate at which one is forgotten new material, was discovered back in 1885 as one of the first such patterns. Today we know much more about learning mechanisms, although still not enough.

Models of skill acquisition will not only help you understand how the learning process works, but also plan your own lessons more effectively, avoid unnecessary difficulties and gain best result in less time.

True, they will not give you the most important thing - regular and conscious practice. You will have to do this part of the work yourself.

1. The main principles of learning and training: how to learn anything in just 20 hours

In his book The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman, author of the bestselling Master Your Own MBA, offers a learning model that can help you master any skill in just 20 hours of focused practice. If you have to carve out hours and minutes in your work schedule, and you want to not only leave time for rest, but also learn something new, this model may be useful for you.

So that learning each time does not seem to you like a chaos of indistinct impressions, in the acquisition of any skill there are 4 main stages:

    Break this skill down into small elements;

    Study each of these elements sequentially;

    Remove all obstacles and distractions that interfere with your studies;

    Regularly practice the basic elements of the skill.

If you want to learn to play the guitar or do yoga, you probably shouldn’t try to imitate jazz improvisations or sit in the lotus position right away. Start with basic hand placement, playing simple scales and chords. Choose a specific piece that you want to learn to play in the next 20 days and practice for 1 hour every day. But first, it will be useful to get acquainted with the literature: theoretical knowledge is important because it allows us to acquire and correct our ideas about practice.

These activities will not make you a musician, but you will be able to enjoy playing very quickly - and maybe even give it to others.

There is a belief that good mastery of any skill requires for long years concentrated practice. What can you learn in just 20 hours, if professionals gain the necessary experience throughout their lives? Indeed, to become an expert in any field, you will need much more time. Many studies conducted in a variety of professional fields- from chess players and musicians to doctors and scientists - show that real specialists become only after about 10 thousand hours of concentrated practice, and this is about 6 years of training for 5 hours a day.

Yes, and this is too favorable a forecast. What psychologist Anders Ericsson called "deliberate practice" ( deliberate practice) requires enormous concentration of effort. Musicians, for example, can only engage in truly mindful practice for about half an hour a day. This class format assumes that you are completely focused on what you are doing and receive feedback from your actions - that is, you can see what you are doing well and what you are not doing well. This is not an easy matter at all.

There are two main lists in Kaufman's book. Here is the first of them, which describes the main principles of quickly acquiring a skill:

    Choose an attractive project.

    Focus on one skill at a time.

    Determine your target skill level.

    Break the skill down into elements.

    Prepare everything you need for classes.

    Remove barriers to practice.

    Set aside a special time for studying.

    Create quick loops feedback.

    Exercise on a schedule, in short, intense intervals.

    Focus on quantity and speed.

Each of these principles may have crucial. Without choosing the right level of skill or a project that interests you, you risk wasting your time aimlessly without learning anything specific. Without regular practice, you will be forced to return to the basics every now and then. Without feedback, you will not be able to adjust and improve your actions. And so on and so forth.

The second list is a list of principles effective learning, which also consists of 10 points. Training is different from practice, but it is no less important. Before starting the practice itself, it will be useful to save your efforts and do some preliminary reconnaissance. This way you can find out how people dealt with the same problems before you, save your time and give yourself fewer reasons to give up in despair when things don’t work out. Here is the list:

    Research the skill in question and its related areas.

    Admit that you don't understand anything.

    Identify mental models and mental hooks.

    Imagine a result opposite to what you want.

    Talk to people who do this so you know what to expect.

    Eliminate anything that distracts you from your environment.

    To memorize, use spaced repetition and reinforcement.

    Create support structures (i.e., templates that guide each activity) and checklists.

    Formulate and refine forecasts.

    Respect your body.

Mental models are ways of dealing with the problems you face in a specific area. A scientist will think in terms and concepts, a programmer - in variables and algorithms, a musician - in musical intervals and scores. Mastering any skill often requires mastering an entire separate language. Even if in this matter you do not advance beyond the level of a three-year-old child, this will already be great progress.

