
71 Comments
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Nana
Hey, Joe! I'm taking this great Coursera Songwriting Course, We are just starting week 3. I bet it will help you write your new song : )
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Chris Johnson
This book I have given away over 10 times so far this year. It's truly remarkable, and IF YOU CAN'T DO this and be better there is precious little hope for you.
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Josh Kaufman
Thanks, Chris - I really appreciate it. Also, totally agreed: some people would much rather complain than do the work. They don't tend to do very well in life. Much better to exert a bit of effort and reap huge rewards.
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Jan Koch
Hey Ramit and Josh, this article is great. Actually I'm working on my first iOS app right now and I'm definitely experiencing the different sub-skills that I need to be aware of. UI design, user experience, coding, testing and debugging - just to name a few. It's true that learning from multiple resources and then implementing the common patterns leads to rapid results and that really keeps me motivated. Though I'm struggling with the focus aspect of this, I'm always working on two or three projects at a time. I know that I should get rid of this and I probably will in the future, but for now it's a hard thing to do. Do you have any further tips on this? Best regards, Jan
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Josh Kaufman
Jan - I'm the world's biggest poster child for being interested in many projects at the same time. I've found that the best way to focus is to use a bit of mental accounting when choosing a project: by focusing on one skill/project to completion, I'm *not* choosing to never pursue my other projects - they're just on hold temporarily while I work on getting to my Target Performance Level on my prime skill. This helps prevent the mental thrashing that comes from Loss Aversion. The focus helps me build skill much faster, so I get to the other projects sooner, not later. Simple, but it works.
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Doug
I think Josh missed the point. I had the same experience trying to learn Django for web development. To use Django, you learn Python. To do the web page templates in Django, you learn HTML. To make the HTML web pages interactive, you learn JQuery. To customize Jquery you learn Java Script. It is like a never ending black hole. Once you sort of feel like your getting it, here comes Python version 3 and Django 1.6. Not completely different, but not the same. Lather, rinse, repeat. It keeps things interesting.
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Matt Becker
I've been slowly learning the tremendous power of repeating the same habit at the same time of every single day. I've wanted to start a blog forever and always put it off because I didn't think I'd have enough to say, or I didn't think people would value my opinions. I saw other huge blogs out there and thought I could never compete with them. You know what? That mindset was stupid. Finally at the start of this year I set a different goal: to write every single morning for at least 10 minutes at the start of my day. I sucked at it at first, but I stuck with it and now it's part of my routine. I'm still very far off from the blogs that scared me, but having the blog doesn't scare me anymore and it's because I focused first on solidifying the one, most critical habit. All of the rest of it is learned along the way.
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David McKelfresh
Awesome article Josh! I'm planning on practicing the board game Go for 30 min a day, 5 day/s per week between now and Christmas. That should give me the competitive edge I need to beat my brother-in-law in a 1v1 dual over Christmas vacation.
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k
Good
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Emily Loran
Thanks for the extra motivation! I am planning on running the First Run of the Year 5k on New Years. My goal is to run an 8 min. mile average. I plan on (continuing) running during lunch hour, and run a minimum of 4 days a week, with a different exercise on the 5th day. I plan on doing longer distance runs, average length runs, intervals, practicing the course (which is by my work), race pace runs, and some running faster than race pace.
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Brian
I want to learn how to code in Python, so I did some research and started by completing the course on Codecademy (finished yesterday, took about 2 weeks). Now I'm looking to take Google's Python Class, and I have two other online courses lined up after that. I want to be able to develop a website for an idea I have, and I hereby commit to working toward completing those courses by doing some part of the course every day.
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Radhika
Hey Josh, Any reason you chose Colemak over Dvorak? I'm transistioning from QWERTY to a new layout, and am curious to know about your reasoning.
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Maja Zee
I couldn't stop reading this! Totally inspiring! Josh, your writing is incredible - how many hours did you invest in learning to write this well? Ramit, you're alright too, 4-hour man! haha Anddddd my next 20 hour goal is learning To speak Dutch. Boom!
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Luisa
Great article Josh. My plan is to master walking hip drops in belly dance by the end of December.
