Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to ramp up the amount of time
Speaker 1: you spend on something that matters to you. Add one
Speaker 1: more hour. You will become better at just about anything
Speaker 1: by doing more of it. Not perfect by any means,
Speaker 1: but better, and in many cases the improvement won't be small.
Speaker 1: So when I first started blogging many years ago, it
Speaker 1: wasn't always easy to come up with an idea and
Speaker 1: write a few hundred words about it in a short
Speaker 1: period of time. But I kept doing it. I kept
Speaker 1: doing a lot of it. Instead of doing the bare
Speaker 1: minimum one to two posts per week that people suggested
Speaker 1: at the time, I spent another hour or so per
Speaker 1: week 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 choir 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 eight hours we all have each week isn't much,
Speaker 1: but spending an extra hour each week learning a foreign
Speaker 1: language would get you to fluency much faster. Spending an
Speaker 1: hour a week speaking in front of people would make
Speaker 1: you a good public speaker pretty quickly. O Spending an
Speaker 1: extra hour practicing a musical instrument would likewise make learning
Speaker 1: difficult music feel far more doable. We often have grand
Speaker 1: designs for getting better at things, and those are fine,
Speaker 1: but if it is taking a long time to bring
Speaker 1: those plans to fruition, start with just adding an hour
Speaker 1: to your schedule. See how it goes. My guess is
Speaker 1: that the improvements won't be small, and that just might
Speaker 1: motivate you to take the next step. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your
Speaker 1: question sins, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter,
Speaker 1: Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's B the
Speaker 1: number four, then breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at i
Speaker 1: heeart media 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 I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.