If you're already practicing a skill, these principles will likely be intuitive to you. But understanding comes only when you encounter mistakes. This list is needed precisely in order to protect yourself from an excessive number of such mistakes, which ultimately can discourage any desire to learn.

Kaufman describes how two dozen of these principles make even the most seemingly difficult activity feasible. And there is no secret in this:

I just set aside about an hour every day to do my chosen activity, but these activities were reasonable. Skills that at first seemed like an absolute mystery became clear after a few days or even hours. Each skill required a little theoretical training, as well as about 20 hours of focused, intentional practice.

Josh Kaufman

from the book “The First 20 Hours”

2. From Beginner to Expert: Six Levels of Mastery

One of the most famous models of skill acquisition was developed in the early 1980s by the brothers Stuart and Hubert Dreyfuss of the University of California at Berkeley. This model, first described in the article “A Five-Stage Model of Mental Activity Involved in Purposeful Skill Acquisition,” is still often found today in scientific and popular science literature.

The main thing it can give is an understanding of the stage you are currently at.

According to the augmented Dreyfus model, mastering any skill is divided into six stages:

  • Continuing

    Competent

    Specialist

Newbie always follows the rules - for him they have the status of an immutable law. When you start to learn a new skill, the rules are very important: only with their help can you at least somehow navigate the material and gain the necessary experience. Moreover, in many cases the rules are sufficient. You don't have to be a culinary specialist to make a decent cake and please your family - just read the recipe and strictly follow the instructions.

For continuing the rules are already situational: in one situation one thing is suitable, in another it is better to use another. A person who continues knows how to make not just one cake, but several, and he will not prepare a vanilla cake in the same way as a chocolate one. This is already a good step towards competence.

Competent sees not so much the rules as the principles and models underlying them. He begins to rely more on his own ideas and experiences rather than on a set of instructions. At this level, you act more freely and can flexibly adapt to the situation. This is where the zone of personal responsibility for the result begins - a zone that many never achieve.

Specialist goes further along this path and in a slightly different direction. His actions are based less on principles and more on a sense of intuition. The specialist guesses what to do at the right moment, and his choice often turns out to be correct. In place of many disparate parts, a single whole begins to emerge, “calculation and rational analysis seem to melt before our eyes.”

Expert in his field he acts even more intuitively: he simply does it - and it works. If he is asked why he made a particular decision, it may be difficult for him to formulate an answer - it seems so obvious. Moreover, this will not be arrogance, which is more common at the beginner level, but rather a deep mastery of a skill mastered almost at the level of a reflex. This requires many days and months of practice: the expert’s experience “is so great that each specific situation immediately dictates to him the required actions on an intuitive level.”

Master is an expert who works for top level your capabilities. He not only intuitively knows what to do and how, but also does it in his own style. Each master is distinguished by a deep individuality. Few people reach this stage. Each master is usually a celebrity and a notable authority in his field. If you see a master, you will most likely immediately understand this: this is a person who is completely immersed in his work.

It must be said that the boundaries between these levels are fluid - there is no clear gradation between them. Moreover, moving up this ladder does not always mean something good. For example, an expert will not always be good teacher, and a person at the previous stage may feel more comfortable in this role.

The Dreyfus model was created based on studies of airline pilots and chess players and is based on some philosophical premises related to phenomenology (one of the Dreyfus brothers later even became the author of a famous monograph on Heidegger’s work). This is where its most significant limitations follow: too great attention is given to intuition, and too little is given to conscious improvement.

But intuition is not always worth relying on.

As later work by behavioral psychologists showed, first of all, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, author of the famous book “Think Slowly... Decide Fast” - intuition is applicable where there are stable rules and patterns. It is important for doctors, chess players or taxi drivers, but not for stock analysts. When the context becomes unpredictable or too complex, it is better to abandon intuition and use clear algorithms. Alas, human abilities are not limitless. No matter how much experience you have, you will still have to make mistakes.

