Easy Ideas for Making Practice Convenient

When my daughters were young and it was time to practice, for some un-explainable reason the hardest part was getting the instrument out of the case. It really took about 2 minutes but some days it would seem like such a daunting task! We learned that keeping the instrument out of the case (and also out of reach so it stayed safe) made it more convenient to get started right away.

There are many little things like this that we can do to make it easier to get practice and listening done.

It’s human nature to do what is convenient and avoid what is inconvenient and it’s a great idea to look at our practice routines and to see if there is any way to make them more convenient so we’re more likely to follow through.

“People often ask me, “What surprised you most about habits?” One thing that continually astonished me is the degree to which we’re influenced by sheer convenience. The amount of effort, time, or decision making required by an action has a huge influence on habit formation. To a truly remarkable extent, we’re more likely to do something if it’s convenient, and less likely if it’s not.”

~ Gretchen Rubin Better than Before

This is 2nd in a series about Gretchen Rubin’s book Better than Before, a fantastic book about making and break habits. It gives great insights, on habit formation, that can be used when studying & teaching music as well as forming any other type of habit.

Rubin was surprised while researching her book at just how much the strategy of convenience influenced peoples ability to form a new habit. This made me think . . . how do we make practice more convenient so we’re more likely to do it daily?  Or at least how do we make it less in-convenient?

With my violin students I always suggest keeping the violin out in plain view. Young students (and students with young siblings) should have it out of reach but visible in a room commonly used during the day.  There are hooks specifically  made to hang up string instruments on the wall, or on the music stand, that can help with this. Be sure you’re not putting the instrument anywhere that it is exposed to extreme temperatures though!

When a student can walk through a room, and see their instrument in plain sight, they are more likely to spontaneously want to play and it cuts down on the process of getting the instrument out and set up. It doesn’t really take that long but sometimes it feels like such  a chore that it’s hard to get started as happened with my daughters and I.

Other ways to make practice more convenient so that it becomes a well-established habit:

• Have everything you need to practice in one spot so you don’t have to scramble around when it’s time to start

• Create a daily practice habit & schedule time for it in each day (or each day humanly possible). Deciding whether or not to practice on a given day takes a lot of mental energy – we don’t decide if we will brush our teeth or put on our seat belt – it’s just a given. It makes me thing of Suzuki’s quote  “Only practice on the days that you eat” in a whole new way . . . don’t think so hard about if you will do it or not – just make it a part of life!

• Have the recording set up to hit play at your established listening time (already loaded on your phone, already in the CD player in the kitchen etc)

• Plan practice for a realistic time when you are actually going to have the time and energy for it. 10 minutes before leaving to go somewhere will likely feel inconvenient and rushed. Ask yourself ‘What is the time of day we are going to feel like it is the easiest to do this?”

• When you make your child’s activity schedule for the year – leave time in it each day to practice – if they are scheduled from after school until bedtime – it will never be convenient to practice.

What do you do to help make practice an easier habit to follow through on?

To find out more about Gretchen Rubin’s Strategy of Convenience you can read her book Better Than Before and also this blog post: http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2014/09/video-for-habits-the-strategy-of-convenience/

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