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Practice is described on Wikipedia as "the act of rehearsing a behavior over and over, or engaging in an activity again and again, for the purpose of improving or mastering it, as in the phrase 'practice makes perfect'." Many things require practice to be learned and mastered, such as learning an instrument, mastering basketball offense, and even learning proper beach etiquette! Although these things and others vary widely, there are some general tips to help with almost any type of practice.

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    Pay attention! The most crucial element in practice is to pay attention! For example, say you're practicing circular breathing for a wind instrument. You could practice for hours passively, but if you pay close attention, that time will be drastically reduced, by learning the complexities of circular breathing. Perhaps you may even pioneer a new idea entirely. And for those of planning on going to college, use this as practice for those long seminars and such.
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    Schedule your practices. Keep a schedule or calendar, perhaps in your bedroom or bathroom, of when to practice. Keep two factors in mind when scheduling: first, too little practice may make your skills gradually fade, due to disuse. However, too much practice, especially at one time, reduces your ability drastically to concentrate over that period of time, and may in fact hinder your ability to learn and retain. There have been studies done confirming this.
    • Keep in mind that the mind can only effectively concentrate for twenty to thirty minutes, and often remembers things in this order of vividness: END-BEGINNING-MIDDLE. That is to say, the end is more remembered than the beginning is more remembered than the middle. Thus, logic indicates that one should practice in twenty or thirty-minute sessions, and take breaks between sections. It greatly helps to keep some rudimentary notes to read directly after-practice is, essentially, rehearsal of previously learned content.
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    Talk about it! If it can be talked about, it should be! Join a group of like-minded people, and don't be afraid to share your strategies and learn other ones. In fact, one could say that wikiHow is a perfect example: in coming here, you desire to learn and/or share knowledge to benefit your life and the lives of others. (A word of advice: don't be afraid to click on the Discuss page!)
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    Think about it. The best way to practice something, short of doing it yourself, is to think about it. (Honestly, I don't know how many moves in Tetris I've calculated like that.) Perhaps you will stumble onto a groundbreaking idea-for example, since philosophers cannot--legally, at least--test their ideas, they just sit and think about it, which is where the questions Is the glass half-full or half-empty? and If a tree falls, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? likely came from.
    • Creativity is caused by two conflicting memories merging into another idea. For example, the half-full or -empty question above was caused by the merging together of optimism, pessimism, and a glass of water, as these are the core traits of the question's existence. As an exercise, think about how you could use everyday items to help with what you are practicing-even if at first, you have no idea how they could be correlated. Just keep thinking crazily-the method to madness is paved with inspiration.
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Categories: Time Management & Personal Organization

Recent edits by: Psychedoutpineapple, Theburn7, Lillian May

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