Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Update: Daily Exercises

So, yesterday was the end of my first full week trying out my new routine of math, programming, and guitar each day. I felt it was a good introductory week to help me get used to the effort and time required to do such a thing, and I learned a lot about what changes I'll need to make in order to be successful with this process.

I stuck to my plan about 4 days out of the 7. It was a bit of a bad week to start this, as it fell over a holiday weekend, and 2 of the days in the 7 I had softball games (one of which I was injured in). Nonetheless, it was simply an introduction into what it would be like, and successful in that regard.

My guitar playing has improved dramatically. Not to say that I was bad, but I'm able to play some things now after only 7 days than I really ever imagined I'd be able to. As for programming, I found myself solving some complex problems of which recently I found rather stubborn. The Math was probably the hardest thing to sit down and do, and I failed in this department more than any other. However, when I did sit down and work some problems, each day they became easier.

I guess the main things I learned are:
  • It's hard work to do a routine like this with 3 different things. Usually people have a focus on one thing, and that's easy.
  • Tracking progress is essential. I didn't do any sort of that this past week and I don't feel like I can measure what I've accomplished in much of a concrete way. With guitar it's easier because I can set a goal to learn a song or a part of a song, and then do it. The other areas will require some structure.
  • It works.
I'll update this again at some point, at the longest I'll wait until a full month, but I may update it before then. I encourage you to try this out, whether it's with 1 thing, 3 things, or as many as you think you can handle, although I wouldn't push it much past 3 or the point of diminishing returns will surely kick in unless you don't have any other daily responsibilities. I work 2 jobs, so it's a time management exercise as well to fit all this stuff in!

Good luck.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Its hard and its about discipline, but its worth it. Think of learning these 3 things in the same way you learned in school. Take notes and practice and keep organized track of progress is what I recommend.