Practice Planning THAT ACTUALLY WORKS

Ever stuck in the practice room not sure what you are doing? Here's how to avoid that. Planning your practice is a skill, and that's exactly what were talking about.

Use code ELEANOR15 for 15% off your Notabl_ practice journal, and level up your focus in your sessions! Click here for your journal. 

I only recommend things I love. This contains an affiliate code which means that I receive a commission -- with no extra cost to you! 😊

Transcript

Welcome And Episode Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Confident Musitioning Podcast. My name is Eleanor and I am a British American oboist studying at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland. Literally my dream school. And it took me a long way to get there. I applied and auditioned for 12 schools in three different countries. It was a lot of hard work. But oh my gosh, so worth it. I want you to have the confidence to work hard in achieving your goals. So come with me as we go on this journey together. So sit down, pull up a chair, take a seat, or if you're on the go, welcome to the Confident Musitioning Podcast. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Confident Musitioning Podcast. I'm really glad you're here and that you want to plan your practice for efficiency because I feel like as musicians, when we start out on an instrument, we're like, okay, we need to practice, um, but we never really know how. And even after a while of playing, we might still not know how to practice or do it efficiently. We might just sit in the practice room and like make a noise or you know, not really know what we're actually doing. But when you start planning your practice for efficiency, you are able to really see um how things go together and how you can improve from session to session. So I'm really glad that you are here. I hope you are having a good day. I am having a really cozy day. It is kind of early in the day. I mean it's not really, but it feels early in the day for me. And I feel like it's a perfect time to record a podcast episode for you. So let's dive right into it. So the key of this whole thing is kind of the main idea, which is planning. Planning your practice. If you just sit in a practice room um without planning it, and you just kind of noodle away for a certain amount of time, afterwards you might feel like, okay, I played, woohoo. But what did you actually do? Do you know what I mean? Like, let's actually dive into this and figure out how we can plan that session. So I think this is this is gonna be in like three steps. Is it three? No, it's four. This is gonna be in four steps. Um, so let's dive right in. So the first one is accepting that every session will be different, and that you can't have every session be the perfect session. This is really important. I think consistency is more important than like perfection in sessions. Perfection kind of is the opposite of progress, I feel, because if you want everything to be perfect, then how are you gonna get better at anything, you know? So one day you might feel super out for practice, and you might be like, Oh my gosh, you know, today I'm gonna be practicing and I'm gonna be really focused and efficient, and it's gonna be amazing, and you want to practice a lot, and then the next day you can be like, I do not feel like practicing, I don't think I can manage that much, maybe a little bit, and then maybe another day you might be like, I do I'm like, I need to take a break today from practicing, and then maybe the day after you're feeling a little better, but the fact is it is consistent. I think um, like the important thing is that you are actually doing it, having a week where it's like 20% of you know, ability to practice and then 100 and then 80 and then maybe 40 and then back down to 20, and you know, kind of doing that, but doing it every day um is better than the occasional like 100% and then nothing else, and then 100% and then nothing else, because that's not how progress happens. So I think it's it's fine to give yourself that grace um in practice that it isn't it isn't completely like 100% all the time, and that is okay if you can only manage 20 and you do 20, that was 100% for that day. Do you know what I mean? Like it's okay to have different capacities on different days. So at the beginning, assessing how you feel and being like, okay, what can I manage today? Am I feeling really up for you know uh more practice today, or maybe not as much? Is my day like really busy today? Maybe, you know, sometimes I have like lots of classes or you know, lots of things going on, and maybe I can only manage like a little bit of practice that day, but maybe the next day I can manage more. Kind of planning around that, that's really important. So assessing not only how you feel, but how much time you're gonna have, what your day is gonna look like, so then you can base it off of that, and knowing that it is so much better to have more consistency in your practice, um, even if it is not, you know, like 100% every day, having that more consistency, understanding your capacity, and then also feeling that capacity, even if that capacity is different, that is so much better than just like waiting until you feel amazing to practice, waiting for motivation, right? Because motivation comes from the actual act of doing that thing. Um, that is so much more important than like, yeah, just like waiting for the motivation to spark. Because the motivation will not spark unless you actually start. So assessing how you feel, understanding that, that's the first step. The next thing is planning that practice and keeping in mind how you feel. If you're not feeling up to doing everything, or if you have limited time, focus on the most important things and don't overwhelm yourself. That's not gonna get you anywhere. But having that plan is really, really important. So let's talk about planning. Writing down a plan. I personally like to write down all the things that I need to do and then put them in my session. So if let's say I have two sessions that day, I put them in, right? I'm like, okay, I'll do this then and that then. Then this is a trick that I like to do. Put timestamps and make them really specific. So for me, I'll do something like I'm gonna practice this thing for 16 minutes, not 15, not 20, not 10, 16. So if I start my practice session at 10 a.m., right, it's 10 to 1016. And for some reason my brain really focuses when it's like, okay, 16 minutes are so specific. 