Monday, December 5, 2011

It's important to know when t

When I was training my dog they reinforced the practice of stopping while it was still fun for you and the dog...leave 'em wanting more.  I think Aymii-training sessions should work that way too!

One possibly-not-so-obvious aspect of the 15 minutes a day plan is to be diligent about stopping at 15 minutes...even if I feel like I'm on a roll or I might forget some really important point.  I used to feel compelled to get to a "good stopping point" before taking a break from a project.  I've noticed that, as I've evolved my behavior change and time management skills, leaving off at a really awkward point (even *gasp* in the middle of a sentence) actually makes it easier for me to pick up again when I come back.  It's very obvious where I stopped!  It's also good training for my brain to reinforce that leaving something part-way finished (with a clear plan to come back to it) has positive consequences.  Of course, if you make a habit of leaving projects unfinished with no clear plan to store them, dispose of them or come back to them...that's another story...and a different behavioral pattern for a different day... (and possibly someone else's blog...)
 
Forcing myself not to overdo it has provided unforeseen benefits:
  • It helps distill what is truly important.  If I can't remember what I wanted to say the next day, it probably wasn't all that critical to begin with.
  • It forces me to focus.  Knowing that I only have 15 minutes on the clock makes me put all my energy into writing / editing / proofreading during that time.  I've developed adjunct habits to eliminate distractions during this period.
  • As mentioned above, it (over time) creates a comfort level with leaving things incomplete.  This is a can be difficult for those of us (looking myself squarely in the eye) who link accomplishment to closure.  It can manifest itself in numerous unexpected ways throughout life (i.e. "cleaning your plate" as a sign when to stop eating, rather than when you're full - a topic for another day).
  • It gives me the right amount of breathing room to come back and proof-read and edit.  If I proof-read right when I've finished, then I'm in the same mindset and am likely to skim over points that could use some revising.  I'd like to think this also improves the quality of the output...
  • I leaves me wanting more.  15 minutes is enough time to get a decent amount of focused writing done, but I'm left with the sense of having more to say and wanting to come back.

So you can figure out for yourselves how long it took me to complete this post.  I've been true to this daily habit so far, and am actually enjoying it far more than I anticipated and definitely more than I did when a writing session equated to finishing the blog post.

As an aside - I also learned to play the bodhran (Irish drum) this way.  I used to practice only while my english muffins were in the toaster in the morning.  Now I'm quite accomplished at it, but always have a vague desire to eat breakfast foods after an Irish session. :-)

2 comments:

  1. I love this idea of stopping while you still want to do more. I rarely can do this. I've always touted the daily regiment of practice while limiting the time to something that you can stick to. Even just taking the instrument out of the case, putting it together and packing it up again. When you can get someone to do this everyday it gets easy to get them to play it a little as well.
    I never really thought of a forced stop time because I focused on finding a minimum time that they would feel was possible on a day to day.
    This method is really interesting to me because it reframes the idea of a goal. When a musician goes into the practice room and thinks that they are diligent, they usually have a goal they want to accomplish in that session. Sometimes we lose sight of the realistic idea that you can have a long term goal that won't be accomplished today.
    I should go practice.....

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  2. I was going to write a response, but my 15 minutes is up for today. :-) Maybe tomorrow...

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