Not long ago, my wife decided she wanted to learn how to bake bread. Today, she makes a damn fine loaf.

How long did it take her to learn? A lot less time than you might think.

According to a TED talk I just watched, it takes around 20 hours to learn a new skill. That’s around 45 minutes a day for a month. Not long at all.

You probably won’t reach world-class level but you can get good enough to make a difference.

What would you like to learn that you’ve put off because you thought it would be too difficult or take too much time?

Follow the 4 steps to rapid skill acquisition in this talk and you may surprise yourself at how good you can get in a matter of hours.

If one of the skills you’d like to acquire is learning how to do an effective presentation, watching this video is a good place to start.

The speaker keeps things simple and interesting, illustrating his points with stories and graphics. He also demonstrates the new skill he recently acquired, proving his premise in an entertaining way.

Check it out and tell me what you think.