The two models of skill acquisition that we have described in this material complement each other well. Josh Kaufman offered accessible and clear principles that make learning easier and make regular training more effective. If you keep this model at hand, quickly acquiring a new skill will no longer seem so difficult and intimidating.

The Dreyfus model allows us to look at this from a different perspective. It will help you determine what skill level you are currently at and what you will need to take the next steps. She doesn’t give specific advice, but she suggests possible prospects and knocks down excessive self-confidence. Before calling yourself a competent specialist in any field, it would be useful to think about what this means.

I recently corresponded with one of my wonderful friends, who is going to conduct a long (no joke - 10 weeks!) training "". She asked me a question about a fairly well-known story that supposedly it takes 21 days to develop a skill. Like, there is an experiment with American astronauts and all that. At the same time, according to her observations, many “break down” precisely on days 28-30. Curious, isn't it?

For starters, the bike itself. They conducted an experiment with American astronauts: they put glasses with inverting prisms on them (so that they saw everything around them upside down), and the poor fellows walked around like that around the clock. At first, they constantly stumbled, bumped into objects, poorly coordinated movements... But some time passed, within 10 days - and, lo and behold, they learned to navigate in space so deftly and naturally, as if there were no glasses at all!

Further - more interesting. Some of them took off their glasses after ten or fourteen days, while others “sat it out” three weeks. As soon as the glasses were taken off, my head ached, my coordination was impaired for some time (everything seemed upside down again), but everything more or less quickly returned to normal. And - after some time they were asked to repeat the experiment. So: those who spent three weeks wearing those glasses adapted to them again in a matter of hours, and those who limited themselves to a week or two again seemed to painfully master coordination in the “inverted” space.

When telling this story, coaches usually mean: they say, three weeks is the minimum period for developing a skill. But…
Yeah, proven by experience: at the end fourth weeks, people often “break down.”

And for business coaches this is somehow even beneficial. Judge for yourself: they conduct, for example, a three-week training on “ self-discipline"or some other self-squeezing(I immediately remembered the joke: “Well, little kitty! Well honey! Well, just a little more!” - the necromancer cooed, squeezing blood from the kitten) lasting exactly three weeks. Like, it will work out and take hold.
The essence of such trainings is simple - do a lot, do it hard, do it in spite of your laziness. And during the training, a person will change so many things that... Well, yes, he will feel like a kitten. The training is over - and after a while he lies flat. But then, remembering his “heroic” deeds, he goes to the next similar training.

And - such trainers have a “regular” clientele.

It’s good for the coaches, but for you and me, it’s somehow not so good...

But what to do about it and how are things in reality?

To begin with, let's discuss these very astronauts a little more detail.

Why is the experiment with astronauts, no matter how “reinforced concrete” it may be, no good to identify patterns in learning?
But let’s think about how astronauts (cosmonauts) differ from “ordinary” people.

Well, by and large - nothing. There’s just one catch: they are constantly, tirelessly learning something. Especially if these are our Russian cosmonauts. I remember well the excursions to Star City near Moscow, where we were told about their training programs. The point is that an astronaut in orbit must be able to do EVERYTHING. Know all on-board systems, understand possible malfunctions, be able to repair all equipment... For the Americans, the situation is simpler, because the large size of the Shuttle crews allowed for the specialization of the participants, however, their astronauts are the intellectual elite, without this there is no way.

And let me honestly, head-on, ask this question: who do you think has a faster learning speed - an ordinary representative of the “office plankton” who business trainings are aimed at, or a constantly learning space explorer?

It seems to me that the answer is obvious.

Perhaps your particular speed of learning and developing skills is no worse than that of astronauts - but are there many such people in general?
However, even this is only part of the answer. In fact, it’s even worse there.

I repent, I’m a sinner - I myself once talked about 21 days as one of the critical periods. Well, at least I mentioned that “building a skill” and “building a skill to regularly implement another developed skill” are two different things, so deadline is needed double. That is, learning to do something is one thing, but learning to do it regularly, especially daily, is completely different. So…

As a rule, when we learn something, we do it for half an hour or an hour a day. Or even just a few minutes (if we are talking about, say, planning or morning exercises). And at the same time, we expect that in three weeks everything will magically improve...
Let's think about the astronauts again: how many hours a day did they wear invertible glasses? Half an hour? Hour? Maybe as much as one and a half or even two hours?

