10 hours to a better something or other

I thought I'd talk about something that I've been doing for the last few years and has helped me. Everyone has goals and things they want to achieve/change about themselves. I also believe almost everyone has more failures and regrets than memories/feelings of accomplishment about their lives. Although I can't really give you advice about how to get rid of all the regrets in your life I might be able to help you accomplish more.

Anyway I'm sure some of you have heard of the 10,000 hour rule from the book Outliers. Also I'm sure some of you have seen this TED talk about 1 month challenges.

Although I like both of these ideas, for me there are a few problems. The 10,000 rule is great, but 10,000 hrs is way to long and not many people will have 10,000 hrs of motivation. The 30 day challenge is great for experiences, but for trying to learn or increase skills it's a problem. For example if your goal was to go jogging for 30 days, the 1st day you might run for 45 min, but I know if it were me, by the 15th day I'd be doing 20 min jogs. Another problem I have with them is that you can't control the speed of your progress. A day takes 24 hours and there is nothing you can do to make it go faster or slower.

Instead of these I prefer 10 hour challenges. They avoid some of the problems above, by being attainable and by allowing you to choose your own pace. I set a goal, set a deadline and then come up with a prize. The goal is usually to do something for 10 hours, although you could set a different goal, such as write 8 songs in 10 hours or finish reading a book in 10 hours. The reason I usually choose "do something for 10 hours" is that it's impossible to know how long it takes to reach a goal if you haven't reached it yet. I usually set the deadline for 2 weeks, but really it all depends on how much time you have. I like to practice things in 1 hour blocks, so 2 weeks gives me 4 days to forget/be to busy to practice. You can do 1 week also, but of course you'll have to do more hours a day. IMO doing a lot of hours in a one day is less efficient (read about it here) and time for sleep between practice is important. Instead of rushing through many 10 hour challenges I think it's better to do 2 or 3 concurrently. Finally, prizes are important. After all your hard word reward yourself with something nice. It will help keep you motivated and sometimes it's the only thing that will push you from hour 7 to hour 10.

Some tips that might help you are

• Choose something specific- Be a better guitar player is too vague, but practice alternate picking with a metronome, isn't.
• Use a timer to keep track of your practice- Make sure you use something to time yourself while practicing.
• Don't feel like you have to practice for a long time- 10 or 15 min sessions are fine and in fact they are sometimes better than 1 or 2 hour sessions. Just make sure you have a timer to record it.

I hope that gave you some ideas on how to increase your skills and learn new things. Also you can apply the same concept to things that aren't usually timed. An example would be a 10 song challenge, were you write 10 songs. After you finish your challenge it's always good to look back to where you were when you started and compare it to where you are now. It's amazing the type of growth you can make in 10 hours. Good luck.