What to do on breaks
This is going to be a short entry, because here’s what is the best thing to do on your breaks from practicing:
NOTHING.
And nothing doesn’t need explanation, does it? Well, for me, it did.
Nothing means:
Do not call your friends, do not read The New Yorker, do not track down the Super of your building to ask about when the exterminator comes, do not see what’s doing on Facebook (to name a few examples of things I’m tempted to do on MY breaks).
Just lie down on the couch or the floor, or sit comfortably somewhere, and do nothing. Think if you have to, but do nothing.
My niece demonstrates proper napping technique
Try it. I think you’ll find that 5 minutes of just sitting there is just as refreshing, if not more, than reading a magazine for 15 minutes.
I will admit that sometimes I feel a little embarrassed I’m so obsessed with time and practicing efficiently that I even have found a method to take breaks efficiently. Some people might see that as a pretty major 21st-century malady…
However, it really works. I first tried this method of break-taking (I mean, really, method of break-taking?) when I was preparing for a big audition while performing full time with Tales & Scales. It was like finding extra hours in the day.
Now that I’m no longer in the structured environment of T&S, I find this method a bit harder to maintain (since I’m not totally desperate for practice time and I really want to read the New Yorker), but I find it even more useful and important now that I’m trying to manage a life as well as a playing career.
Let’s say you practice in 30 minute segments, with breaks in between, like I do. If your breaks are only 5 or 7 minutes, you can do two hours of practice in two hours and twenty minutes. If you take 15 to 20 minute breaks, you end up spending three hours of time for those same two hours of practice. (a savings of 40 minutes… which you can spend any way you like once you’re done with practicing.)
I would also add that I don’t think it’s really the same two hours. I find that when I do nothing on my breaks, the quality of my practice is noticeably better: my focus is clearer and I learn faster. I’m rested, but not distracted.
Plus: honestly, when else do you get to do nothing? Enjoy it!
Credit where credit is due: It was my partner Aine who suggested this and it saved my life; and the picture is by my sister, Sukey.
[...] 6. Plan and take breaks. Give yourself a time limit and stick to it. If you’ll be practicing for an hour, take a 5-minute break after half an hour. You’ll come back refreshed, and your second half-hour of work will be more productive than it would have been if you had just plowed through. Pilots are required to take breaks, and musicians should be too! For more on breaks, see this post. [...]
[...] Keep an eye out for more on how to organize your practice in following posts. And for more on breaks, see What to do on Breaks. [...]
[...] may remember an article on What to do on Breaks in which I suggested that the only thing to do on breaks is nothing. Of all the things I suggest [...]