Introduction
What’s the biggest problem we are all facing when we want to learn something ? Obviously it’s time ! Days are short, especially when you want to maintain a social life, physical activities and improve your knowledge.
We probably won’t have the same view about life but we can all agree that we need to have friends, a family, career, educational goals, plans for outside of work, attention to your mental and physical health etc. Maybe not all of them but mostly. If you don’t have any, and I will probably sound pessimistic and cold but at least honnest, all you have is misery, suffering and aimless lives.
Life has meaning when you move forward and it can be tough to organize it when you have too much to accomplish in a day.
I have been frustrated recently while learning Russian language because I couldn’t progress as fast as I wanted. It was related to my motivation for sure but to my schedule and my daily routine too. So I started to look for all methods known to be as efficient as I could in a single day and I recently read amazing books about learning. My level in Russian and sport have skyrocketed in recent months because of them.
The first book is called “The first 20 hours” by Josh Kaufman and the second one is “Why we sleep ?” by Matthew Walker.
They helped me to understand and develop several routines in order to optimize my time to progress in sport, to learn Russian and learn technical skills for my job.
In this article I will try to share all routines, behaviours and tips I use every single day with you.
How to learn anything in 20 hours
20 hours is 40 minutes each day during one month. It’s enough to learn something if you follow this method.
I have tried to learn the 50 most used verbs in Russian and it worked, try me.
I can’t wait to be next month because I know that I will be able to conjugate all of them in the present tense.
1 Set up your goal :
So the first thing you have to do is to specify your own goals because if you don’t do it, how you are going to reach them ? Sometimes we are affraid to fail and we prefer to stay foggy in our intentions but it’s a bad long term solution.
When I said “I will learn Russian” it was easy saying it because it means nothing. My goal is to be able to speak to my Russian friends and understand them. That’s it.
2 Deconstructing the skill / Break down into smaller goals and steps
This skill as to be deconstructing into smaller goals like so :
- First learn the alphabet to be able to read Russian
- Learn the basic vocabulary and start “baby talk”
- Be able to read SMS in Russian
- Learn verbs and how to conjugate them in present past and future
- Try to make sentences with words I learnt
- Progress on oral comprehension
- Progress on the grammar and correct my own mistakes
- Read a newspaper
3 Researching
Research just enough to be able to identify the 3-5 sub-skills that repetedly appear. It can be by looking for books, DVDs, videos. For example in Russian, I looked for learning books and use each chapters title to identify sub tasks. Then I focused primarly on tasks which repeats the most (verbs, basic words, adjectives) Then work and them and try to reach a level that allows you to self correct as I was praticing !
4 Remove barriers to pratice , avoid distractions: tv, Internet, friends, social media, focus and force urself to pratice
Avoid distractions like TV, Internet, friends, social media. When you learn, you learn. 30 – 45 minutes as focused as you can. Some people can work in loud environment but I doubt it, because I just can’t at all. I need to be alone, almost in the dark with no noise. It’s the only way I can trully feel that I am learning. Moreover you environment must be set up to help you to study. It’s easier to learn to play the guitar when it is close to you, not in a box in another room. Make it easy !
5 Pre-commitment at least 20 hours to make it through (40 mins x 30day)
Before you begin, be sure that you will stick to this rule. 40 minutes a day during one month.
Say the truth or at least don’t lie (Mark Twain : If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything)
Sleep and you will learn faster
I have been blown away by Matthew Walker book about sleep. It’s important to sleep to be healthy but we are here to discussed about learning.
Several studies on rats or on athletes have shown that practice does not make perfect but practice with a night of sleep is what makes perfect. Because you come back the next day and you are 20 to 30% better in you skilled performance than you were at the end of practice session the day before.
If you flip the coin and only have 6 or less hours of sleep, you will have learn 20 to 30% less !
It’s incredible and it’s too bad I didn’t know that when I was younger. So my advice is that when you practice or learn, you have sleep well !
Sleep is the greatest legal performance enhancing drug that most people are neglecting in sport or learning activity. Seven or nine hours is what Matthew Walker suggests.
Give it a try and let me know if in a month you have been able to improve your skills !
Sources
“The first 20 hours” by Josh Kaufman
“Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams” by Matthew Walker
“12 rules for life” by Jordan Peterson
