Practice, Practice, Practice

The old admonishment (and smart answer to the question, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?”) is generally taken to mean that you should practice continually. (If you practiced constantly you’d collapse and die.)

Of course it’s good advice.

What’s less known is that you do need to have those times between practice, and that they should come rather frequently. If you’re practicing a half-hour, try practicing 15 minutes, taking a 15 minute break to do something else, then practice the same material over again during a final 15 minute bout. Take a page from studies about studying, which show that reviewing material after a brief break helps push that material from short-term into long-term memory.