Research shows it takes 10,000 hours of practice done over roughly 10 years to achieve the pinnacle of performance: craftsmanship. However, research also shows it can take a lot less than that to learn the basics. Josh Kaufman, author of The First 20 Hours, suggests if you’re smart about how you practice, you can go from knowing absolutely nothing about something to being quite skilled in it in only a few hours. With 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice, you can outperform others. His 5 keys to doing so:

1.  Set a measurable performance target for yourself (e.g., more conversations; more next conversations)

2.  De-construct your desired new skill into sub-skills (gain access, build trust, gain repeated access)

3.  Practice—the sub-skill that's key to all other skills (with feedback on how it's affecting results)

4.  Eliminate barriers to practice (i.e., make it easy to practice the sub-skill that you need to practice)

5.  Commit to 20 hours of such deliberate practicing (to conquer the frustrations of early failures)

His approach is further proof that practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. Go forth and learn. New skills that produce higher performance. From practice. Fast.

The unedited, full-length, version of Kaufman's remarks at RSA is viewable here.

About the Author

John is the founder and CEO of innovative information inc., makers of Amacus. His firm provokes improved B2B sales productivity by helping sales teams see + improve the buyer value of their sales practices. Follow John at @jcousineau.

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