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Andrea
Fantastic post. Thank you. The emphasis on "you probably don’t need to be an expert." is so true. Sometimes I remind myself that "expert" is subjective to a certain extent, and relative. If I'm working on a project for someone (i.e. consulting or freelance) I don't have to know everything about a topic, I just have to know enough to do it and more than the person I'm working for or with. *I have to fill in their knowledge gaps.* I can always learn more from books and from this thing called "the internet". Sometimes the person who's not an expert is a better fit for the project or job than the person who is a super-expert because of all the other things they offer, such as other skills or personality type and a demonstrated pursuit of knowledge. Also a good point: "It’s better to clarify your true priorities and make a conscious decision to stop than dabble just long enough to feel guilty about giving up." Sometimes people try to learn things because they think they should, not because they want to, and this makes it harder on them. It's perfectly okay to drop skills you don't want to acquire and focus on those that interest you, which you're likely to learn more easily, or at least, more willingly. If you hate doing something, or don't want to learn something, don't do it. I tried learning PHP once, thinking it would help me at work. I decided that I didn't have the patience and there were enough people around me with those skills, so I chose to focus on the skills I did have and to keep those sharp. Josh's comment at #7 resonates with me too. I'll check out his book! P.S. Good job listening to the Thermapen recommendation. I own two and recommend them often. Alton Brown uses and recommends it too.
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Amir Khan
Josh, are you saying that we can become a doctor, just by practice? Gosh, I really wasted my time at medical school! I'll tell that to some patients that they can see Mr. 20hourlearnanything and have their surgery done!!
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joker
you know that's not the case, yeah you can't become a doc or surgeon in 20 hour, but your can spark the fire to become one :) , you only see the dark side my friend :)
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Elenor
Snark much? How about telling your patients to spend 20 hours learning enough basic health information to know whether or not they need to come see a doctor? (Oh wait, that might lower your income...) How about telling them them learn healthy ways of living instead of the modern damaging ways? (Same objection, eh?) Do you truly think a person needs a medical school degree level of learning in order to speak a language, cook on a grill, write code, determine how to market a product? And historically -just hoe DID most doctors become doctors?! Oh, right -- by studying with other doctors, not by going to school!
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Chris
Except "becoming a doctor" isn't a skill, though it does require an enormous collection of skills. Research, writing, anatomy, decision making, perseverance, sleep-scheduling are a few. As well as in-depth knowledge and in-depth trivia of many overlapping fields. Imagine if you were in med school and you came across this great blog post which helped you become more effective with your studies. I imagine many med students do waste a certain percentage of their time (like anyone else.)
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Andrea
I'm picking up my ukulele for about the 3rd time in as many years to learn it right this time. When I was a kid I spent hours every day playing the piano and I'm very proficient at it now and what I love is that I can just sit down and play for pure enjoyment now. So yes, the 'you will suck' part is a huge roadblock. I want to be able to pick up the uke and play it with enjoyment and not have to think too much about it. 20 hours I can do! Will do. Am doing.
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Valerie Francisco
Awesome post, Ramit & Josh. I've developed a stronger interest in Online Marketing, especially after an info interview I had yesterday with a college alumnus. After learning more about the Operations and Strategy sides, I found a great Skillshare course on digital strategy where students get to practice and create a mock campaign. Will dedicate at least 20 hours to this over the next few weeks. Branching off of that, the alumnus advised I learn basic HTML/CSS specifically for email marketing. Crazy how before, when wanting to learn about coding, I got overwhelmed with all the resources I had and didn't know where to start. I never sat down to actually think about how exactly I would use this new skill to my advantage. Now I have something specific (code HTML emails) to add to my "to-learn" list in moving towards my online marketing goals.
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Elenor
Hey Valerie, Let me recommend the book "Head First HTML5 Programming: Building Web Apps with JavaScript." (I'm guessing this one will be as good as their previous on HTML 4 and CSS2). I had been doing websites for 8-10 years (the way-old "table" style) and needed to update my skills to use CSS (cascading style sheets). The Head First book was super at leading me to delete from my brain my old ways of doing things and learning (easily!) the new ways (which, of course, are now the old ways... {sigh}) They come at it from several learning styles, and the exercises lead you to understanding it all! (Not affiliated with them, just REALLY benefited form their book!)
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JR
Great post. Sometimes things are so simple that we think things MUST be harder than they actually are... it's a good wake-up call to realize they actually aren't. Thanks for the post!
