Putting away the distractions

[toby1]

Hi All,

I felt like sharing my recent decision to put away my video game console at the bottom of my cupboard. My practice was becoming very haphazard indeed 2012 came to an end and I was nowhere near my goal of 2 to 3 hours practice a day (when I could access the piano which was whenever I wanted after the start of December.)

I've decided to start working more seriously again on achieving my goals with the piano and making a plan to start working more seriously. I've got lots I want to achieve and I wasn't doing it but this is part of my road map for achieving my goals for 2013.

What are your goals for 2013 and what do you suspect will be distractions?


And how are you going to deal with them?

[zezhyrule]

I am going to try and organize my life a bit more, since right now I mostly just do whatever I want and before I know it, the day's over 

[49410enrique]

im resolving to play more video games. i am finding the better i can unwind and distract myself on my downtime, the better and more focused  my 'work time' tends to be (practice, school, etc.).

i need to buy a new game. really want this


I also want CIV V

 but that is gamers crack. what begins as a short break will quickly turn into a 7  hour excursion. but still me gusta.

[chopin2015]

Distractions...hmmm. School, work, I think I am only going to take evening classes this semester because I work better in the mornings when noone is home. Also the phone and friends and internet. And urgent life situations. Oh, how I wish the world revolved around me. 

[outin]

I should probably quit my job, it's clearly the biggest distraction to my piano learning 

[mahlermaniac]

My chief distraction: my children. Wonderful kids whom I love dearly, but they are both quite young, my son is two and a half years, and my daughter is only five months old. Picked a hectic time to start playing piano, but I wouldn't change it for a minute. I'm excited for them to have the exposure so early in life.

My main goal is to get to the piano every day, which I've been pretty sucessful at . I try to get in some time in, even ten minutes here or there when they are not needing me. And I play when they go to bed. I am going to start lessons in March, and I'll do those on Saturday afternoon. Perfect time for me because I think I'd be too tired to focus on serious lessons on a weeknight after work.

[cey444]

My chief distraction: my children. Wonderful kids whom I love dearly, but they are both quite young, my son is two and a half years, and my daughter is only five months old. Picked a hectic time to start playing piano, but I wouldn't change it for a minute. I'm excited for them to have the exposure so early in life.

Lovely attitude  its such a good thing for children to see their parents dedicating themselves to something, it's the best type of role model one could ask for! I wish you the best of luck.

As for me, my MMus is getting in the way of practice at the moment ... but I don't see how I can help that -.- I think I need to be more time efficient, less sitting around and more doing!

[danhuyle]

Goals - Writing my own music.

Distractions - I've got a lot of classical pieces and get carried away with it. I'm a complete newbie in composition, so the distraction is lack of commitment.

[ajspiano]

I also want CIV V

 but that is gamers crack. what begins as a short break will quickly turn into a 7  hour excursion. but still me gusta.

Lol, games like that totally wipe me off the face of the earth - I avoid them because its not a 7 hour thing, its a 7 week thing - minimum.

I havent played games in quite a while, but I think I need some down time.. I bought assassins creed 1 and 2 for $9 when I was away over christmas, so thats my current distraction. Being an RPG it leaves me at risk of getting quite heavily into the story line and forgetting I have other things to do.. I'll have to be careful.

[andreslr6]

I actually have no time now for videogames even though I got LEGO LOTR for Christmas, and I have like 10+ unfinished games and I pre-ordered Dead Space 3, I've only played like 2 hours during the last month! I need to get back to videogames. They really helped me relaxing the night before having my piano recital-exams, I stayed like 4 hours+ playing videogames the night before lol and believe me, it did help me a lot, next day I would wake up with no worries, (my exams are usually around 6pm, so I have no problem with sleeping at 2-3am and waking up late )

OH! and I forgot the main reason too , I guess that just as anyone else, the night before an important event I get all anxious and nervous and can't sleep, I just start spinning in my bed or creating stupid thoughts, videogames help me avoid that and let me have a relaxed sleep.

[j_menz]

I don't have distractions, I just have (multiple) competing interests.

I'm planning on using cloning to deal with it. 

[ajspiano]

I need to get back to videogames. They really helped me relaxing the night before having my piano recital-exams.

This is exactly what I mean, though I don't have to do any exams ..Just need a bit of uninterrupted relaxation time to stop my brain from overloading on all the stuff that one has to do. Sometimes piano is this, sometimes its not.

I suppose some people get this from TV, but I can't stomach most australian free to air TV for more than about 30 seconds before I start to feel bored and agitated with a touch of disgust.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Nobody has Halo 4?

[ajspiano]

Nobody has Halo 4?

Only other games I own are medal of honour : allied assault, pacific assault and airbourne.. with assorted expansions..   and *think* I have a snes emu on my PC, I probably deleted it though.

edit: if I'm really honest I probably have some variant of "age of empires" lying around somewhere. I'd really have to go digging in some boxes within boxes within cupboards though.

[mahlermaniac]

Lovely attitude  its such a good thing for children to see their parents dedicating themselves to something, it's the best type of role model one could ask for! I wish you the best of luck.

As for me, my MMus is getting in the way of practice at the moment ... but I don't see how I can help that -.- I think I need to be more time efficient, less sitting around and more doing!

Thanks

[ruvidoetostinato]

My goal is to practice as consistently and as efficiently as I can while getting more students, increasing my network, income, and surviving another year.

I think my main distraction will come from pianists that don't have practice rooms and thus decide to sit in my room and try to strike up a conversation. 

Non-piano , I hope to lose weight.  I bet a hundred dollars on it, so I better make it happen.

[larryt]

A goal to practice is only as good as the energy and time put into practicing the piano.  While practicing one must put away all distractions during the practice session period of time. If you are distracted I suggest dealing with distraction and then return to practicing the piano.

[bernadette60614]

I read a book called 168 Hours and it asks that you track your time every day for a week...and darn, I waste a lot.

I just asked myself:  Do I want to become a better pianist, or do I want to become better at watching TV?  Cause I watch too much TV.  So, now, instead of 2 hours of TV a night, I watch one hour and practice the other.

I don't think you have to give up distractions, but putting priorities first and distractions next helps.