They walked in them CONTINUOUSLY! All 24 hours a day! It seems they didn’t even film it overnight so as not to disrupt the adaptation.
Now there is one more question that I will leave unanswered: who do you think will get results in learning faster: the one who studies around the clock (minus sleep - although, however, with this mode, learning will occur even in sleep...), or the one who studies Who devotes an hour or two a day to studying?

But for many of us, it’s “difficult” to find even an hour a day (I mean, too many tempting excuses arise, let’s be honest...).

So is it worth expecting a sustainable result in three weeks, like the astronauts?

Well, if you study for six to eight hours a day, why not. But if it’s about fifteen minutes, then... If you were a racehorse, I definitely wouldn’t bet on you, I’d go look for an “astronaut.”

So, I told you why the results of the experiment with astronauts wearing inverting glasses cannot be extrapolated to ordinary people.

Alas, stories about “reinforcing a skill in 21 days” are more of a coaching myth than reality. Unless you are doing something almost around the clock and continuously.

However, it's not all bad.

The actual time frame for the formation of skills and habits, although longer than 21 days, is by no means calculated in years and decades.
In this article I will give several figures that are taken from ancient yoga and modern neurophysiology.

In kundalini yoga, sets of exercises (and there are a variety of them - both for “opening the chakras” and for “increasing luck” and not even “attracting money”) should be done for at least 40 days to get the effect. And to better consolidate the effect - 90 or even 120 days.

By the way, the 40-day period doesn’t remind you of anything, does it? Okay, I won’t bore you with hints.

And in modern neurophysiology it is known that time for formation of neuron collaterals - 40-45 days, and the time required for formation of new neurons - 3-4 months. Explanation: by the collateral of a neuron we mean the branched structure of its processes, which ensures information processing. And new neurons are formed in the human brain (yes, yes, they will be formed! Forget about “ nerve cells do not recover"!) in response to brain damage (say, traumatic brain injury or stroke) or very intensive training.

So: 40 days(minimum in yoga, or a formed neuron collateral within the framework of neurophysiology) is a skill that has been formed for a long time and very firmly. A 3-4 months (90 or 120 days)- these are new neurons that have adapted specifically to this task - that is, consider learning a skill for life.

Here you go practical guide. I note that these terms will be relevant primarily for daily activities that take little time (less than 40 minutes). And the shorter the lesson, the more critical the daily routine. The more massive and longer the activity, the more likely it is that a break of 1-2 days will not change the weather. That is why it is quite logical to conduct sports training 2-3 times a week.

And, to be completely honest...

Guess how long it actually takes to develop a skill?

Not at all. More precisely, a few seconds. Those very seconds during which the decision is made to do something, to do it daily and for a long time. Perhaps these very few seconds have come true for you right now. And then - it all depends on the strength of intention and the ability to follow the decision taken. And all sorts of deadlines, by and large, have nothing to do with it...

The “Two Hour Solution” method.

Would you be willing to spend 2 hours a week if it was guaranteed to give you 10 extra hours in the same week? If I could teach only one method to help people dramatically increase their productivity and joy in life, I would choose this one. It's called the two-hour solution.

The procedure for implementing the Two Hour Solution is deceptively simple. To begin with, you simply set aside 2 hours when you will not be disturbed. Ideally this is one period. You can use two hour periods, but one two-hour period is better. Remember that the goal for this time is to create a segment of your life in your mind. This is not just “making a to-do list”, not a boring routine task, but a time for creativity. It's wrong to think: "Okay, I'll fit it into my schedule here and there - I'm sure half an hour will do." I assure you it will take you at least 2 hours to do it right.