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Emma
I'm going to learn to power clean properly. Got some youtube coaching videos bookmarked. So .... twice per week into my existing program, maybe down to once when the weight gets heavier. In 30 days it'd be super to be able to clean as close to my bodyweight as possible (only 120lb don't worry).
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Johanan
Excellent example of something you can break up into smaller sub skills to master. Remember to load your hamstrings, thrust hips, shrug, and keep those elbows up! I'm 165 with a 235 PC so I hope you take my advice. You'll reach your goal In no time
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Tatiana
I really loved this. Actually, what really sparked my interest was that you learned how to program in 30 days / 20 hours of dedicated learning. For over eight months I've been dabbling in web development - attending classes, going to conferences, trying to connect with people, looking at jobs. But I didn't have the proper skills. I even interviewed for an internship but couldn't do the coding test. I struggled with figuring out to get good at it. Taking classes randomly for several hours wasn't providing to be useful in a long-term way, and didn't seem compatible with how I liked to learn (ie: immersion). I tried to attend a web development bootcamp (very expensive!) but couldn't afford to go and bootcamps don't offer full scholarships. I tried to meet up with a friend once or twice a week where we'd code together and work on our projects, but she was really busy and it just never came to fruition. :/ So I'm REALLY happy to have found something that can help me focus on learning how to code in a specific / estimated amount of time. I actually found your book at B&N earlier today and I can't wait to buy it!
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Steph
Hey Ramit, another glowing review of your book: http://voices.yahoo.com/review-will-teach-rich-12366386.html?cat=3
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Travis
Ok so there are two things on my to-do list to learn or get better at. the first is learning to program computers. I've made various attempts at this one over the years but never got very far. I can write HTML/CSS and have written some basic games text games in Python but that's it. I want to be able to do this and get $$$ whether FT or on the side. I will do this for 30 days and if I can't get myself to do this then I'll finally admit this is not a skill I really want to learn... Once this has been done I will pick-up juggling again. I can already do better than most people but I want to get really proficient at the pins and rings. I can't do this until December since my equipment is in storage following a cross-country move so it's perfect time to program first and juggle second. To up the ante I'm going to tell my wife that for everyday I fall short of doing these consecutively I will change all diapers (we have two in diapers right now) on the weekends for an equal # of days.
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Mina
I want to learn programming Python in a level that i can write my codes jn my dissertation in python rather than matlab. The second priority us to learn basics in spanish and be able to understand the signs in the market.
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Tara
That was a LONG post, and packed with lots of TRUTH. I'm going to write my CV, even though I never used one to get a job, and have owned my own businesses since I was 16. As a college professor I knew the CEO and president, and ditto in any other company. In 20 hours or less I am writing the CV that will get hired in the foreign company I choose, even though the position and my speciality doesn't yet exist, and my salary requirements are higher than some, and I am not yet fluent in the language. Hey, thanks again Ramit for a post that helps me get unstuck and do something I would love to do, and that I've been avaoiding!
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Sharna
This post really struck a chord. I am in lousy physical shape. I know it, I complain to myself about it, and yet I don't do anything about it. I've been thinking for the past 3 weeks about starting running. I have all sorts of excuses for why I can't possibly do it right now, and that translates into not doing it at all. Then I read this blog post. This is exactly what happened next. When I got to the end, I said, I'm going to go for a run. Right now. My Inner 6-Year Old (MISY) said, You can't run, it's midnight! Me: That's perfect. I hate exercising when other people can see me, so this is ideal. MISY: But we just ate dinner. Me: That was over 2 hours ago. MISY: But we'll get all sweaty and gross. Me: Showers work after midnight. MISY: But it's really cold outside. Me:After 30 seconds it'll feel great. MISY: (whiny) BUT I DON'T WANNA! Me: Tough. I want to go to Belize, and dive, and lay on the beach. I won't do it looking like a beached whale, which is how I feel now. I want to do something about it. So if you're not going to help, then shut the hell up. And I went for my first run - 16 minutes, over half of which was active running. After the first 2 minutes, I had a huge grin on my face because I was actually DOING it. At the end, I stood in front of the mirror looking at how flushed my skin was, and told myself out loud how proud I am of me. So my goal is simple - I want to run 1 mile in 10 minutes. That's all. Just 1 mile. Not a marathon, not a 5K. Just 1 mile in 10 minutes. My 3 sub-skills are stamina, breath control, and speed, all of which I know will come with practice. I've copied this post's link and emailed it to myself. Tomorrow night, when I go through email, I'll see it and read it, and go for a run. Then I'll mark it unread and do it again the next night, and the next, until it's a habit. Josh, immense thanks for the post and the kick in the ass. Ramit, thanks for being wise enough to give Josh the space to share these gems. If I ever have the good fortune to meet either of you, dinner's on me.
