It’s easy to get bored in the midst of the daily grind. But where can you find the juice to keep going — without becoming completely irresponsible? Here’s the answer.

bored

Bored?

There you are, again — looking at the clock. Or drifting through the internet — again. And did you noticed that word again? Again. Good God! It’s like Ground Hog Day. Over and over. Ready to get out of the daily grind? You can. By learning something new — quickly.

Learn something new — quickly.

Because you need adventure. But you’re not quite ready to quit your day job. So please do this. Watch this brief video (less than 20 minutes)  — about a life hack that will help you learn something new, quickly. And then, come right back for an easy way to put it into practice.

Here’s how.

You noticed in this talk that there are just 4 steps to learning something new quickly. And they are:

  • Deconstruct the skill — decide what you want to be able to do when you’re done, and then break that down into smaller and smaller pieces. What are the parts of the skill that will help you do what you want? And then do the most important parts first. This saves time and gives you the satisfaction of rapid progress.
  • Learn enough to self-correct — get 3-5 resources to help you learn what you want to learn (books, CDs, videos, etc.) but don’t use these to procrastinate. 
  • Remove practice barriers — (TV, internet, etc.). Then, with just a little bit of willpower, you can spend your 45 minutes or so a day to learn the new skill.
  • Practice at least 20 hours — commit to this amount of time to overcome the frustration barrier.

For more from Josh Kaufman, today’s speaker, look here.

And remember: the major barrier to learning something new is not intellectual — it’s emotional. We are afraid of looking stupid. But put 20 hours into anything you want to learn, and you just may get yourself out of being bored, and into something that will make you smile again.

Have fun.