New Skill: Rubik's Cube

There is a flaw in my plan.

One of my personal goals for the year was to spend 20 hours (over two-month spans) learning new skills. First it was Spanish, then ukulele.

I'm not becoming an expert at either one, but it's been challenging and fun.

What's the problem, then? Well, my plan was to spend 30 minutes, 5 days a week, for 8 weeks (that equals 20 hours) learning the skill. But of course, to maintain and continue to grow, I still need to spend time practicing my Espanol and my ukulele.

Even if I only maintain with 1.5-2 hours per week, I realize that I will quickly be overwhelmed how much time it takes to develop and retain skills. By the time I'm on my 4th skill, for example, I could be spending 7 or 8 hours a week just on these "hobbies."

And that doesn't include the time demands of blogging, editing the book I wrote last year, or any other leisure activities. Oh, and I need to work, too.

Yep, there's a flaw in my plan. But I'm stubborn enough to keep going.

This Month's Skill: Rubik's Cube

A couple of years ago, my son got a Rubik's Cube. Even using the instructions, it still took hours and hours for me to solve it. For the next two months, I will improve on this.

But I will not do the full 20 hours learning this skill. I will probably go for about 10-12 hours over the next two months, so that I still have time to keep learning Spanish (I'm just finished with Year 1!) and the ukulele.

How am I going to learn to solve the Rubik's Cube (besides taking off the stickers, which was my technique when I was a kid)? I will probably use this guide, or this.  

Or maybe you know of a good source? (Please let me know in the comments!)

Of course, I could just with DeStorm Power's rap:

The Next Level?

Maybe one day I could solve this one to the right -->

Maybe.

And here's a video of someone solving 6 types of Rubik's cubes: from 2x2 to 7x7.

Then again, maybe it would just be easier to program a robot to solve the cube in under 3 seconds.

Let's Hear from You

How about you? Are you learning any new skills this year?

And if you are a Rubik's cube expert, do you know of a good "cheat sheet"?


Edit: Here's how I did Solving These Skills.