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Lani
I have whittled the nine projects I would like to learn down to three: Once I reach the 20 hour mark on each project, I will maintain it and add another project until all nine projects are at Target level performance. The three projects are: 1) Practice piano 30 minutes a day, six days a week. 2) Cook a new meal once a week which is 2 hours a week 3) Put my moms website connected to her publisher with my project related to her book. I will work on this for 10 minutes, daily.
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joker
hey, what is power clean Emma ?
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Michael
I started a new job a few months ago and I feel out of my element in terms of my proficiency in Excel. I only know the most basic functions and formula tools so I'd like to become much better with it. In 30 days, I'll be proficient in intermediate Excel features such as vlookups, charts and graphics, and overall make professional looking spreadsheets. I've already identified 3 books with companion spreadsheets and material that I'll buy to guide me. Really enjoyed this post. Thank you.
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Tora
I've written research proposals for a few years saying I was going to do Drosophila neurobiology as part of my new exciting biomedical project, just give me a job and money (despite the fact that though I've done Drosophila germline stem cell research and neuroscience in mouse embryonic stem cells, I've never actually looked at a fly brain!). Now, I've got the job and enough funding to get started. I started the job at the beginning of October, but how much fly brain stuff have I worked on since I started? About 6-8 hours of research and reading some background papers. Given, I'm still at the same place, same desk, same lab bench -- and still finishing the research project I was doing in the job just preceding this one. So my goal is to learn enough Drosophila neurobiology to do what I need to for the project I have proposed. 1. read the methods sections of the research papers in detail to find out how other people have done it -- but just the methods and just enough to know the details I need 2. organize the equipment/reagents necessary 3. practice dissections while waiting for antibodies and whatever else I might need. 4. do the dissections/stainings and start figuring out the imaging 5. practice the imaging and perfect the dissections/stainings 6. should have it all! Goal 2 is to learn enough to make myself a proper scientific/professional web site Goal 3 is to learn enough yoga to do a 10 min. routine by myself every morning Thanks, guys! I will get this all done in the next few months! :-)
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Tonya
This is such a great post! I've just started blogging and this is a dream blog post (as many of Ramit's are)- substantive and inspiring. I want to start giving workshops in my field so my next 20hr project will be in public speaking. Can't wait to get started. Thanks!
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Josh
This is a great post! I'm taking a course on corporate finance on coursera. I spend an hour each day, 6 days a week, so by the 8th week of the course I can look at most corporate financial statements and translate them (I'm a translator) without looking up the dictionaries or online sources.
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Rivka
Awesome post. I've done this for many hobbies, including art (pencil drawing, fancy lettering, fooling with pastels) and languages (taught myself the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets as a kid; now tackling the Arabic and 200 Chinese radicals. Vocabulary can come later if I am still interested). One big change I'll now be making is acknowledging that continued research is procrastination in disguise. Lots of fun to watch 15 pastel tutorials, but no less fun, and more productive, to stop after 3-4 and actually get out the $1 box of pastels. Thanks Josh and Ramit. Note to self: a rich life includes broadening hobbies that make more of the world familiar to me and bring joy. Does not include mind-numbing escapist gaming/surfing.
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Melody
I'm going to learn how to read and write in Arabic. I'm quasi accustomed to seeing the language but I can't speak, read or write. Here's an effort at changing that.
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joker
hey ! Melody, can you share your first 20 hours plans , thanks !!
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Rivka
Joker, To pass on the great advice I got from a polyglot group on LinkedIn, you learn written language with the fingers, not the eyes. Get a notebook, find a proverb or a joke or any short text you like, and write it over again and again. THEN you study the rest of the alphabet. This worked for me. After that I started using SSR flashcards, downloaded free from Anki.com to go with their free software. (There are other SSR options. Anki is the one I use and like.)
