Deliberate Practice

I read this article on something called “deliberate practice” and it was an eye-opener. Deliberate practice is very different from plain old practice. So what is plain old practice? Most people have been doing whatever they do for years or even decades. Yet most of them are not experts at their field, are they? So obviously, experience and repetition alone does not equal expertise.

Ok, what then is deliberate practice? It has the following components:

-         Activity is designed specifically to improve performance: the key word is “designed”. That means breaking the task into subparts and focusing on the subparts that you are not so good at. If you don’t focus on your weaknesses, you are unlikely to improve no matter how much you practice. On the other side, aim too high and you are likely to get frustrated and give up. The aim is to identify something beyond your reach, but only just.

-         Feedback on results: This can be self-determined or by a peer, mentor or teacher. Someone who can look at things differently from you can often be a big help. And the feedback needs to be regular: if the feedback is non-existent or too far apart, you may have settled into a new way of doing things, but without any improvement!

-         Repetition: This part is shared with plain old practice. You need to keep repeating the action to get better. The difference is that you are practicing what you are weak at, not everything.

-         Highly demanding mentally: This is because you are focusing on specific parts, not everything. The willpower to remain focused on only the areas you are trying to improve at can take a lot out of you. No wonder then that this aspect applies to both physical as well as mental activities.

To summarize, deliberate practice is not fun! So much also for that old saying, “Practice makes perfect”…It was missing the word “deliberate” at the front.