I’m a firm believer in working on one thing at a time when it comes to improving skills, and defining “thing” as narrowly as possible.
In animal training, the advice is usually to work on one aspect of a behavior at a time. For example, if I’m training my dog to sit, I decide ahead of time whether I’m working on latency (how quickly does she sit when I cue her?), duration (how long will she hold a sit before I release her?), form (where does she put her feet?), etc. A training session will make some progress in that area that generally carries forward, and then I can switch areas.
Humans aren’t dogs, of course, but I suspect there’s a shared principle.
(Unrelatedly: I used to be a cheesehound and then cut cheese out of my diet almost completely about three years ago. But I did so by having a stroke and being post-traumatically hypervigilant about food for about a year. I don’t recommend that strategy.)
I’m a firm believer in working on one thing at a time when it comes to improving skills, and defining “thing” as narrowly as possible.
In animal training, the advice is usually to work on one aspect of a behavior at a time. For example, if I’m training my dog to sit, I decide ahead of time whether I’m working on latency (how quickly does she sit when I cue her?), duration (how long will she hold a sit before I release her?), form (where does she put her feet?), etc. A training session will make some progress in that area that generally carries forward, and then I can switch areas.
Humans aren’t dogs, of course, but I suspect there’s a shared principle.
(Unrelatedly: I used to be a cheesehound and then cut cheese out of my diet almost completely about three years ago. But I did so by having a stroke and being post-traumatically hypervigilant about food for about a year. I don’t recommend that strategy.)