16. And then maybe it'll be like, okay, then I have two minutes to kind of take a take a wee break. Um, and after that, I'm gonna do the next thing for 12 minutes, and then the next thing for 18, or the next thing for you know, really specific, 22 minutes. That is specific, it's not 20, it's not 25, it's 22. For me, I don't know why. It just like is a really specific brain trick for me, and it really helps. So I really recommend that, and also figuring out what works for your brain. Maybe that doesn't work for your brain, maybe your brain's like, what? That's so weird. Um, that doesn't help, maybe. So, like, if that doesn't help for you, then don't do it. It helps for me, but find that thing um that helps you, and you know, you can do a little trial and error, you know. The more you the more you do this, the more you kind of learn what works for you and what doesn't. So I recommend that you kind of do this trial and error and kind of figure it out, you know, like your practice sessions are for you and for you only. So whatever works in them, do that thing. And if something works in someone else's session and it doesn't work in yours, then don't do that thing, you know. This is personal to you. So writing down a plan, I personally like to add timestamps and make them really specific, but create that plan, right? Have that plan, and it's okay if the plan does not go to plan, but have that plan at least because you so then you know what you're working on. And something that a tool that I use in my planning that I find really helpful is a notable practice journal. I started using these um about a year ago actually, and it has really helped me, especially as a music school conservatoire student. I can not only plan my practice but reflect on my practice, and we will get there in a wee bit because reflection is really, really, really important. But this notebook, having a tangible notebook that um not only is like a tangible thing that I can look at, but is also already structured. I feel like I used to use kind of blank notebooks for my practice planning, and that was okay, but I feel like on the days where I, you know, wasn't feeling up for like practicing or like maybe feeling a little less motivated or kind of tired, staring at a blank page, being like, Okay, now we have to like create a section for planning and then a section for reflection and writing down the date and things like that, like that kind of made it like that was a bit overwhelming sometimes, and then I didn't plan and then I didn't have as an effective session. So having a notebook that actually has a space for planning, a space for reflection that you just have to fill out for me. That made a big difference. So as soon as I realized that this notebook was helping me, I knew that I needed to tell you about it and give you a code. So use code Eleanor15 for 15% off your journal. That is E-L-E-A-N-O-R 15 for 15% off your journal. I never recommend anything that I don't absolutely love. That code is an affiliate code, which means I do receive a commission with no extra cost to you. The code will be in the description, the show notes, as well as the link to the site where you can get your journal. I highly recommend it. It has really helped me in my practice for planning and reflecting. So, speaking of reflection, let's talk about reflection. Um, reflection, I think, is a really important bit in practicing because it kind of informs the next practice session because you write down like what went well, what didn't go well, how can you do better, um, what you want to focus on in the next session. That's really important because then you can look back and be like, you know, in the next day, you can look back and be like, what did I what did I want to focus on? What didn't work that I really want to kind of make work, you know? Um, and that is another thing that the notable practice journal really helps with that. So reflection, that's step three, and then step four, I think this is kind of a bonus step. It's not really um something that is in like chronological order, but it really helps me is recording myself, right? I record myself um to bring out the things that I might not have been hearing um in my session. So maybe I was practicing and I didn't realize I was doing something that wasn't helpful, or I was playing these notes, you know, too long or too short or whatever it is. Um, and that recording myself can really help kind of make my session more efficient because then I can hear what is not working or what is working and I can focus on those things. So every few practice sessions, I make sure to record something to have that little check-in. So that's the little kind of bonus thing number four, recording yourself. And then you can write down in your practice journal um, you know, what thing you heard. You were like, oh my gosh, you know, I didn't realize I was doing this thing. I want to work on it in the next session. So that is kind of it. Let's do a bit of a um a recap. So the first thing is assessing, assessing how much energy you have, how much time you have, what can you actually put in your sessions that day, then planning your practice and really kind of creating that plan and a tangible plan. I use a notable practice journal, that really helps me. Um, there is a code for you because it really helps me, and I do like to share the things that help me because I hope that they will help you as well. Um, then reflecting so that the next session can be even better. And then the last thing, which is kind of a bonus thing, recording yourself every few sessions to check in and make sure that um, you know, you you are catching things that maybe you can't hear when you're playing, because when you are playing, you're focusing on so many things you might not pick up on something that you might have to work on. So that is kind of it, and that is it for this session or this episode. That is it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Um, it was uh something that you know I think is really important. So if you did enjoy this episode, please do um like, follow, subscribe, share, um, all of the all of the things, and yeah, if if you know someone who could benefit from this episode, please do share it with them. Um, I want to help you in your in your musical journey, but I also want to um kind of have these episodes help all your friends uh who might be going through a similar experience. Um, so please do share this with someone who might need it or might benefit from it. And yeah, so that is about it. I am now going to go eat something. Um I'm feeling kind of kind of hungry, so I'm gonna go eat something, and I wish you all the best on your musical journey and your future practice sessions. Alright, take care. Bye.