You have finally decided to improve this skill you have thought about forever. Heck, maybe you even made a New Year’s resolution to do it. Or maybe you got all kinds of crazy and wrote it down on your goals list!
Then you set out to practice it – and what happens? You get distracted.
Distractions can derail even a good head of steam on the path to getting better.
One of the biggest problems is not just the time you are distracted, but the fact that it is difficult to get back on track and regain your focus.
Studies by Gloria Mark, associate professor at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California show that it can take 23 minutes to get back to your previous focus level once you have been distracted.
That makes giving in to a distraction a costly proposition!
SOS, MFDS and assorted aberrations.
Some distractions are predictable and common, but some can sneak up on you or come from out of nowhere. Lets look at some of the most common.
We sometimes hear the term “SOS” – or “Shiny Object Syndrome” to describe what happens when we jump from one thing to the next new thing. We are basically “chasing” the next shiny object we see, thereby taking our focus off what we should be doing and leaving the previous task incomplete.
This is a distraction in the world of practicing for sure. If you are working on your golf game; “I spent this week at practice trying out my new titanium super lightweight diamond putter”. Yeah, but wasn’t it just last week that you spent your practice time with that new carbon fiber super X never miss putter? Lots of shiny objects.
It is just like the only too common tale of a guitarist buying and playing around with new effects, amps and any other gizmo that can make his guitar sound like a keyboard or a drum or a whatever instead of just spending his practice time on…. well, practicing.
The other distraction that can certainly be related to Shiny Object Syndrome is what I call “MFDS”. This is “Magic Fairy Dust Syndrome”.
Most of us who want to improve a skill would love to find a shortcut. If that comes in the form of a new putter or a new effects pedal, so be it, but whatever it is, for crying out loud get it now! As long as we can just sprinkle some magic fairy dust on it and have our skill instantly improve, then it is all good.
Don’t think the folks selling those putters and effects don’t know that is how our minds work. “The world’s most accurate putter” the ad says. Really? It just putts by itself? But often we want to believe in the shortcut so bad that we allow that distraction to pull us away from our mission.
Wisdom from grasshopper.
I once had a guitar student sum up this way of thinking perfectly.
He had been struggling with getting his scales clean and as fast as he wanted. After he played them a few times he shook his head in frustration and said “I just can’t get it”. I told him not to worry because I was going to tell him exactly what he needed to master it and keep from being frustrated. He sat upright, with an excited look on his face and said “Really? What is it?” I just looked at him. The smile went away from his face and he said “Oh… practice?” with a little sarcasm around the edges of his crooked mouth.
I told him he was right, and then he uttered the line that perfectly captured this whole MFD syndrome. He said “Dang, I was hoping you were going to tell me it was something I could buy.” He almost had his wallet out! He was so hopeful there was a shortcut, even though the true way of just practicing was free, and much more gratifying, it didn’t matter, because buying something would fix it NOW!
Wisdom from posters on my wall.
When I was a little kid I had a Snoopy poster that hung in my room. It said “The grass is always greener on the other side… until you get there and discover it’s artificial turf!” That is what most of the Shiny Objects are. Just things to fool you and take you off task.
When I consider the allure of Magic Fairy Dust Syndrome I’m reminded of a poster that says “Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now”. HA! This may be true for the “men of leisure” among us, but if you want to see real improvements in your life, don’t fall prey to that kind of “quick fix” thinking.
“Yeah but I can multi-task my practicing”…..
Another distraction that can really mess us up is when we have several different skills we are working on at the same time. We often try and jump back and forth between skills.
“Multi-tasking” is the term we like to throw around. We think that we should be able to get more done by cramming more into the same time slot.
The problem? It doesn’t work.
“Task-switching” is a better name for this as we really can’t do multiple things at once, so we fool ourselves into thinking we can by quickly bouncing back and forth between them. But studies at Stanford University by Clifford Nass and his colleagues showed that people who try to Multi-task or Task-switch, don’t remember well, can’t stay focused, are more easily distracted and are “suckers for irrelevancy.”
Yikes. Doesn’t sound like trying to practice more than one skill at a time is a good idea.
Staying organized and focused on the practice at hand until you are finished with that is the key. Then you can stop that practicing that skill, and begin something else that you give your whole focus to. If you are working on your piano skills, make sure you complete that before you start working on your Spanish. One skill focus at a time will make your practicing much more effective!
We all have multiple skills we would like to practice and improve. Multiple skill development just takes discipline and the ability to focus on what is at hand. A good practice system can help keep you on track.
Two keys to successfully deal with distractions.
- Accept that distractions WILL happen.
- Have a plan for what to do when they happen.
