Who doesn’t want to learn a new skill? I’m sure. That you want such skills as well. That can help us improve our lives, work that can help us improve our careers. Which can help us improve our hobby to our interests.
But the trouble is this. That we are all already living such a difficult life. That we do not have time to learn any new skills. Because it takes a lot of time. This can take a lot of effort. And learning something new can be exhausting.
But the good news is that instead of just trying to learn by reading about it, some research back tips, and techniques are being used.
Using which you can quickly, and can effectively learn a new skill. The faster you use it and effectively learn a new skill.
Figure out the right skills to learn. And why do you want to learn it?
I’m sure, that you have a lot of skills. What you want to learn at any time. I mean, why not someone who doesn’t want to do the right thing, which is to be better in their every work.
But just because you can learn a new skill these days. This does not mean that you have to learn everything.
And to know what skills to learn. And that’s why you want to learn it. That may be the most important step. Which can help you find out, that’s how to learn this skill.
And how much time is required for this skill? So let’s start with a list of maybe 10 skills you want to learn. And want to write down.
What is the purpose of your skill? And write down why you want to learn this skill. So you want to learn to drive. That can be like a life skill. So you want to be more independent, or want to travel wherever you want. Learn digital marketing.
What could be a career skill? Which can help you improve in your current job. Or maybe it can help you earn more in the future. Or maybe you just want to learn to play the guitar.
Which, of course, made the video an overnight sensation. Make the most of your free time. Now select one or two skills from this list.
That you want to start learning right now. Try to focus as much as possible on just one or two skills. And now forget the rest of the goals.
Because instead of just making small progress, it’s always better to make significant progress in one or two skills. Multiple skills.
Set a Target Performance Level and a Time Frame
After you choose the skill that you want to learn. Now set a target performance level that you want to reach in a specific time frame. So to learn a new skill fast. You have to think about this step very realistically, and very practical.
Because let’s face it you can’t become a pro at a new skill fast. Because that requires months, and maybe years of practice, and effort. But you can learn a few fundamentals. So that you can start using it in your daily life.
For Example
When you say that you want to learn a guitar. Maybe you don’t want to become a world-class player. Maybe you don’t want to have stage performances.
But maybe you just want to learn. So that you can play a few songs for your friends at a party, or maybe you just want to learn it.
So that you can relax better at home similarly for digital marketing. Maybe you don’t want to become a digital marketing guru. But you just want to learn enough skills.
So that it can start complementing you in your current job better. So think about this target performance level, and make it as concrete, and as specific, and as tangible as possible.
Deconstruct the Skill
Now for the next two tips. You may have to do some research. Before you even start learning that skill. So maybe you can go online, and read up about it, or maybe you can speak to someone, who’s already an expert in this field.
And figure out the sub-skills that you have to learn under that larger skill. So many skills that you want to learn it could be cooking, or writing, or playing an instrument.
All these skills can be deconstructed, and broken down into a set of smaller skills that you have to learn.
So for digital marketing, the sub-skills could be that you have to learn SEO, or social media, or content writing, or maybe for playing the guitar, the sub-skills could be that you want to learn.
How to play the chords, you may have to learn how to tune the guitar, or maybe you want to learn a few particular songs.
I know nothing about playing the guitar, so these could be the wrong examples. But you know what I mean.
So you can go online, and look for what are the sub-skills, that you have to learn, or you can also speak to someone, who already has some knowledge in this field.
Figure Out the Most Critical Sub Skills Using the 18–20 Principle
The 80–20 principle states. That 80% of the results or outputs that you see in anything is the result of 20% of the efforts or inputs that you put in. So let me give you an example.
In school, you might remember that, when you had an exam. There were particular chapters, which had a lot more weightage than the other chapters.
And if you went to the exam reading just those chapters. You would still be able to score a decent number. This is a very simple example of how focusing on a few particular things that have more weightage, can give you a lot more results.
Let’s say that you want to learn a new language. Now in language, it’s said there are particular few words. Which are used a lot more than the other words put together.
For example, in the English language, it said that there are about 300 words. Which make up about 65 percent of the written material.
