I think tomorrow will be a good day to skip practicing. How many times have I thought that? How many times have we ALL thought that. There are certainly many days I’d rather enjoy the weather, my family, a good movie, a nap — all those things that can so easily get in the way of practice time. But does it ever actually pay to skip a day of practice?
I’ve always lived by the rule that, if you ate today, you practice. The only reasons to skip practicing under this rule are if you are so sick you can’t eat, or if you gave a major performance. Otherwise, practice. That rule has worked well for me over the years, but I’m not so sure it’s the absolute best rule for me to follow at this point in my life.
I am actually planning to not practice (at least not very much) tomorrow. What I’ going to do instead is to use that time to write out some practice goals. This is something very different for me compared to how I organized my time when I was actively performing. When I was giving recitals regularly, going to lessons, teaching, and rehearsing with chamber groups on a daily basis, I never found it necessary to formalize my goals in the way I need to now. I had the luxury of constantly having some external motivator in the form of an immediate deadline to force me to focus on specifics. That’s not a luxury I have now. Everything I’m doing has to come from internal, intrinsic motivation, and I’m also finding that, although I’m able to maintain my motivation, without those deadlines to meet, I need those formalized goals. So, I’m re-writing the rule to state that if I ate today, I should include some performance related activity in my day. More to come….
