Work smart? Work hard? Both? Sounds all extremely vague, doesn't it? 🤔
It doesn't tell you in practice how your practice should look like. And the result is that, in practice, you are left figuring out the details on your own 🫠
But there is something more fundamental, called Deliberate Practice.
Let me make "Deliberate Practice" more concrete for you, from my experience 👇
Hard and Smart is the same
If you ever done any serious practice you know:
Working smart it's hard and intense 👊
Working hard/smart is not a meaningful distinction. "Hard" is not just about long hours. "Smart" is not about shortcuts.
"Smart" is at the core of Deliberate Practice, and "Hard" is a consequence of being focused and deliberate.
Okay, clear, let's be more practical next.
Wide target, narrow intent
Let's take "Learning to draw" as example.
The general goal is wide, directional. Mostly a vision. By itself it doesn't provide much practical guidance.
Within the wide net of "Drawing", you are left with many (many!) details and nuances. Too wide, uncertain, bad in practice 😬
The practice at any point in your journey should instead be narrow:
What is the most critical bottleneck right now that, if fixed, would provide the largest improvement overall?
Depending on your personal situation and objective, this can get quite specific:
- Sketch female hands in perspective
- Render shiny metals using up to 3 tones
- Study the way shadow is rendered in a specific style
Let's fix this as the first step of Deliberate Practice, Intent:
Before each practice session, define exactly what is the intended outcome at the end of the practice 👀
And ignore the details of anything else.
Strong purpose and systematic approach to drive improvement, which fuels motivation and confidence.
No uncertainty, just action
For me, the hard part is the intent. What's left is just action.
Intent removes uncertainty, allowing you to focus by defining exactly what to ignore 👀
If you know exactly your intent, your mind is quick in defining what's meaningful, and ignore anything else. Take Steve Jobs words for it:
"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully." Steve Jobs
The standard "Deliberate Practice" framework adds more complexity around "100% focus on one task", "no distractions", "ideal practice process" and such.
But again, I find all those other details redundant after your intent becomes clear 🤝
Let me leave you instead with a few practical notes:
- Your intent must be your worst bottleneck, you won't be good at it at the beginning, by definition (read more: The cycle of improvement)
- Don't stress about the next 10 steps, only focus on one intent, let the next ones reveal by themselves later
- Gather all the hypothesis and information that you need to fix the bottleneck, and then act on them fast
- When stuck, take a step back, write down any holes you may have, and come back to action to verify those
I see too many people being stuck on a skill because their practice is always the same. They pride themselves with long hours (measurable), but the results over the mid/long term are missing.
Pay attention to this, it's a waste to spend many hours moving in the wrong direction, or looping in circle.
See you next 👋