What is the 20 hour rule?

Talha Bin Tayyab

December 29, 2025

What is the 20 hour rule?

The 20 hour rule, popularized by author Josh Kaufman, suggests that you can go from knowing nothing about a specific skill to being reasonably competent in just twenty hours of focused practice. This challenges the “10,000-hour rule,” which focuses on world-class mastery. To succeed, you must deconstruct the skill into smaller, manageable parts and identify the most important sub-skills to practice first. You should learn just enough to self-correct while practicing and remove any distractions that might hinder your progress. By dedicating roughly forty-five minutes a day for about a month, you can overcome the “frustration barrier” that usually causes people to quit new hobbies. It is a highly effective framework for rapid skill acquisition in our fast-paced modern world.

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