This time must be allocated between the end of one working week and the beginning of the next one. Some people like to do this in the last 2 hours of the work week - on Friday evening. Personally, this time is not very suitable for me, but I like to get up early. So for me, Saturday morning is ideal before my family wakes up. So many of my clients plan on Sunday evenings, moving from a pleasant weekend to preparing for a successful week. You choose what suits you best, but it must be a quiet time when no one and nothing distracts you; you will simply tune out the noise and be able to think.

What should I do in these two hours? Sit down armed with your chosen planning tool. This could be Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal, or any digital tool of your choice. Traditional "paper" systems are also suitable. The main thing is to cover the whole week at once. You will have to create in detail in your mind the coming week and at least outline the second.

Step 1: Refresh your goals.
If you don't really know what you want to achieve, then it doesn't matter how you manage your time. First, spend 5-10 minutes reviewing your goals. Take the key and imagine achieving it. Rejoice in seeing your goals come to fruition. Consider the benefits you will receive. Be grateful for the ability to mentally create your life - after all, this is one of the characteristics that makes people human.

Step 2: Repeat and highlight your to-dos.
Once you've reviewed your goals and primed your brain, you need to get realistic about the next two weeks. Your obligations are meetings or activities that you have already planned. You probably already have your commitments marked on your calendar; if not, write them in so they are visible. Think about what you expect from each meeting or activity. Ask yourself these questions:

1) What results are desired?
2) Is this meeting necessary at all?
3) Are the right people invited?
4) How to get the most out of this time?
5) Should this period be shortened or extended?
6) What preparations are required?

These serious, detailed questions relate to the coming week. The next one will be discussed in less detail as you will return to it in a new stage of analysis. Even if you just pay 100% attention to this step and ask yourself a few smart questions, you will follow the example of the most successful people. Most people don't do any of this at all, so they don't achieve what they want.

Step 3: Schedule time for self-improvement.
Next, you need to schedule time for improvement - time you spend making yourself stronger and strengthening your relationships. There are many different actions possible here; for me it's exercise, reading, meditation and planning/goal setting. Yes, that's right: we need to include the next step of the "two-hour solution" in the schedule! You can also add here full communication with family or friends, social activities, going to church, etc.

It is very important to remember that these activities need to be planned, and before most other activities. Why? For two reasons.
First, if they are not designated as the most urgent, they will not be implemented. Even when I mark them as a priority, sometimes they don't get done. If they are the last thing you think about (like most people), you will most likely never get around to them. Life will get in your way.
Secondly, by planning what you need, you get rid of the feeling of guilt. By using the Two Hour Solution, you will gradually find that you have time for everything that matters. It turns out that you have more than enough time for all the exciting activities - you just have to plan them.

Step 4: Schedule Green Time.
It applies to your professional activity and it is called so because green is the color of money. There are few activities in your job that directly generate income for you. If you are a manager, then this is managing a company or department, and that’s it. If you're a salesperson, it's sales and that's it. If you're an athlete, it's training and performing and that's it.

Most people are torn at work because they don’t have a clear idea of ​​what their “green time” is. If you are not clear, clarify. If you know this for sure (you probably do), schedule this time and protect it. By figuring out what your green time is, when to do it, and then sticking to it, you'll surprise yourself and your colleagues with what you can accomplish in a very short period of time.

Step 5: Schedule Red Time.
This is time for which you are not directly paid, but it becomes an aid to "green time". This is something that needs to be completed before green time so that it is well spent. This also includes actions performed after the “green time” in order to either report for it or present what has been created. During the “red time”, research is carried out, preparation for the presentation, classification of potential clients, documentation, performance evaluation and other auxiliary activities are carried out.

“Red time” is important, but it is still not “green time”. You can't mix them. This is more difficult than it seems, because usually “red time” is psychologically much easier to fill than “green time”. I've seen sales professionals waste entire weeks "doing research" or "networking" when all they really need to do is pick up the phone and make a call.