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Rivka
*Ankiweb.net, sorry about that.
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joker
@Rivka : thank Yo ! :)
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Roger
Just to chip my experience: Several years ago I got the chance to get out with my co-workers for a weekend of snowboarding. As a 35+ couchpotato who never stepped on anything like a ski or a snowboard, this was a challenge. My company was so nice to arrange three 1-hour practices runs with a teacher. The teacher naturally explained EVERYTHING but how to learn to snowboard. So I had to figure out my own system, which in hindsight was surprisingly simple. I identified my biggest obstacle and that was breaking. I scaled to breaking movement down to a small step, and purely focuses on getting to know the breaking movements. When I knew the basics of breaking, which roughly is the same movement as making corners, I knew how to go down slowly. I build the speed up, fell down a lot, but learned how to snowboard down a piste. I was wonderful and totally amazed myself I could learn snowboarding in less than 4 hours of focused attention to one particular movement (breaking).
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Karl Stelter
"Want to learn how to play the guitar? Guess what: keeping your guitar in a case, in the back of a closet, on the other side of your house pretty much guarantees you’ll never practice." This sparked a memory of how I accidentally became quite good at the piano - something I've wished to 'get back into' for ages. And it was THIS DAMN SIMPLE: put the piano next to my computer. When I feel like I've had enough work - I naturally turn to my piano and play for 10-15 minutes at a time. BAM. Piano has just been relocated from living room to my office. Wife + guests: sorry.
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Joseph Robinson
Great Post! This is so well timed for what we all hope to be which is better, faster, smarter. To see this kind of validation touches the universal desire in us all. Thank you, Josh, for sharing this profound insight. I particularly like concepts around pre-commitment as first introduced by a Nobel-prize winning economist Thomas Schelling as part of a self-management system called Egonomics. It is now showing up in technologies to track things you commit to as well as wearable devices to gather and report on data collected about you as you live life. This technology is termed the "quantified self" movement. It is very popular and powerful. I would like to add more to the evolutionary part of the discussion. As it is one thing to recognize and grow our abilities that arises in us, it might be another to measure them and create a “big data” set out of our efforts. I am on a mission to help raise consciousness as a matter of calling and most certainly face challenges with learning and procrastination on a daily basis. Definitely would like tighter abs! In my journey for tighter abs (healthy eating) and to a greater goal of improved relationships, and ultimately be a better benefit to the world, I've definitely struggled with finding time to do it all. I've struggled to lose weight, I've had a hard time with my coaching startup staying on task, I found writing my book to be fraught with challenges. I'm now reaching daily goals with help from these theories and more. As they say, “Don’t Break the Chain!” However, the most important thing I've learned doesn't come from theories or high-tech gadgets but from learning how life really works. I gained the most power over learning something new with this following understanding: I've learned to understand that thought is just thought and that every feeling comes from my thoughts in the moment - 100% of the time. This is a huge paradigm shift. It takes away the blame, excuses, and outside loss of control then giving me the power to own my thoughts and subsequently address actions. (or in my case inactions which is more my experience.) The loss of energy and waste of time spent with “problems” simply went away. I can't help thinking we are all on this path of life working hard to learn things and the change we most easily can make is changing how we react to our thoughts in the moment. Which will grease the way ahead to any goal we want to accomplish.
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Barry Penner
Excellent post Josh. I think figuring out how to get those first 20 hours is critical. I bet most people give up before they reach 20 hours quite often. Thanks!
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Rivka
Nah, 'figuring out how' is overrated. DOING the 20 hours, even if not at prime efficiency, is what's critical. Once you are 4-5 hours in chances are you will know if further research is needed or not.
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Mike Goodman
A post worth reading. Acquiring new skills always require determination and focusing on what you want to learn in the first 20 hours not only is a great way to build a foundation but it will help you realise what is in store for you up ahead.
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Dan
This is amazing stuff. I will add this book to my arsenal along with Tim Farris's 4 Hour Chef.
