This badge program is based on the book “The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything . . . Fast” by Josh Kaufman. The idea is to rapidly acquire skills that you can use for work, hobbies or your own enjoyment. If you can work hard and focus for the first twenty hours, you can get over the hump of being a novice and avoid the embarrassment that it often entails.
Steps
1. Learn vs. practice.
To learn a skill, you need to practice. Just learning about it doesn’t work if you don’t actually do it. Learning involves the book work, the study, the technical knowledge to actual do a skill. As you practice, you may need to learn more to refine your technique. Learning and practice go hand-in-hand, but in rapid skill acquisition, you want to focus on practice. Keep this in mind as you work through the ten principles below.
2. Track.
Tracking the progression of your skill gives you a way to look back at what you accomplished. When you’ve hit the twenty-hour mark, see the differences in your abilities at various stages of development. If you are interested in seeing “where you have been”,start a journal or create a checklist. Even a sheet to note the time you’ve spent focused on your skill can help you realize the time you’ve put into it.
Ten Principles
3. Project.
You must be passionate about the project you choose. You’ll be focusing on it, so if you aren’t in love with the idea of learning the skill, you will not do it. Start a list of skills and projects you’d like to accomplish. Pick one you are passionate about. Your emotional attachment to the achievement will help you achieve it. If you feel stupid or become frustrated, you won’t do it.
4. One skill.
If you’re trying to do too many things at once, you’ll accomplish nothing. This is not a time to multi-task. Focus on one skill that you want to do. Be sure you know how acquiring this skill will help your project.
5. Perform.
If you want to be the best, twenty hours won’t be enough. However, if you just want to be able to set up a WordPress blog or earn an Enrichment Project badge, twenty hours will get you there. Determine when will you be “good enough” to do what you need to for your project.
6. Subskills.
Break your skills into manageable chunks. Setting up a WordPress site might include the software settings, creating a page or post, making a category list, etc. Each of these is a small part of the whole and you’ll be more likely to do them if you can accomplish micro goals.
When you start learning your skills, you want to start with the gross / major skills first. Watch little kids color. They do better with the large crayons first because they are easier to grip and don’t tend to break. Then, they graduate to standard crayons and perhaps even colored pencils. Keep this in mind as you plan your journey.
7. Tools.
If you need tools, get them before you start or at least know how to get them when you’re ready. Pausing to get something may mean you don’t start again. Your tools might be software,materials to practice with, cooking pans, a notebook, or anything else you need to achieve your skill.
8. Barriers.
You need to remove the barriers that will stop you from practicing your skills. What barriers? Anything that keeps you from practicing is a barrier. It might be your television, email, book series, kids, or anything that interrupts your practice. To find out how much time you waste by tracking yourself for a week or two. This is time you waste doing things that do not move you forward.
9. Dedicate.
If you plan on spending 30 minutes a day, mark it in your calendar and stick to it. Knowing that you have to pick the kids up from school two days during your thirty minutes allows you to adjust your schedule so you still have your thirty minutes. Be serious about the time you spend on your skill.
You also need to learn continuously. Do not put in a week, only to step away for a month. You will forget and need to start over.
10. Loops.
Create fast feedback loops for yourself. As you practice, you’ll learn enough to self-correct yourself. Just like learning to play the guitar, you will know you mess up when you hit a sour note. Over time, you’ll start getting more fluid with a series of notes. Suddenly, you’ll know the whole song and it will seem effortless. You don’t want to go back to your original source for inspiration or more knowledge . . . it will end up being a barrier.
11. Time.
You want to put in 20 hours. As you work, make notes, videos or something that will remind you of where you’ve been. When you hit 20 hours, look back at where you were at hour zero. If you want to learn more or continue to improve your skill, plan another 20 hours Be aware that you’ll see the most change in the first 20 hours, so don’t be disappointed if you do it a second time and you don’t make the monumental jumps you did the first time.
12. Speed.
.The longer you go, the faster you will go. You will be more accurate. You will be able to accomplish more. Your goal might have been to play a special song for your daughter at her wedding.With all that practice, you can now play that song so well it brings tears to her eyes. You might even choose to start a second song . . .
NOTE: When I started on the Enrichment Project in 2010, each badge program took me about ten hours to create. All I created was the badge program itself, collected the site links and created graphics for a printable badge, digital badge and certificate. Eight years, and over 300 badges later, I can finish the copy and links in about two hours. The graphics for the infographic, badges and certificates take me less than two hours. Then, I spend anywhere from 30 minutes to a lot longer making supplements to go with the badge programs. In the same 10 hours that it took meat first to create a badge program, I can now normally create either two badge programs with a few supplements or one badge program with a lot of them. So, I create about 3x as much content in the same amount of time.
Badge and Supplement Files
Member Level
- EP_Badge List_First 20 Hours_larajla — list of badge items
- EP_Supp_List_First 20 Hours _larajla — list of supplements for the badge
- SUPP_BPG_First 20 Hours _2in_12up_larajla — generic badge printable
- SUPP_First 20 Hours _Journal_larajla — badge journal
- SUPP_First 20 Hours _Planner_larajla — badge planner
Supplement Fun
- N/A
Sites to Explore
- www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgBikgcWnY
- lifehacker.com/learn-anything-in-20-hours-with-this-four-step-method-509281792
- first20hours.com
- changethis.com/manifesto/106.06.FirstHours/pdf/106.06.FirstHours.pdf
- medium.com/@shengyuchen/the-1st-20-hours-josh-kaufmans-theory-thoughts-on-learning-ec621651d69e
Get the infographic here > larajla blog post
Get the PDFs of the badge program / supplements here > Full badge PDFs