Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to ramp up the amount of time you
Speaker 1: spend on something that matters to you. Add one more hour.
Speaker 1: You will become better at just about anything by doing
Speaker 1: more of it. Not perfect by any means, but better,
Speaker 1: and in many cases the improvement won't be small. So
Speaker 1: when I first started blogging many years ago, it wasn't
Speaker 1: always easy to come up with an idea and write
Speaker 1: a few hundred words about it in a short period
Speaker 1: of time. But I kept doing it. I kept doing
Speaker 1: a lot of it. Instead of doing the bare minimum
Speaker 1: one to two posts per week that people suggested at
Speaker 1: the time, I spent another hour or so per week
Speaker 1: on it and posted about four times per week. Then,
Speaker 1: at some point a few years later, I took a
Speaker 1: gig that involved writing quick pieces about newsy topics. I
Speaker 1: was amazed at how quickly I could crank out a
Speaker 1: few hundred words. It seems that writing two hundred five
Speaker 1: hundred word posts per year makes it easy to write
Speaker 1: five hundred words on command. Seems straightforward, right, And yet
Speaker 1: much of the time when we are trying to get
Speaker 1: better at something, we overlook an obvious tactic, which is
Speaker 1: to start doing more of whatever it is we are
Speaker 1: aiming to improve at. Even just an extra hour a
Speaker 1: week can make a big difference. If you are a
Speaker 1: normal speed runner and you want to be a faster runner,
Speaker 1: there are various types of speed work you can do,
Speaker 1: and probably some strength training and such that will help.
Speaker 1: But if you were running fifteen miles a week and
Speaker 1: you work up to running twenty one miles a week
Speaker 1: by running six more ten minute miles, so that's another hour,
Speaker 1: you will probably start to get faster just through sheer repetition.
Speaker 1: Your body will figure out ways to move more efficiently,
Speaker 1: and your aerobic capacity will increase. I would like to
Speaker 1: improve as a singer. I have thought about taking voice lessons,
Speaker 1: and I know that would be helpful because I've done
Speaker 1: it in the past. But I have also realized that
Speaker 1: if I practice various vocal exercises and breathing exercises and
Speaker 1: simple songs for another hour each week beyond my choier practices,
Speaker 1: that will help too. I can add an extra hour
Speaker 1: of practice. Whether I find the right teacher and work
Speaker 1: that into my schedule or not. Now, none of this
Speaker 1: is meant to diminish the importance of smart practice or
Speaker 1: seeking the advice of professionals, But volume itself is a
Speaker 1: pretty efficient teacher, and given that most of us aren't
Speaker 1: devoting forty hours a week to our various hobbies or
Speaker 1: even to the professional skills we'd like to improve at,
Speaker 1: an extra hour can be a lot. One hour out
Speaker 1: of the one hundred and sixty eight hours we all
Speaker 1: have each week isn't much, But spending an extra hour
Speaker 1: each week learning a foreign language would get you to
Speaker 1: fluency much faster. Spending an hour a week speaking in
Speaker 1: front of people would make you a good public speaker
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Spending an extra hour practicing a musical instrument
Speaker 1: would likewise make learning difficult music feel far more doable.
Speaker 1: We often have grand designs for getting better at things,
Speaker 1: and those are fine, but if it is taking a
Speaker 1: long time to bring those plans to fruition, start with
Speaker 1: just adding an hour to your schedule. See how it goes.
Speaker 1: My guess is that the improvements won't be small, and
Speaker 1: that just might motivate you to take the next step.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your question or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.