Results of deliberate practice and forming habits

14 Feb 2015

I wrote about deliberate practice about two months ago and I’d like to share how it’s going and how it has evolved in my life.

My initial commitment was to write ~250 words a day. Clearly that didn’t work. I’m bumping around 250 words a week, and I’m feeling pretty good about that. My resolution to write consistently hasn’t changed despite my initial failure, I’ve just made my resolution fit the reality of my life and goals.

However, I have been forming daily habits by following the Seinfeld method, Don’t Break the Chain, and it has been great! Decide upon a manageable task that relates to a skill you want to improve and do it every day. For example, I’ve chosen art, fitness, and poi (I should probably throw code on there, but I do that everyday anyhow).

One of the reasons I think this has been successful is that I’m not killing myself over it or setting unreasonable goals. I’m not committing to finishing a painting a day. I can do some pottery, some woodworking, 10 minutes of sketching or anything else that I feel gets my creative juices flowing. I’m just focused on moving the chains forward. My fitness goal is covered by a 2hr climbing session, Capoiera, or 20 minutes of yoga. More than the actual activity or output it’s the consistency of practice that I have found important.

It’s only been about 2 months but I’m excited to add more goals, and see where they take me. I have already begun to see a change in my life as these habits become integrated into my daily routine.

Let’s see where this goes.

ps. I’m using Routinely to track my habits at the moment. But I’m not 100% sold on it. Anyone do something similar and have other preferred apps?