A Simple Strategy For Getting Better at Things

7/27/2016
ASimpleStrategyforGettingBetteratThings
ABOUT
ARTICLES
MY PROJECTS
BOOKS & COURSES
FREE NEWSLETTER
A Simple Strategy for Getting

Better at Things
July, 2016
10 Comments
How often do you catch yourself saying, I wish I were better at _____. Maybe yo
want to be better at exercising regularly, your relationships or your work. Maybe

youd like to be more artistic, athletic or multilingual.
Getting better at things requires work. It doesnt happen too often that you can
immediately get better at something with a trick or gimmick. However, I think a
of people dont improve simply because they dont know how.
In this article I want to outline a simple strategy to get better at anything. It does
require work. But it can help simplify the process of thinking about improvement
Is it a Habit or a Skill?
Most of the things you want to get better at are largely habits, skills or some mixt
https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2016/07/12/getbetter/?inf_contact_key=ed045c44bdb364c1df029d34f303258eed72ec3223d0bac558f609378411b1a7
1/10
7/27/2016
of the two.
Exercising is a habit. Although there is some skill in exercising well, thats not the
weak link for most people. Most people know *how* to run, move or work out, t
just dont do it as much as theyd like. When you find yourself wanting to do
something more regularly or consistently, youre trying to improve a habit.
Speaking another language is a skill. You may need a habit of practicing, but its n
enough to just will yourself to speak French or Japaneseyou need to learn how t
do it first. When you dont know *how* to do something, or dont know how to d
well enough, what youre trying to improve is a skill.
Most things youll want to improve will have a mix of habits and skills. Maybe yo
want to read more books. On the one hand, reading is a habityou need to read
more. But its also a skillvocabulary, fluency and subject familiarity all influence
how quickly and deeply you can read.
The first step is deciding whether what your trying to improve is mostly a habit o
mostly a skill. A good rule of thumb is that if your main problem is with doing
something you already know how to do, but doing it consistently, thats probably
habit. If your main problem is not knowing how to do something well enough, th
probably a skill.
How to Get Better at Habits

Improving a habit has three main parts: formulating the desired behavior,
conditioning the habit and maintaining it once it has formed.
2/10
7/27/2016
Step One: Picking the Habit

The first step is to clearly articulate what youre trying to improve. You want to
replace the vague sense of unease that maybe you should be better at something w
a decision to improve something specific.
A good habit should be something you do regularly. It should happen either every
day or after a particular context or trigger (right after work, every time you speak
someone, when you wake up). If its a habit of absence (quitting smoking, giving u
junk food) it should include some concrete alternative to fill the vacuum.
Some examples of vague improvements turned into concrete habits:
I need to get in shape. > Im going to exercise for 30 minutes after work ea
day.
I should read more. > Im going to read for 10 minutes before bed every da
I should drink less. > Im going to limit myself to 3 alcoholic drinks once p
week.
I want to lose weight. > Im going to limit junk food and high carb meals t
one day per week.
I want to be more organized. > Everything has a home. I will put things ba
in their place once every day.
Step Two: Conditioning the Habit
The next step is to stick with the behavior long enough that it becomes automatic
This requires effort in the beginning, but, if you do it right, should become easier
easier until you no longer think about doing it.
3/10
7/27/2016
Most suggestions for making habits will pick a time period thats easy to commit t
but long enough that the conditioning work will be largely finished. Some people
recommend 21, 30 or 60 days. One study suggested that the average habit takes 66
days to condition to automaticity, but that there was a great range in habits and
participants (from 30 to over 200 days).
My suggestion is to pick an amount of time that seems reasonable. Ironically, hard

habits are probably better with smaller commitments. This is because they often
become easier faster, so you might not start a difficult habit to exercise once every
day if you know you have to maintain it perfectly for 90 days, but you might keep
up for 30 days.
Step Three: Maintain the Habit

Most habits are metastable. That means that they can endure for a long time, but
something pushes them out of balance they will fall back to an easier behavior.
Exercise is an example of a metastable habit because even if it is automatic for you
does require time and energy. A prolonged illness, vacation or overtime at work c
break the habit without you realizing it.
For metastable habits like these, its important to monitor it, and if you see yourse
slipping, reinforce it with another small commitment. A good rule of thumb is th

