When you are time poor it can be difficult do new things or keep up with your field. We often give up trying to do new things or keeping in touch with old friends or colleagues or reading about new developments because we feel we have no time and other more pressing issues to deal with.
While it may be true that we have major priorities to deal with, we often overestimate the amount of time we need. A few years ago I realized that I could accomplish a lot by spending 10 minutes a day at a task.
Not for the first time I thought, that it would be cool if I could juggle. I got some juggling balls, looked at some how-to videos on YouTube and started. After spending much time recovering lost balls from the inside of boxes and behind furniture I realized that learning to juggle was going to take me considerably longer that the hour promised in one of the videos!
But I realized that I did not have to spend all the time I needed to learn in one go. I had no immediate deadline for learning to juggle. So I started to practice for 10 minutes a day every day. If I forgot a day I would practice for 20 minutes next day. When I had a business trip I packed the balls and practiced in my hotel room.
Each day I started a timer on my phone. First, I threw one ball back and forth between both hands while looking ahead. When comfortable, I added a second ball throwing from the other hand when the first ball reached the top of its arc. Then, a third ball and gradually juggling for longer. The daily improvement was imperceptible but over three months I mastered juggling 3 balls.
So why is the technique so effective? The brain learns by developing faster neuron pathways. Thinking guru Edward de Bono described an analogy in ‘The Mechanism of Mind’. Pour a spoon of warm water onto a bowl of jelly. Tilt the bowl and the water will flow slowly on the surface and melt tiny pathways. Each subsequent spoon of water will follow the same pathways and will melt them a little deeper. Eventually the channels are deep and the water flows with little tilting. We learn by developing faster neuron pathways in the brain the same way, little by little.
Noel Burch of Gordon Training International described the “Four Stages for Learning Any New Skill”. First, we are unconsciously incompetent, not knowing that we don’t know how, like the unknown unknowns in Iraq made famous by former US secretary of state, Donald Rumsfeld. The next stage is conscious incompetence – we know we suck! This is when the 10 minutes a day technique helps the most. We become frustrated that we can’t, but we know we just have to practice until the timer sounds. It is easier to persevere for a small set period of time.
Soon we reach the stage of conscious competence and can do the skill with concentration. We may enter a state of flow. In this mindset, described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi we may become so absorbed in what we are doing that we lose track of time and want to continue practicing beyond 10 minutes.
With more practice we overlearn the skill. In the fourth stage – unconscious competence we don’t even need to pay full attention, like driving a car, riding a bike or speaking in your native language. Ten minutes a day will get you there eventually.
I realized that I had been applying this 10-minute technique to other areas of my life. For several years almost every day I have read a classic book for 5-10 minutes a day on the Kindle reader on my phone. Over three years I read the bible one chapter a day from Genesis to Apocalypse. Today I am at 41% through the works of William Shakespeare and nearly finished ‘A Winter’s Tale’.
And every morning for the 10 minutes it takes to bake parbaked rolls for my son’s school lunch I did floor exercises that are good for blood pressure. And for 10 minutes a day at lunch time I went to my car and meditate looking out the windows at the scenery allowing my mind to become peaceful.
For the last 10 minutes or so of my journey to work I used to switch my audio book to a Spanish language learner and practice. More recently (pre COVID) I spent 30 minutes of my commute doing a Pimsleur Arabic Course.
Like most good powerful ideas, I was not the first to realize it. I googled 10 minutes a day and the first result was a language learning company! And in a Chicago Tribune article, journalist Eric Zorn challenged his readers to learn a skill or complete a task in 10 minutes a day in 2015. 81 accepted the challenge and 49 completed it. Eric himself picked up a fiddle he had not played since school and improved enough to be hired to provide music at four square dances. He also spoke to Lorne Holden author of a 2012 book called “Make it Happen in 10 Minutes a Day: The Simple, Lifesaving Method for Getting Things Done”. She learned the 10 minutes techniques by planting a flower garden and also wrote the book in 10 minutes a day.
The method is proven and effective. I was challenged to learn to juggle on a unicycle. So before combining the two I am learning to unicycle in 10 minutes a day. I am getting much more competent and have set an intermediate goal to peddle 50 km (30 miles) on a local greenway and raise money for charity.
What 10 minutes challenge are you going to take? You can learn a skill, keep up with your field or get fit in just 10 minutes a day.