What if you could
learn a new skill
in just 20 hours?
Josh Kaufman, author of The First 20 Hours, proved this with his own experience: you don’t need to become an expert to learn something well enough to use it in daily life.
When he became a parent, everything changed: minimum sleep, maximum responsibility and no free time. But the desire to learn didn’t go away. So he asked: How much time does it really take to get good at something? After research and trial, Kaufman discovered: to reach a solid beginner-to-intermediate level, 20 hours of focused practice is enough.
Before you pick up a guitar, open an app, or buy a brush, something more important happens — you choose!
- What exactly do I want to be able to do?
- What does “good enough” look like for me?
- What truly excites me — not what’s “trendy”?
- What’s really stopping me from starting? (spoiler: the answer is almost always emotional)
Kaufman warns: don’t jump into learning randomly. That’s the fastest way to burnout. Instead, here’s a short checklist for learning something and reaching results:
Pick a skill you truly care about.
Not “for work,” not because “everyone’s doing it,” — but because you are genuinely curious. Without interest, 20 hours will feel like punishment.
Focus on one thing.
Trying to learn guitar, Spanish, and HTML all at once? That’s a direct route to quitting. Choose one.
Define what exactly you want to do.
Not “learn Photoshop,” but “create a cover image for Instagram.”
Not “learn Excel,” but “build a spreadsheet that calculates my budget automatically.”
Break it into smaller skills.
Every skill is a system of micro-skills. Example: drawing = pencil work + observation + shading + perspective.
Find the 20% that gives 80% of the result.
Use the Pareto principle to identify what matters most and start there.
Prepare everything in advance.
Tools, platforms, guides, checklists — have them ready before you begin. That way you won’t waste mental energy figuring things out mid-process.
The hardest part? Not the learning itself, but how you feel at the beginning. When things are awkward. When you think, “I’m bad at this. I’ll never get it.” This is what breaks most adults. Just the emotional discomfort of being new.
Here’s how to move through it:
- Break the skill down
- Pick 2–3 good sources
- Eliminate distractions
- Give yourself permission to be clumsy
- Practice for 45 minutes a day and observe instead of expecting miracles
Josh learned to play his favorite songs on the ukulele in 20 hours.
And he proved something important:
We’re always capable of learning. Adults just need one thing more than knowledge — the permission to begin.
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