No TV, No Internet, No Problem

It was an odd weekend… towards the end of last weekend I get a text from my landlady saying that she was no longer going to pay for a TV licence, so I guess that means no more Law & Order (original series of course) reruns at lunchtime…

Then the internet went down, with a problem occuring with the fibre optic cable that comes from the street. An engineer couldn’t come out until Monday to fix it, so for the last weekend there was no internet and no TV…

and I loved it.

I didn’t realise it, but I’d become addicited to distractions. A quick episode of something at lunchtime would freuqently become two episodes of something. During practice I’d get distracted by googling a piece of gear I was interested in, and a qick google turns into a 10 minute rabbit-hole. I’d frequently play the latest season in Diablo 4 after dinner…

But what did I do with all this new found time over the weekend? Practice was a lot more focussed, as being distracted was no longer possible. Lunch is a more brief affair, I found an old lecture series on Beethoven’s piano sonatas, so rather than two hours of TV, I was a 45 minute lecture (I might pick up a DVD series sometime in the future though…).

And in the evenings I set to work on completing a string quartet I’ve been working on for months. I did five hours on it in a couple of days and got it finished - pretty happy about that.

What I Found Important

Usually, wokring on something like that takes a lot of willpower - sitting infront of the TV or playstation is pretty easy, esecially after a long day and I’m tired. But when those things weren’t an option, sitting down and composing didn’t feel difficult.

Setting up my environment so that the only thing I can do is something that I’ll enjoy and benefit from seems to be the key.

Back to ‘Normal’

Then yesterday, the internet came back… and my distraction addicted brain jumped straight back on the wagon. Googling things when I should be practising. Diablo 4 session in the evening. I could feel my brain drawn to the lowest effort activity it could find.

Hashtag facepalm.

So what’s the plan moving forwards? I’ve removed the ethernet cable from the playstation and computer - my main computer is now just for Logic Pro (and video editing when I occasionally need to do that). Anything “internet” based, I get my linux macbook out for a couple of hours, do what I need to do, then turn it off and put it away.

I’ve tried to make the low value activities a bit of a pain to do. Unfortunately I live in a shared house so removing the internet entirely isn’t an option!

I’ll see if I can stick to this regime over the next couple of weeks and post some updates… we’ll see if I can get any other little projects finished.

Conclusion

The point of this article isn’t to say “never have fun”, but to be more conscious about how we spend our time - once it’s gone, it’s gone. When it’s Friday, I’m probably going to grab the ethernet cable and plug the playstation back in, but I don’t need to do that every day. Completing my string quartet piece was much more rewarding then killing a few video monsters.

I previously wrote about 10,000 hours of practice and if we can find an extra hour or two a day, or make out practice more focussed and distraction free, reaching that target becomes a lot easier.

What can you do to improve your practice environment?