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Kyle Aldous
Josh - I've been unknowingly doing this for 6 years now. In fact I've got 6 years worth of detailed journals to prove it. Each year I choose several large scale goals and then track my progress daily over the course of the year after I've broken the goal down into the exact subsets I need to accomplish. It was something I started with a roommate when I was in college. I've carried it on and he's plateaued. I read Personal MBA one year and loved it. (one of my goals was to get an MBA) I can breakdance, golf, handletter and can do a fairly decent job on Photoshop. Your advice is killer and has confirmed to me that I've got many more journals to fill over the course of my life. Ramit - I love that you're bringing in guys like Josh and am grateful for the constant reminders to fix the psychology behind the problem and not just the superficial issues.
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Beth
I never received the freebies that you promised.
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joker
what do you mean ?
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Kishore
I will Cache coding To understand Cache database To write PP To analyze code To understand programming behind reports
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Virginie
Thanks for this article full of very interesting insights. As a complement, I found it is also useful to emerge oneself in what you are trying to learn. For example, listen to related podcasts, find biographies of people in the same field, find blogs, magazines, TV programmes etc... It is a good way to create a motivating environment.
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Levi Blackman
When I wanted to learn how to code websites it was really overwhelming. Wish I would have had this post to read back then as I probably would have made a lot more progress. It really just took me sitting down and working on it. If you lay one brick at a time and keep at it, eventually you will have a house.
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Tyler @ Debt Reckoning
I must be slow - it takes me a lot longer to grasp things than others. Well, that's not entirely true, it depends largely on how I'm trying to learn. As a tactile learner, I do better by doing than by reading or having something demonstrated. Thanks for this post - it has inspired me to reattempt a few goals I let move to the bottom of my priority list.
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Ramit
This was better than any advice Ramit has given. Well worth the read. Nice job.
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Kari Baxter
I've been studying copywriting on and off for a year. I'm making a precommitment to narrow down the top 3 copywriting skills and practice them for 20 hours over the next month. Then put my new skills to use!
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Craig
That was really good - now time to get to work on it. Thanks!
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Zahra
That was great! I have moved to US 3 years ago and started a new major (neuroscience). So I have many challenges to deal with: Every day for me is full of learning: improving my fluency in language, learning the basic and the skills I need in this major to do my research and deal with the society and know how to communicate with people in a totally different culture than mine. I did this when I had a secure situation in my country and was about to finish my PhD there in another field, but I got to realize that I am spending all my free time on something other than what I was working on and other than my major then. Which means that I have to change my path to something that I would love to do and spend most of my time on and still love to do it. Now in this new field, I have to get to work with many software and hardwares and achieve many skill sets within a limited time. For example at the moment I have to learn how to edit and de-noise my audio files (acoustic stimuli for neuronal recordings) using adobe audition in as soon as possible to start my experiments. I want to make a precommitment to devote 20 hours within the next 10 days to learn how to work with adobe audition and edit my audio files and then start practicing on my main audio files. I have to break it into a couple steps of: getting familiar with the general features of the software, familiarizing myself with how to de-noise the file and how to keep my main sound file at the natural amplitude without affecting main sound energy. I will stop working if I achieve this goal earlier than that but at the end I will try to get as much as possible from this 20 hours.
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learn anything fast zoxpro
Genuinely when someone doesn't be aware of after that its up to other visitors that they will assist, so here it happens.
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naughty video chats
This article is actually a nice one it assists new web viewers, who are wishing in favor of blogging.
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Srinivasan konar
Hi, first of all this is a great article. I commit 1 hr each day for one month to video games development
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Daniel
Right on! by the end of June I'm gonna make a track that fits nicely into a progressive house mix, alongside artists like Shingo Nakamura and Lessov... woohoo!
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Daniel
Nice! Ok, by the end of june, I will have created (at least) one track that fits into a Progressive House mix nicely alongside tracks by artists such as Lessov and Shingo Nakamura. rdy set go!
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daniel
It told me the comment didn't post and I didn't find it so I posted again. But I guess it did post. I'll call this an commitment doubled in its conviction.
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Learn to speak Arabic
A good skill to learn would be speaking Arabic. It would open doors to you in rich Middle Eastern countries like UAE, Qatar and KSA. That's where the opportunities are these days. Here's a website where you can learn to speak Arabic online: http://www.learntospeakarabiconline.com/
Comments are closed.
Joe Johnson
I'm committed to 45 min of songwriting every day for the next 30 days. Have never written a song but I've told my family I'll have one done by Thanksgiving.