Step 6: Plan for “Flexible Time.”
Look at everything you planned in steps 1-5. You will notice large chunks of time in your week where nothing is planned. Do you see any gaps? Even the busiest people have them: an hour here, three hours there, two somewhere else. It’s amazing: when you think through the week, it turns out in the end that there is time for everything important and there is still a lot of free time left! A wise solution is to "set aside" these unused periods as "flex time". This is a storage place where you can put anything. Ongoing projects, last minute appointments/meetings, extra time for improvement or “green time”. Flex Time can be used for anything - that's what it's designed for! Simply move the task you were planning to complete before the failure occurred into one of the scheduled "flex time" periods. Thus, you do not allow “surprises” to derail your plans and gain peace of mind.

Step 7: Schedule time for recovery.
And last but not least: be sure to plan your rest time - or rather, recovery time. You probably already have it planned (time to improve often involves recovery). But if you haven't already set aside time for self-care—your mind, body, and spirit—try to schedule it into your calendar each week. Who will take care of this if not you?

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Author, founder and CEO of PersonalMBA.com, Josh Kaufman began his career as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble Home Care. Later, in one of his books, he talked about how long it takes to master a new skill at a good level. Josh is convinced that it only takes 20 hours. He regularly conducts independent research that has helped him learn four simple steps to quickly learn anything.

We are in website We decided to talk about these actions and show with an example how you can learn to draw in 20 hours. And at the end you will get a bonus that will answer the question of how long it takes to become a pro in a narrow field with high competition.

1. Analyze the skill

Regardless of what skill you dream of acquiring, you need to decide exactly what exactly you want to learn how to do in the end: draw animals beautifully, speak fluently foreign language, read at 600 words per minute, or whatever. A clear end goal is important.

After that, break the skill down into its components. These will be the small steps that you have to gradually master. One big task is much more intimidating than several small ones, the solution to which seems simpler. In addition, such a division will help you more accurately understand what exactly you need to do to get what you want.

2. Find out the information you need to correct your mistakes.

To learn something new, you need to have information about that skill. Find 3 to 5 different sources that will help you gain the most useful knowledge - books, courses, training videos, etc.

It is important not to procrastinate by postponing the very moment of practice. Yes, you need knowledge about the subject to get started, but reading 20 books about the guitar will not replace you with an hour of practice with it.

You need the amount of information that will allow you to start practicing and correct your mistakes yourself.

3. Remove all clutter

For the practice to be effective, you should not be distracted by anything. TV, smartphone, computer - all this can turn your attention to itself at any time. Try to use willpower and refuse interference in order to achieve your goal.

4. Spend 20 hours practicing

Almost everyone who wants to learn something new faces the so-called barrier of frustration. This is the initial stage when you are just trying to master a new skill and feel like a pro. After all, none of us wants to look stupid. It is this barrier that prevents you from sitting down and getting down to business. But practicing for 20 hours will overcome it.

20 hours is enough to learn how to do something well and not feel like a profanity. This doesn't mean you have to sit down and spend 24 hours mastering a skill. Spend 45-60 minutes a day and in 20-30 days you can make great progress.

How to apply this knowledge

Let's look at an example. Of course it is special case, but it will demonstrate how Josh Kaufman's 4 tips work in practice.

For example, you dream of learning to draw, but your artistic abilities are at the level of a 5-year-old child. Here are 4 steps you need to take to fix the situation:

  • Decide what exactly you want to learn to draw: people, animals, landscapes. Let's say you stop at people. Break a large task into several subtasks: learn to draw the correct oval of the face, eyes, nose, lips, fingers, etc. Write a detailed step-by-step plan.
  • The next step is to study the various techniques that exist. You don't have to sign up for courses or spend a ton of money buying books. The Internet is full of free training videos. Apart from this, no one canceled free libraries, where it is quite quiet and calm, is an excellent place to practice.
  • Turn off the TV and computer, put your phone on silent, ask mom to babysit, and send your loved one to meet friends. In general, create an environment in which nothing will stop you from drawing.
  • Spend about an hour every day building a new skill.

Of course, after 20 hours you won't be painting like a famous artist, but your skills will rise to a good level. Whether to develop them further depends only on you.