the commitment should be at least equal in time to the loss of habit. So if youve
stopped exercising for a week, you should commit to follow your habit for at least
week to get back to an equilibrium. If youve stopped for more than two months o
daily habit, you should probably treat it like conditioning a new habit.
4/10
7/27/2016
How to Get Better at Skills
The best strategy for getting better at skills is deliberate practice. A good way to w
on this is to divide it into three parts: practice, feedback and focus.
Step One: Practice
The first step to get better at something is to use the skill. If you want to get bette
writing, you need to write. If you want to get better at speaking a language, you n
to speak. If you want to get better at talking to women, you need to talk to women
Theres two styles you can approach this with. The first is to improve the skill via
selected project. This works well for skills that need a lot of time to focus on, or th
you cant easily inject into your daily life. You might work on the skill on your ow
or follow a particular course or self-improvement program to guide you.
The second style is to treat your practice just like any other habit. Define it clearly
condition it and maintain it. This is most useful when youre trying to master
something over a longer period of time.
Step Two: Feedback
Improving skills is a loop: first you attempt something, then you notice how your
attempt differed from the ideal, then you adjust what you did and attempt again.
Tighter feedback makes the loop work faster, causing you to learn more rapidly. A
absence of feedback can break the loop, causing you to learn slowly or not at all.
You can get feedback directly from the environment, or by soliciting feedback fro
5/10
7/27/2016
other people. Asking for feedback often has problems. If the feedback giver isnt g
at the skill themselves, asking how you can improve is often a bad idea. Instead, y
might use subtler metrics (Writing:Do people finish reading your entire essay?
Languages: Do people understand what youre saying?).
Step Three: Focus

Complex skills are made up of simpler components. Writing is about research,
storytelling, description and organization of ideas. Languages are vocabulary,
grammar, pronunciation and prosody. Drawing is about seeing relationships, pen

techniques, shading and shapes.
You can accelerate your improvement by focusing on the component skills
separately. This has two effects. First, it allows you to devote more of your cognit
resources to getting good at them, allowing you to master the component skills m
quickly. Second, it lets you spend more time on your weak points, so you can
selectively improve whatever is holding you back.
To do this, break down the skill your working on into parts. Then make drills wh
will focus you on improving the aspect that youre missing. Remember to always
some general practice alongside your drills or it is easy to get really good at a
component but not be able to use it in real situations.
Getting Better at Things

First decide whether what you want to improve is mostly habit or skill.
If its a habit:
6/10
7/27/2016
1. Define the habit you want to form clearly and consistently.
2. Condition it until it is relatively easy to maintain. Thirty or sixty days are goo
conditioning periods.
3. Maintain the habit by monitoring it. If you slip, push to reassert the habit
quickly.
If its a skill:
1. Practice the skill. This can either be in a project or as a habit.
2. Get timely feedback on how well youre performing. If you cant get this
naturally, ask for other people to help evaluate. Focus on their reactions, not
their advice if they themselves arent skilled.
3. Focus on your weak points with selective drills and constrained practice.
Although the things you might want to get better at are incredibly varied in life, I
been surprised how many break down into these two categories and can be resolv
by some version of these three steps.
What would you like to get better at? Write down your habit or skill, along with wha
you plan to do in the comments!
READ THIS NEXT
Facebook
10Comments
You Can't Set Goals to Fix Your Flaws

