I really like the “even number of attempts” idea. Especially when doing practice that is a bit on the tedious side, it can be easy to just stop doing it without realizing. Forcing yourself to do an even amount is a good hack around that.
What particular skills are you specifically working on?
Critiques:
The 7 − 10 hour time commitment can be really intimidating or not even possible for a lot of people. While I do think that long chunks of deep work and deliberate practice are the best way to get results, I’m dubious as to whether or not such a dive is an approachable way to develop a new skill. Where you thinking of this as more of a technique for learning a new skill or doubling down on an existing one.
Also, I don’t think that your implementation directly tackles any of the road blocks that you mentioned at the beginning of your post. It seems like the effectiveness of an aggressively protected 10 hour practice block helps because it forces you to keep confronting whatever road block you are currently at. If you’re two hours in and you feel like you’re experiencing some decision paralysis, as long as you commit to the block, there’s only so much time you can stare at the wall before you mind rage quits and makes a choice (or at least that’s how I often experience it). Do you agree or disagree with that?
I worry something got lost in translation, with the question about specific skills I’m working on.
This isn’t a technique. It covers a whole day; the timer only gives a clear signal to yourself that “yes, the context has really changed and we’re following different rules now”.
You don’t use it for building a particular skill. It specifically doesn’t require skill goals to start with or end with. To the extent it is for something it’s for learning how to balance diligence and adaptability.
~*~
You correctly doubt the value of deep diving to build a new skill. I agree that most people who offhandedly committed to a 10 hour block of deep work would end up staring at a wall and rage quit. I would not recommend that to anyone. I think people can often commit to doing one more of whatever they were already planning to do.
People will absorb new information when starting from what they know.
When they try something, notice what did or didn’t work, then try again.
When they seek out multiple examples to generalize from.
When they split large skills into smaller actions, to work on independently or in new combinations.
When they’ve gotten good at taking (admittedly arbitrary) intentions to return to a task seriously, and can spend a couple of hours on a hard thing knowing they can trust themselves to spend another couple hours if that’s what it takes to master it.
When they’ve gotten good at taking (admittedly arbitrary) intentions to return to a task seriously, and can spend a couple of hours on a hard thing knowing they can trust themselves to spend another couple hours if that’s what it takes to master it.
I think that right there is the core benefit of a several hour committed work block. Having a level of moment to moment commitment that makes it so you don’t just stop when things get hard. The other things you mention are also useful tips, but they aren’t inherently baked into the practice you suggested (through any sort of checklist or workflow).
I don’t want to bake the intended lesson into the practice; if I have to tell you what the moral of a story is then it’s not doing a very good job of making its own point.
I really like the “even number of attempts” idea. Especially when doing practice that is a bit on the tedious side, it can be easy to just stop doing it without realizing. Forcing yourself to do an even amount is a good hack around that.
What particular skills are you specifically working on?
Critiques:
The 7 − 10 hour time commitment can be really intimidating or not even possible for a lot of people. While I do think that long chunks of deep work and deliberate practice are the best way to get results, I’m dubious as to whether or not such a dive is an approachable way to develop a new skill. Where you thinking of this as more of a technique for learning a new skill or doubling down on an existing one.
Also, I don’t think that your implementation directly tackles any of the road blocks that you mentioned at the beginning of your post. It seems like the effectiveness of an aggressively protected 10 hour practice block helps because it forces you to keep confronting whatever road block you are currently at. If you’re two hours in and you feel like you’re experiencing some decision paralysis, as long as you commit to the block, there’s only so much time you can stare at the wall before you mind rage quits and makes a choice (or at least that’s how I often experience it). Do you agree or disagree with that?
Thanks for engaging!
I worry something got lost in translation, with the question about specific skills I’m working on.
This isn’t a technique. It covers a whole day; the timer only gives a clear signal to yourself that “yes, the context has really changed and we’re following different rules now”.
You don’t use it for building a particular skill. It specifically doesn’t require skill goals to start with or end with. To the extent it is for something it’s for learning how to balance diligence and adaptability.
~*~
You correctly doubt the value of deep diving to build a new skill. I agree that most people who offhandedly committed to a 10 hour block of deep work would end up staring at a wall and rage quit. I would not recommend that to anyone. I think people can often commit to doing one more of whatever they were already planning to do.
People will absorb new information when starting from what they know.
When they try something, notice what did or didn’t work, then try again.
When they seek out multiple examples to generalize from.
When they split large skills into smaller actions, to work on independently or in new combinations.
When they’ve gotten good at taking (admittedly arbitrary) intentions to return to a task seriously, and can spend a couple of hours on a hard thing knowing they can trust themselves to spend another couple hours if that’s what it takes to master it.
I’m betting it adds up.
I think that right there is the core benefit of a several hour committed work block. Having a level of moment to moment commitment that makes it so you don’t just stop when things get hard. The other things you mention are also useful tips, but they aren’t inherently baked into the practice you suggested (through any sort of checklist or workflow).
I don’t want to bake the intended lesson into the practice; if I have to tell you what the moral of a story is then it’s not doing a very good job of making its own point.