There is a lot of misinformation about the 10,000-hour rule theory of self-improvement, and it turns out now all 10,000 hours are the same. We delve into the truth behind the 10,000-hour rule and show you how to become great at anything.

The 10,000-hour rule is not really about the number of hours you put into something; it’s about deliberate practice. If you want to become great at anything, it matters more how you practice than how much you practice.

What is the 10,000-Hour Rule?

The 10,000-hour rule has been a topic of scientific research since the 1970’s but it came into the mainstream when Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in his book Outliers. The rule is based on research into the abilities of top performers in various fields like mathematics, chess, tennis, swimming, and music.

The research shows that for the overwhelming majority of experts who reach the top of their fields (for instance, chess grandmasters or great composers) have spent a minimum of ten years acquiring and honing their skills.

The few who are exceptions to this rule are found to hit their expert status in year eight or nine of their careers—not far short of the average. So being a prodigy with a “gawd given” talent is just a myth.

10,000 hours works out to be around 20 hours per week for ten years. Ten years is a long time but 20 hours a week isn’t so bad especially when you consider the average American watches five hours of television a day.

Deliberate Practice

The problem with the popularity of this 10,000 hours idea is that it’s often misunderstood as “any 10,000 hours” spent on your skill or craft. But not all practice is the same: there’s a big difference between mindless repetition and what scientists call deliberate practice.

A fascinating exception to the 10,000-hour rule is Magnus Carlsen, the youngest chess player ever to reach a number one world ranking. Carlsen played computer chess to amass a huge amount of deliberate practice in a short period of time—so, although it seems as if his talent is innate because he reached expert level at such a young age, what he really did was accelerate his learning process by focusing on the right type of practice all the time and by getting constant feedback. 

“ Perhaps the greatest difference between deliberate practice and simple repetition is this: feedback. Anyone who has mastered the art of deliberate practice—whether they are an athlete like Ben Hogan or a writer like Ben Franklin—has developed methods for receiving continual feedback on their performance.”

Part of the reason deliberate practice is so important is that it helps us to encode information about what we’re learning more carefully. Research has found that one of the significant differences between highly skilled experts and amateurs is how well information about their field is categorized in their brains.

Top-level experts can access relevant information faster and more reliably, due to spending time in highly-engaged, deliberate practice of their craft.

3 Types of  Deliberate Practice

Thomas recently wrote an article detailing how to learn any new skill quickly. He breaks down deliberate practice into three stages.

The Cognitive Stage: This is the first step when learning a new skill. You’re practicing and making mistakes.

The Associative Stage: You’ve had enough practice to see where you are making mistakes and to correct them. It’s at this stage that getting the quality feedback we spoke about earlier is important if you want your skill level to progress.

Autonomous Stage: When you reach this stage, you can almost perform the skill on auto-pilot. You aren’t a master yet and maybe you never will be but you have become competen...