Break down the skill into sub-skills;

In order to learn your new skill as rapidly as possible, next you must break down the skill into composite parts. Like in prior steps, keep in mind that inch by inch, it’s a cinch. Yard by yard, it’s too hard. Breaking down your skill into composite sub-skills will help you to learn more rapidly.

Take as an example, someone  learning to play piano. They have settled on playing the Coldplay Song, “Miracles”. After some research, finding a used keyboard, and obtaining simple sheet music, the next step is to begin learning.
Playing “Miracles” comes down to the following skills:
1. Reading treble clef notation
2. Reading rhythm notation
3. Playing treble notes
4. Playing the rhythm (in time)
It would be wise for the novice piano player to devote time to each of these four sub-skills. Specifically, make a list of the information pertinent to the song selected as the goal. Choose to spend your time learning to read only the notes necessary to play “Miracles”. At least for the first stages of learning, do not become an expert in your skill unless it is totally needed.

The advantages to breaking down your skill into sub-skills becomes truly evident when your sub-skills are fundamentally different from one another. Continuing with piano, there are two mental and two physical skills the novice must learn. Mental and physical skills can be practiced separate from one another in order to maximize practice time.

There are also specific methods to learning mental skills that differ from learning physical skills. Flash cards may be useful for the novice pianist to learn rhythm notation, but flash cards would be of little use in learning the physical skills of playing piano. Once your skill is broken down into sub-skill, identify the most effective methods for practice.