Why You Should Spend Five Hours a Week Learning

Though there are many qualities that contribute to a person’s success, one thing that stands out is that successful people are always hungry for new and deeper knowledge. And to this end, they will always make time to learn, whether it is a new skill, discovery, ideology, or anything that satiates their never-ending curiosity.

In contrast, unsuccessful people can be characterized by a general apathy towards knowledge. Such people essentially have no interest in learning new things or improving themselves. And if you are a dreamer who wants to succeed, then you should definitely consider spending about five hours a week to absorb new knowledge.  

Why Spend Five Hours Per Week Learning New Things?

You know what is common between Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Warren Buffet? In addition to being very successful, all three have a shared quality – they spend at least five hours per week to learn new things. So, why 5 hours a week?  

Firstly, everyone is busy with their lives and they hardly find enough time to sit and read. But 5 hours per week is something that is doable and practical. In fact, we can bet that most people will easily be able to assign 5 hours of their life each week to learning something new.

Secondly, 5 hours per week is considered sufficient enough for you to acquire knowledge and skills. In fact, Josh Kauffman, the author of the famous book ‘The Personal MBA’ estimates that it takes about 20 hours for an average person to learn something new. 

So, considering 5 hours per week for a month that consists of four weeks, you can theoretically learn a new skill every month. Not on the deep end, but certainly something workable.

Tips For Mastering New Knowledge and Achieving Success

Once you decide to implement the five hours per week learning plan, you can follow the below tips to make it effective and achieve the best possible result from your learning process.  

Plan The Timings

The first thing to do will be to plan out the learning schedule. Without setting a clear goal as to when you will learn, you are likely to fall prey to procrastination. As a result, you might keep postponing your learning, and may end up never making time for it. 

To avoid such possibilities you should set a clear time schedule. And the time you select must be the most appropriate of times when your mind is ready to absorb new ideas – knowing when your mind is at its sharpest is the key here.

For example, suppose that you are busy with work and are only free Saturday evenings and Sundays. You might think of cranking an hour a day from Monday to Friday as your learning time. 

But if you are always mentally exhausted from work, then the hour you spend on learning may not be effective since your mind may not absorb the new information completely. Do not do for the sake of doing. Focus, improve, and get it right.

As such, it is better to schedule a five-hour session on Saturday evening, or split it into two sessions for Saturday and Sunday. This will ensure you only learn new things when your mind is fresh and ready to absorb ideas. And if you are troubled with procrastination, make sure you get rid of that habit for good.  

If you have a tendency to put off things and not commit even though you wish you could, there is a tried-and-tested method to incorporate new habits. Suppose you want to start reading every day, then you need to combine this with an existing routine. Like, do this after a regular routine habit like breakfast or lunch or work – the first thing after an everyday activity. This way, it is difficult to forget about this, and you’ll be able to cultivate a new habit in no time. This is basically Habit Stacking.

Decide What To Learn

The next thing to do is to have a clear plan as to what it is you wish to learn. Ideally, it should relate to something that can help you acquire a new skill and develop your professional as well as personal life. However, you should not shy away from trying to learn things that are completely unrelated.

Draw up a list of subjects you wish to explore, find out the best sources of information for the subjects, and then come up with a learning plan that details how you will go about learning according to the time schedule.

For example, imagine you work as a sales consultant at a stock market trading company. For a particular month, you can focus on learning about human psychology – especially topics that cover a person’s psyche when evaluating a profitable opportunity.

Find good resources on the topic, arrange those resources, and divide them into weekly portions that you can finish in 5 hours each week. In addition, you can also throw in a two hour documentary about Japanese Jujitsu, if you find it interesting.    

Think About What You Learned

Once you have learned a subject matter, take a few hours to reflect on what you just learned. Just mugging up information won’t make you smart. Only when you understand what you learn can you truly claim to have learned about something. And a good way to do this will be to associate what you have learned to real-life situations.

For example, suppose that you spent your entire learning time for the week reading up on the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Now, think about the possibilities of what you have learned. If you are a teacher, look at how the AI development is going to affect the future of education.

And while thinking about it, you might come to realize that children are currently taught in an inefficient way. And by using AI, the children can be taught the same subject matter in a way that makes them comprehend it much better.

Practice What You Learn

Once you have acquired knowledge and reflected upon it, it is time to put it into practice. Otherwise, the knowledge will be of no use to you (or others). If you wish to achieve success, then knowledge alone is insufficient. You will have to act on that knowledge at opportune times.  

Teach Others The Things You Learn 

Finally, don’t keep your knowledge to yourself. If anyone is interested in learning from you, consider teaching them everything you know. This has two benefits. Firstly, the people who learn from you will respect you. Secondly, the more you share your knowledge, the better your understanding of it will be.  

So, be sure to never remain cooped up in your own world. Instead, learn as much as you can about the things you find interesting. And slowly but surely, you will find that your life’s on a sure-shot path to success.