Deliberate Practice
Day 288 / 365
They say that practice makes a man perfect. But is it enough to just sit and put in the hours? Can there be such a thing as good or bad practice?
In the book “Deep Work”, Carl Newport talks about the concept of Deliberate Practice. Put simply, deliberate practice means practice which is done with utmost concentration.
To see why deliberate practice is important, we first need to understand how repetitive practice makes us better at something. Every action you take ultimately boils down to your brain chemistry. A bunch of neurons in your brain will communicate with each other and build new connections. Once you keep repeating a thing, be it playing the guitar or learning a new language, these connections get stronger, and therefore the tasks become easier and easier. Ultimately you will not even have to think about it, it would become second nature.
Now, what would happen if you have distractions while you are practicing? Maybe you have the TV running in the background while you study, or maybe you are surrounded by people constantly disturbing you. There will be too much ambient activity in your brain. The right connections will not be strengthened. This is why deliberate practice is important.
There are two important aspects of deliberate practice —
- Your attention is focused sharply on the thing that you are trying to master
- You receive constant feedback about your approach to make sure that you are being productive.
In the blogs to come, I will talk about more ways you can actually implement Deliberate practice in your work.
This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here
Yesterday’s blog — Negative Visualization