The #1 Way to Overcome Practice Struggles

It seems like there should be an exciting, flashy solution to solving the challenge of getting practice in and overcoming practice challenges.

An app or a new book or some secret tip that will make everything work.

The good, and not so exciting truth, is that there is a very basic answer.

The #1 way to overcome practice challenges is: Having a Routine.

Routines are not the most exciting topic but they are incredibly important.

Here are some ways that having a routine can make practice easier in your house:

Automaticity:

basically it becomes automatic to get started and we don’t have an internal debate with ourselves if we will or won’t practice. It saves lots of mental energy

Children fight things less once they become a routine

– mostly because it becomes clear that no adult will give in and let them out of it if they protest or procrastinate

We won’t run out of time to practice when it’s built into our daily schedule as a routine.

Waiting for 30-60+ minutes to magically appear in our schedule is likely not going to happen. A routine with a set time (at least a set time for each day of the week) helps make sure we will have time to get it done.

It starts to feel “wrong” or strange if we miss doing something that is part of our routine.

This is the magic of our routine turning into a habit, where our day just doesn’t feel complete unless we have done our practice. It’s a great place to get to.

It saves mental energy when we don’t have to debate with ourselves about if and when we practice.

This is true for both students and the parents involved in practice.

Are your practice sessions a routine or a daily battle deciding if today will be a practice day or not?

I encourage you to start by writing down one or two times each day of the week that can be used for practice and posting it somewhere everyone can see it.

The next step is building this practice schedule into the daily routine. At first it may feel like a chore, but once you have done it for awhile it starts to feel weird not to do it. That’s what we want, that practice starts to happen as part of the daily routine without much effort getting started.

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To read more in this fall’s series about practice Click Here and Here