I've seen the book Outliers by Malcom Gladwell around on bestsellers list for quite some time and this past week, I finally got around to reading it.  I was thoroughly impressed. It is an excellent read and highly recommended for anyone interested in success, which should be everyone including you since you're reading this blog.  What really intrigued me though was the 10,000-Hour Rule.  Although I have come across other similar management principles, putting it into a 10,000 Hour Rule makes a lot of sense.  It quantifies it into an achievable goal that is achievable with dedication and hard work.

Many people start their careers with the goal that in 7 to 10 years, they will eventually become an expert in their field.  And as a result, be succesful in their career.  In Law, it may be making Partner.  In other fields, it may be becoming a Manager or an Executive.  But putting growth in terms of number of years of experience can be quite misleading.  I have worked with engineers with only a few years of experience but were much more competent and capable than others with a dozen years. Unfortunately, too many people buy into the idea of growth in terms of numbers of years of experience.  After about 7 years when they find that they are not moving up the corporate ladder, they decide to jump boats feeling like they've been snubbed.

You can easily fall into the trap of just coasting along at work and letting meaningless tasks dictate your schedule.  The years will pass by but the meaningless work that you spend much of your time doing will not help you develop the necessary skills to grow your career.  To become an expert in your field, you need to intentionally develop a specific area in terms of hours.

I like the 10,000 Hour Rule because it allows you to track your development. While you can coast at a job for 7 years and not see your true progression, if you track your development in terms of hours, you will have a more realistic picture.  By quantifying how close you are to the 10,000 hour mark, you have a better gauge on your progress. 

For example, you can spend 10 hours a week on developing a skill such as speaking. By the end of the year, assuming you take just two weeks off, you will have accrued about 500 hours in that area.  At that rate, it would take you about 20 years to reach 10,000 hours.  Being able to track your growth allows you to be more realistic about your progress.  You don't disappoint yourself with unrealistic expectations.  You'll only need to look at the number of hours you've accrued and know that If you want to achieve your goals sooner, you just need to spend more time developing your skills.

I've used Quasitime Planner to help me track my personal growth.  I schedule time to focus on developing specific areas. By tagging my appointments, I can simply look at my Schedule Summary to see how I am spending my time.  For example, I create appointments for reading books on personal development. I tag those appointments as Personal Development so I know how much time I've spent on that particular area.  The Schedule Summary view allows me to view how I am spending my hours by week, by month, or by year.  It's a great tool to help keep you focus on the areas that you want to grow and develop.