My recipe for when I get distracted.
If you can sort of “shake” yourself away from the distraction and you have a method of getting back on track – then the distractions just become part of the overall process and just another thing you know how to deal with on your way to excelling at your skill! Always just do “the next thing”, that can pull you right back on to the path. Don’t wait for the distraction to end, just get back to work!
As is often the case – C.S. Lewis said it best:
Remember, our minds are easily swayed and can often get distracted.
Fight the urge to chase shiny new objects and fall for sketchy shortcuts. Stick with your practice system. Keep your focus on what you are practicing on and constantly tackle the “next thing”. That will result in the payoff you really want!
In the comments below I would love to hear what YOUR number one distraction is when you are trying to practice. Thanks for jumping into the conversation!
Great piece, as usual, Jeff! I had to laugh because I couldn’t even finish the article, amid the intense distraction of my 12 week old puppy. He is now in the crate so I can concentrate, lol!
Thanks Tracy! HA! The puppies will always get you!! :o)
My #1 distraction is realy the immense number of skills I think I need to work on, so many things that I get overwelmed. And the funny thing is I’m sure I don’t have that much things to get better at to enjoy my playing. I’m just hard to get pleased with my playing. A thing I have to work on, another one! 😉
Yes, many students I work with have a huuuuuge list of things they are working on. And usually they don’t feel like they are progressing on any of them, because they are spread too thin. There is no doubt that having a little variety in your practice time is better for you than just working on one thing. But too many things and you never get anywhere. I usually try to limit the pool of things I am working on to about 7 things. Science shows us that we can only really deal with 7 subjects effectively. Then I work between those. Once I feel like I have made some headway on a couple – I bring in a couple of other things to replace them. Keeps things fresh without being overwhelmed!
“I usually try to limit the pool of things I am working on to about 7 things.”
I am beginning to think that even this is way too much. I do have a couple of things that I am working on, but am beginning to get the intuitive feeling that this is distracting and actually prolonging the mastery of any one of these goals. I am actually beginning to dislike the jumping from topic to topic and getting less satisfied with the delay in getting any one of the jobs “done”. So I think I am going to get even more vicious with the SOS and just do one thing for practice. For me that is going to be memorizing the location of all the notes on the fretboard down cold. The reward will be the next topic that is currently drawing me away from accomplishing this goal. I will do it as many times a day in short bursts for as long as it takes until that fretboard is a done deal for me. I don’t care if it takes a couple of months. I am going to put this one to rest. For relaxation I can always play songs that I already know, but I won’t consider that “practice” I am going to try this hyper focused technique. I suspect that this will be spectacularly successful as long as I stay non-greedy and just learn THIS. I guess my point is that even having a couple of things being worked on simultaneously presents too much of a temptation and I suspect actually slows down the results that I want. Not as much fun, but perhaps more effective. Can I be this disciplined? I don’t know, but speaking it out in this response is already helping. Cheers.
Hey Scott! First off – I think your contemplating what is working or not working for you is the sure sign that you are on the right track! And I do think that the amount of things and focus a person can put forth varies greatly from person to person. So what works for one may not work for another.
I was working with someone on improving their golf game once and they said that when they tried to move to the next thing in practice – that they felt like they immediately dropped the level of the thing they had just been working on as soon as they took their focus off of it. It worked way better for them to just drill on one thing, Then stop. So you really do have to find what works best for you , and that may run a little counter to what seems to be working for everyone else – but that’s OK! The key is don’t stop trying to get better!
My #1 distraction is being burned out from a long day a work. OK, I have my goals. I listed all necessary skills I must master to achieve those goals. I set my practice time (not jam time) from 7:00 – 8:30PM M T W F. I get off work and I’m just spent… No desire to play. I have missed a couple of Mondays just because I can’t simply focus. This week I forced myself and I’m better for it. However, during my “Jam” time my skill level has significantly increased and my clarity of my notes are apparent. Recordings don’t lie. What did get me to practice this Monday, as burnt out as I was, was the fact that I knew (and band mates too) that I’m better, much better, than I was a month ago. It’s tough and you have to be discipline, but being complacent will get you no where and I realize that. You have to embrace the rigor and that leads to good results.
So true Cletus! It is sometimes so hard to practice due to “life”. I like how you looked at the fact that you are getting better (through practice) and that motivated you to want to continue. That is one thing that helps me, I always make a note of when I do practice something and see good results. That way when I am not “feeling” it – I remind myself of a specific time where practice paid off. That usually shakes me back to where I need to be – that the ONLY way to get better is to practice… and practice does work, I have seen it work before…. therefore…. go practice. :o)