Twitter
Email
ScottH.YoungBlog
Print
7/10
7/27/2016
Recommend
Share
SortbyNe
Jointhediscussion
DharmeshDev6daysago
veryusefulpost,neverthoughtofdifferentiatingthingsandthentargetingthem
Reply Share
HusseinHorack6daysago
Ahighlyinformativepost,thanks!
Reply Share
AaronTamaddon6daysago
Evenin"ThePowerofHabits"(oneofmyfavoritebooks),"metastablehabits"werenotmentioned,introd
oraddressedaveryusefulpieceofinformationthatcomplementsthequalityofthearticleasawhole.Th
you!
Reply Share
Avisha8daysago
Veryinterestingpost.I'vebeendoingalargeamountofthought+workonmyownhabitsrecentlyandit
gotmethinking:whatpreciselyisthedividinglinebetweenskillsandhabits?It'seasytothinkofhabitsth
don'tinvolveskills,butarethereanyskillsthatwouldn'tbenefitfromassociatedhabits?
Myinitialthoughtprogressingdownthispathwasthathabitsmustthereforebeamorebasicbuildingblo
withinourpsychesdevelopingahabitisallabouttakingaconsciousactionandmakingitinstinctive,wh
developingskillsrequiresamuchlargerdegreeofconsciousthought.Butisn'tthatoftenjustintheforma
Oneoftheclearestindicatorsthataskillhasproperlyprogressedisthatallofitslittlecomponentsthaton
requiredconsciousthoughtarenowdoneautomatically.Couldonethereforereframeskillsasjustawebo
interlinkedhabits?
InhisbookThePowerofHabit,CharlesDuhiggtalksaboutthecaseofamanwhocouldnolongerstore
memoriesbutstillwasabletodevelopnewhabits.Thiswasoneofthefirstcasesofclearevidenceofahab
usingacompletelydifferentpartofthebrainthannormalcognition.Inowneedtogoanddotheresearch
IwonderifaproperlydonefMRIstudywouldshowasimilarbrainactivationforwelltrainedskillsandw
developedhabits(ofarelatednature)?
Reply Share
ScottYoung
Mod >Avisha 6daysago
Yeah,there'ssomeevidencethatprocedurallearningandclassicalconditioningdon'trelyonthesa
memoryarchitectureasepisodicorsemanticmemories,althoughtheneuroscienceisstillrelatively
uncertain.
Reply Share
AndrewVanilla14daysago
Focusanddeliberatepractice...Iguessthosesubjectwerestressedenoughalready.C'mon,2016.Somethin
new.
Reply Share
8/10
7/27/2016
Reply Share
ScottYoung
Mod >AndrewVanilla 6daysago
Fairenough.Butnew!=better.Oldideasareoftenthegoodideas.
Reply Share
JonasSalzgeber14daysago
HeyScott,you'remakingsomegoodpoints!
Icompletelyagreewiththedeliberatepracticepart:practice,feedback,focus(insteadofpractice,practice
practice)).
Forthehabit/routineformingpartIrecommendcheckingoutGabrieleOettingen'sbookRethinkingPosit
Thinking(ifyouhaven'talready).She'sgotanamazingtoolcalledWOOP.ItalsoincludesImplementatio
Intentions(if/thenplans,similartowhatyou'vepointedoutinPickingtheHabit.Thatwouldbeforexam
"IFIfinishwork,THENI'llgotothegymandworkoutfor30minutes").Mybrotherwroteanarticleon
WOOPifyou'reinterested(I'msureyoufindituseful):http://www.njlifehacks.com/woo...
Anyway,thanksforthearticle,it'sagreatreminderofgettingbettereveryday:)
Reply Share
NirEyal15daysago
ScottIthinkwhatyouaredescribingasa"habit"maybemoreappropriatelycalleda"routine."Perhaps
articlemaybehelpfulregardingthedifference:http://www.nirandfar.com/2016/...
Also,youmayenjoythiscategorizationofbehaviorswiththebestchangemethodtouse,see:
http://www.nirandfar.com/2012/...
Reply Share
ScottYoung
Mod >NirEyal 6daysago
Interestingdistinction,althoughtheterm"habit"oftenincludesroutinesaswell.
Reply Share
Subscribe d AddDisqustoyoursiteAddDisqusAdd
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
Follow
Privacy
FULL ARCHIVE
NEXT ARTICLE
About Scott
Pages
I'm a writer, programmer,
ABOUT
traveler and avid reader of
ARTICLES
9/10
7/27/2016
interesting things. For the
MY PROJECTS
last ten years I've been
BOOKS &
experimenting to find out
COURSES
how to learn and think
FREE
better. I don't promise I
NEWSLETTER
have all the answers, just a

place to start.
MORE ABOUT ME
MY PROJECTS
AS SEEN IN
2006-2016 ScottHYoung.com Services Ltd. All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress and Genesis Framework
10/10

A Simple Strategy For Getting Better at Things

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Simple Strategy For Getting Better at Things

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

7/27/2016

BOOKS & COURSES

A Simple Strategy for Getting

want to be better at exercising regularly, your relationships or your work. Maybe

How to Get Better at Habits

Step One: Picking the Habit

Step Two: Conditioning the Habit

My suggestion is to pick an amount of time that seems reasonable. Ironically, hard

Step Three: Maintain the Habit

Exercise is an example of a metastable habit because even if it is automatic for you

slipping, reinforce it with another small commitment. A good rule of thumb is th

How to Get Better at Skills

Step One: Practice

Step Two: Feedback

Step Three: Focus

grammar, pronunciation and prosody. Drawing is about seeing relationships, pen

Getting Better at Things

1. Define the habit you want to form clearly and consistently.

READ THIS NEXT

You Can't Set Goals to Fix Your Flaws

Mod >Avisha 6daysago

Mod >AndrewVanilla 6daysago

Mod >NirEyal 6daysago

I'm a writer, programmer,

traveler and avid reader of

interesting things. For the

last ten years I've been

experimenting to find out

how to learn and think

better. I don't promise I

have all the answers, just a

You might also like