我們都擁有渴望學成之新技能：小時候夢想學會的樂器、一直希望能擅長的運動、能使自己更 presentable 的外國語言......想要學習新事物是好事，但往往最困難的部分，是如何擠出時間投入其中。
亞馬遜網站暢銷作家Josh Kaufman提出了4個步驟，幫助我們在短短20個小時內快速學會一項新技能：即大約一天45分鐘，維持一個月——甚至能有幾天的休息時間。
將技能分拆為幾個小部分
首先，決定想要學習的東西，再將其分解為更小、更易於控制的部分。假設你想學會烘焙麵包，這無疑是個包含許多步驟的過程：製作麵團；讓其發酵；然後將之塑形；再放進烤箱中。在這繁複的程序當中，你必先認識每個步驟背後，不同的工具與技能。
又或者，你選擇了瑜伽作為新愛好。那麼就可以先在家裡播放視頻，自學基本姿勢和呼吸技巧，再去嘗試上瑜伽班。
多做資料搜集防止犯錯
搜集3至5個關於新愛好的資源：可能是書籍，DVD影片等等。但切記，請不要用它們作為拖延的藉口！
為自己設定一個資源數量的上限——你無須購買每一本有關書籍，或觀看每個該主題的YouTube影片，因這都是往後可以再做的。
消除所有妨礙練習的障礙
你可能需要在練習新愛好時，收起所有使人分心的電子設備（例如你的iPhone）；又或發揮小宇宙，將新活動融入你的業餘愛好中。
行為科學家 Katherine Milkman 提倡了一種心理技術「誘惑捆綁」（Temptation Bundling）：將你喜歡做的事與想要做的事結合。如果你喜歡收聽電台節目，不妨在烘烤時打開最喜愛的podcast；或者可以將每週一次的咖啡聚會，變成一同在家學習瑜伽課程。
至少練習20小時
若果要克服所謂的「挫折障礙」（Frustration Barrier： 當你知道自己對新活動是那麼生澀的時期），你必須向自己承諾，堅持練習至少20個小時。到學成之時，你自然會對自己的成就感到震驚。
Writer Josh Kaufman shares his own tried-and-tested technique to learn a new skill by putting in just 45 minutes a day for a month.
We all have them — the lovelorn musical instruments, the dusty sports equipment, the barely-cracked language texts, the overlong trousers that have lived in your closet for half a decade and that you’re going to teach yourself to hem any day now…
Wanting to learn something new comes from that best, most curious part of us. But then we have to put in the work. When it’s day three on the keyboard and the cat walking across the keys still sounds better than us, we can get discouraged — and often give up.
Writer Josh Kaufman, author of The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything … Fast and The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business has figured out why so many of us get stopped in our tracks during this early learning period. “Feeling stupid doesn’t feel good, and the beginning of learning anything new is feeling stupid,” he says.
Through trial and error, he has come up with four steps that can help you scramble up the sharp slope of the learning curve in as little as 20 hours. Why 20? As he puts it, “20 hours is doable — that’s about 45 minutes a day for about a month, even skipping a couple of days here and there.”
1. Break down a skill into its components.
The first thing you need to do is to decide what you want to learn, and then break it down into smaller, manageable pieces. Let’s say you want to bake your own bread. It’s a multi-step process that includes making dough, letting it rise, punching it down, shaping it into a loaf, and baking it in the oven. You’ll start by identifying the different tools and skills behind each step.
Or, if you choose yoga as your new hobby, begin at home with a video that shows you the basic poses and breathing techniques — and then go try a class.
2. Learn enough to know when you’re making a mistake.
“Get three to five resources about what it is you’re trying to learn,” says Kaufman. “It could be books, it could be DVDs, it could be anything, but don’t use those as a way to procrastinate.” After all, you won’t learn how to bake bread or do yoga unless you break out the flour or yoga mat and do something.
Set a limit on the number of resources you’re consulting — there’s no need to buy every book or watch every YouTube video on the subject; there’s time to do that later — and jump in.
3. Remove any and all barriers to practice.
This may require stowing away your electronic devices while you tackle your hobby. Or get creative and combine your favorite distraction with your new activity. In a TEDxPenn talk, behavioral scientist Katherine Milkman advocates a technique called “temptation bundling”: pairing something you know you love to do with something you’re trying to get yourself to do. Turn on your favorite podcast while you bake, or you could turn your weekly coffee with a friend into a weekly at-home yoga session with the two of you.
4. Practice for at least 20 hours.
To overcome what Kaufman calls the “frustration barrier” — that period in the beginning when you’re painfully incompetent and you know it — you must commit to sticking with your new activity for at least 20 hours. By that point, he says, “you will be astounded at how good you are.” 資料來源：TEDed
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