For example, maybe you want to learn video editing. Even in video editing, there are few things. That you have to learn, which could be more critical than the other ones. So not to say that not the other sub-skills are not important.
But to be able to start using video editing in your daily life focusing only on these five to six sub-skills, can give you a lot of results. So for your skill depending on the goal.
That you have set and depending on the target level performance. That you want to reach choose 20% of the most critical sub-skills.
Find a Learning Style That Works For You
There’s a lot of research on different kinds of learning styles, and what works, and what doesn’t work, and there’s a lot of contradictory research as well.
So in this book called The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition. The author says that it’s best to experiment with yourself. And figure out what works the best for you.
Figure out what brings you the maximum results. So it could be that maybe you want to learn by reading blogs, you want to take YouTube videos, maybe you want to join an online course, maybe you want to get a mentor. What has helped me is by engaging with the content.
That I’m learning in some form. So maybe after I learn a course, I try to write the summary in my own words, or maybe I try to you know to use what I’ve learned in my life context, or maybe I try to explain it in my own words to someone else do.
Be Smart About How You Practice the Skill
The key to learning something new is of course practice, practice, and practice. But any time that you spend on practice is not exactly a good time.
It depends on how you’re practicing. So there are two types of practice. That can happen one in a fun way, and another in a more deliberate way.
So let’s go back to that example of learning to play the guitar. Maybe you pick up your guitar. Whenever you’re feeling bored, or whenever you are you know you want to have some fun. You just pick it up, and you play it for some time. And while that is great in that process.
You’re not learning anything. New practice happens. When you’re deliberately practicing. It improves those weaker areas when you’re trying to actively engage with the material.
That’s when true learning happens. Now here’s the thing, this can be boring, this can be frustrating, and this can be difficult.
But this is how true learning happens. True learning and true skill acquisition are hard. It is difficult it does take time. So whenever you feel like my god it’s too difficult it’s getting too much it’s frustrating.
I don’t think I’m learning anything new. That’s exactly the time that you need to tell yourself that.
This is why you’re learning if everything seems too easy for you. Maybe then you’re not learning anything new. The moment you feel like you’re struggling with something, that’s when you’re learning.
So for me, I try to keep a mix of fun learning sessions, and more deliberate learning sessions.
Because if I’m only doing deliberate practice. Then it can quickly become boring, and then it sort of feels like I lose interest in learning that skill altogether.
So I try to mix it with fun practice sessions, and that keeps my love of learning, that skill alive, and by doing more deliberate sessions. I’m also learning and improving in that skill.
Anticipate and Prepare for the DIP Phase
When you’re learning a new skill. Initially, it can be a lot more exciting. Because you’re seeing results. And changes on an everyday basis. The kind of results that you see is sort of directly proportional to the efforts that you put in.
But after a while, you’ll start noticing that even though you’re putting in the same kind of effort. You’re not seeing an improvement you’re not seeing any results. You have just reached the dip face.
There are a couple of things that you can do to get over this face. So maybe you can allow the proper schedule to practice. Maybe you can do more fun practice sessions.
So that you know you keep the love of learning that skill alive. Just remind yourself that you have to just go through this phase.
And after that, you will realize that even if you’re not seeing any changes on a day-to-day basis. You will get a lot more compounded results over time.
Re-Adapt Your Goals
After you’ve been learning the skill for few weeks. You’ll start realizing and learning a lot of new things about your skill. So maybe the target level performance that you’ve set is not achievable, or maybe it’s a lot easier than you thought.
Maybe you need to change your working style or your learning style. So that’s why goal setting for new skills, can be tricky. Because initially, you don’t have a clear idea of how much time something might take, or what you might like, or not like.
So instead of feeling discouraged, and giving up on something completely. Re-adapt your goals depending on the current circumstances.
So be very smart when you’re setting your new goals. Because if you set the goal too high then you may feel discouraged.
But if you set the goals too low then you may feel bored you may feel disengaged. So set a goal, but don’t be afraid to redefine it to change it if needed. So that you can continue to feel motivated, and reach an achievable success.
So these were some of the tips on how you can learn a skill comparatively quickly and effectively hope this was helpful
