An hour a day on one skill adds up to more than 360 hours in a year. That’s a real skill.

Skill is less about talent than about hours, and hours are easier to find than people assume. One a day, which is less than most evenings of scrolling, comes to several hundred over a year, and several hundred hours is the difference between dabbling and being genuinely good at something. The number is only impressive from a distance.

Pick one thing and give it a fixed slot rather than spare time, because spare time does not exist. Keep a simple record of the days you did it, since the record carries you through the weeks you do not want to. Measure after three months, not three days.