I’ve long learned the value of working away at things to achieve my goals. This has been my preferred method over sprinting, cramming, or rushing to get things done. For years on my instrument I adhered to the 10-minute a day rule. It doesn’t sound like much, but some days that was all I could fit in. I even recall racing back to my apartment some days between work and going out in the evening specifically to get in my 10 minutes at a decent time.
What I learned is that 10-minutes a day, especially when it’s focused and disciplined, adds up! Over time I could hear and feel improvements. I learned all my hard passages before the concerts. Although I also could have found time to practice for 70 minutes 1 day a week, I’m sure it would not have yielded the same results. Seventy minutes can be a lot to practice at one time, for both the brain and the mouth. It’s hard to remain mentally focused for that long. Mouth muscles are tiny and fatigue easily. Breaking up my practice sessions into a series of steady sprints allowed me to maintain momentum and quality.
I’ve found this method to be useful in other areas of my life as well. It provides me with a way to reach goals even when things get busy. For example, sometimes it’s hard to find enough consecutive time to clean the bathroom fully. If I keep postponing the task waiting until I get an hour free, it might be a long time. By breaking it up into 4 15-minute chunks, I can reach my goal. Sometimes this also means only doing 1 15-minute session a day so cleaning the whole bathroom can actually take up to 4 days. However, this can sometimes be faster. In the end, what’s important is the accomplishment of a clean bathroom.
This method also works well in my professional life. I’m always looking for ways to incrementally work away on hard, long tasks. Another tip is to get anything and everything possible out of the way as soon as possible. For example, my team and I hosted an event last week. Even though some tasks weren’t “due” until the event day, I encouraged the team to get them out of the way early to alleviate stress and free us up for other things.