Deliberate practice
Work at the edge of what you can do, on one specific thing, with feedback you can’t ignore. Hours are not practice.
For a Skill · Anders Ericsson, 1993 · takes twenty minutes a session, for weeks
How to run it
- Name the skill, then the one sub-skill you are working on this week. Not "guitar" but "the change from G to B minor without stopping".
- Find the edge: the version of it you can nearly do. Too easy teaches nothing; too hard teaches only frustration.
- Design a drill that isolates it, and decide how you will get feedback within seconds: a recording, a metronome, a mirror, a person who knows.
- Practise it with full attention, in short sessions. Twenty minutes of this beats two hours of playing what you already can.
- Measure something each session, and write it down. Changes per minute, clean repetitions out of ten, seconds to complete.
- When it stops being at the edge, move the edge. When it stops improving, change the drill, not the effort.
Where it falls down. Playing what you can already play, which feels like practice and is rehearsal.
With a pen
The skill
This week’s sub-skillOne specific thing at the edge
Where I am nowMeasured how
Where I want to beBy when
The drillWhat isolates the sub-skill
Feedback within secondsRecording, metronome, mirror, a person
Session logDate / minutes / the number / what to change next time
When the edge moves, or the number stallsThe next drill