I’d like to share something with all of you that I found to be extremely helpful when attempting to learn new things. I believe that any skill, no matter what the perceived difficulty is, can be developed to a level of working proficiency in about two weeks.

In my experience, this has always been the case.

When I was in 8th grade, I started attending a small private school in my hometown. It was a small class of mixed middle and high school kids. I had been home schooled by my mother since about 3rd grade and I had struggled with Algebra 1 the previous year. Not surprisingly I started off having the same trouble in the new school. My mother recalls me coming home one day and complaining, “I just don’t get it.” Fast forward a few weeks and everything was starting to click, slowly and steadily. A few months later, I started helping the other students in my grade with Algebra. My teacher was not well versed in math beyond the 8th grade level so during the next two years, I ended up teaching the other students Algebra 1 and 2. Most of the time I would spend the entire day at school teaching myself the math from the book and then helping the other kids when they needed it. My other studies would just get pushed off into afternoon homework.

A similar thing happened at work more recently. Eight months ago I knew nothing about the technology our project was based on. Now I’m the team lead.

My circus coaches in Canada said the same thing. The first day of acrobatics training, the instructors told me, “The first two weeks are the worst. After that you’ll be fine.” And they were right.

So what’s the trick?

1. Give it two weeks.
2. No matter how hard it seems, don’t give up. You may not make any noticeable progress for several days. Don’t worry about it.
3. Give it your full attention. 20 hours a week minimum.
4. Concentrate on the parts that you know and improve them first. This will give you the momentum and confidence to tackle the more difficult problems.
5. Try an approach for a few days. If it seems like you’re hitting a dead end, change the context a little: try a different book or ask a new question (or rephrase an old question) . Sometimes it makes all the difference.
6. Sketch out notes and diagrams as you go along. They don’t have to be overly detailed or neat. Just keep a notebook handy. At certain points you’ll experience ‘Aha!’s. Be sure to write those down.
7. Work harder than everyone else. You will succeed.

After two weeks of concentrated study, you should know enough to do something useful with your new skill. You can apply this process to learning to just about anything:

• Juggling
• Programming
• Dancing
• Foreign languages
• Any academic subject

Whatever you’re trying to learn, just give it two weeks. Work hard and be awesome.

No tags