Fwoooooosh.

To really improve in anything, “practice” isn’t going to make much of a dent unless it is deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is very specific, and it entails breaking down everything and focusing on one very specific thing at a time, always practicing whatever is just past your level (it should challenge you just enough, and don’t forget, it should be one very specific thing at one time until you master it), and practicing consistently, not sporadically.

It is extremely easy to, for instance, sit down at a piano and play a song over and over again and call it practicing. But unless you’re taking one thing at a time, down to how you press down on each note, it is not deliberate and improvement is extremely limited. Every moment that you just play some measures that you know well enough is a moment practically wasted. It takes consistent challenge just past your level.

That’s productivity at it’s finest.

(If you want to really get into the mind set of deliberate practice, I have been recommended the book “Talent Is Overrated,” which will be my next read.)

- Audiopocalypse, on Fri 25 May 2012 1:31 AM, via the (www.lifehacker.com/tips/forum)[Lifehacker Tips Forum]