Supercharge Your Guitar Time!

You might have heard about timeboxing before. It's basically specifying the amount of time you'll spend doing each item on your practice routine. And yep - you should use a countdown timer to control that!

When I first heard about this technique, I thought it was a real joke. Timeboxing your practice using a timer didn't seem to make any sense - it just seemed too technical and too organized! Too rigid to be good for music, just silly, you know?

Well - how wrong I was. Timeboxing your practice will supercharge your guitar time in many different ways. Especially if you're that kind of person who gets easily bored, or does an exercise for a little bit and, you know, starts skipping around!

Timeboxing your practice will also be a powerful tool as you become a more advanced musician. You'll definitely come to a point where timeboxing and thinking exactly about your practice schedule will be extremely valuable.

💡Using a timer helps me practice more effectively and cover all the things I need! That keeps my focus and motivation pretty high. :)

So, I've got to tell you. Ultimately, this technique allows you to practice insanely better and develop your skills way faster. It's super powerful. But why exactly? I've got loads of reasons - let me outline the main ones.

4 Benefits of Practicing with a Timer

Timeboxing your guitar practice supercharges how much stuff you get done in your practice time! I've got a very limited amount of time to practice guitar (pretty busy running this website), so that's a hell of a benefit to me!

Using a countdown timer to practice the guitar and even do other stuff on my workdays helps you make more of your time, but the benefits don't stop there. Here are some more benefits of practicing with a countdown timer:

#1 - Improve Your Focus!

Learning the guitar involves a different range of skills! The biggest benefit of timeboxing your practice is your ability to focus on the skills you're practicing at a given moment.

💡 You should have a reason to add a certain thing to your practice schedule! Always make sure you know how, why, and for how long you're practicing something. If you're not sure about the areas you should be practicing, check this out.

Having clear objectives will help you make the most out of a practice item! For example, don't add scale practice to your practice routine without knowing why you were doing that. Is it to work on the synchronicity between your hands or improve your alternate picking skills? You could also be practicing scales to increase your fretting hand accuracy and much more!

You should pay attention to the whys when adding a new exercise to your practice routine, pay attention to the whys. That's the first step to making your five minutes, timeboxed practice count!

Then - you'll want to keep your attention right there. Don't allow yourself to be distracted by other parts of the practice or by random thoughts. Your goal is to be absolutely zoned in your practice.

💡 This is very much like Mindful Meditation, where you focus on your breath. You develop the ability to send thoughts away, which you want to do for your guitar practice!

I've often felt like guitar practice was a kind of therapy or meditation. And I suspect that if you have good focus developed during meditation, you'll easily transfer that skill set over to guitar practice. If you've not tried meditating before, it might be helpful in many other areas of your life. ;) Give it a try!

Focusing on the task in your hands is an incredibly powerful tool. If you can do just that. You'll be much more aware and present in what you're doing. :)

🚨 Know that, sometimes, you'll need not focus! Automating strumming or fingerstyle is a great example. You'll need to spend some time on getting the pattern right - and for that, you'll need loads of focus. But then, you should practice the pattern while trying to let your mind wander, doing things like watching TV or having a conversation.

Using a timer could work as a little wake-up call in cases like this. But I wouldn't recommend using timeboxing to practice a new strumming or fingerstyle pattern. Generally speaking, timeboxing is absolutely incredible for everything except the guitar skills you should practice without focus, over and over again, and for a longer period.

#2 - Keep Your Motivation High!

The second benefit from timeboxing your practice might be the key to sticking with the guitar in the first place! Using this technique helps you keep your motivation high - and there's science behind that! :) Ticking your Done box helps to release Dopamine.

💡 Dopamine's a little chemical. It gets released in your brain as a reward, so it makes you feel good. Every time you practice and tick the box, you get a small but useful Dopamine hit. That helps your brain learn that practice is good and maintain your motivation and desire to practice more. It really works!

Try doing little five-minute slots rather than doing one hour of random practice. Like that, you've got six times that you're going to tick that box and get the little Dopamine hit. :)

#3 - Use Your Time Successfully!

The third benefit is probably obvious by now. :) When you timebox your guitar practice, you use your time effectively. If you're time-poor like I am - we've got many things to do! So, if you've got a limited amount of time, making the most out of it is a big deal!

When you're time boxing, you really focus on that little sprint of effort. You're much less likely to delve into procrastination or spend your time just wondering about things that you shouldn't be wondering about. :)

#4 - Be Happier!

The fourth benefit of timeboxing your guitar practice is the effect that it might have in your personal life! Developing the ability to be more present can benefit relationships, sports practice, studying - whatever you're doing! It happened with me - and it might happen with you too. Give it a chance.

How to Get Started with Timeboxing

If you're using one of my beginner courses, you've probably been time boxing already. :) I specify how long you should be practicing and what for. My Practice Assistant and the interactive exercises in my app help you make them happen, but the technique is timeboxing! If you're new to the idea of timeboxing your practice, check my Holistic Practice Routine method. In that lesson, we explore my suggestion to approach all the available guitar study areas!

Once you understand what you should practice on guitar to be the guitarist you aim to be, it's time to divide that into blocks and use a countdown timer to keep track of your practice.

⏰ When I first started using timeboxing, I used a kitchen timer. It looked like a tomato, you know, Pomodoro technique. :) I'd turn it around for five minutes, let it go, and it would ring a little bell at the end. :)

Now I just use my phone's timer or even my Time Trainer Metronome app. It has an easy-to-use countdown timer, so we can do all our technical work for just the right amount of time. :) But make sure you got notifications turned off because you don't want to be distracted in the middle of your practice routine!

Now - you know the drill!

Timeboxing your practice is very easy and super simple too! Set it for short periods when you start working with a timer - 2 minutes is a great duration! You'll follow these simple steps:

Decide on what you're practicing first hand. Taking notes and organizing your schedule is a good idea - more about that later!
Start the timer. Using your phone? Notifications should be off!
Work on the one skill you've chosen to practice.
If any other thoughts enter your mind, push them out. Don't let them invade your practice time!

Every time you've got distracted, renew your focus on the task at hand and begin again if needed.

💨 Practicing with a countdown timer is a bit like a sprint! When you know where the finish line is, you feel better about giving it your all until you get there, and you know you can have a rest at the end. ;)

The major benefit of using a timer is that your mind knows that it only has to use this intense concentration for a finite period. Your focus becomes insane!

Struggling with Distractions?

You might find it difficult to practice like this when you first start, and that's okay. It's totally all right getting distracted in the early stages. It's actually a good thing! You're training yourself every time you get distracted, and you bring your attention back to what you should be doing. You're strengthening your attention! In the early stages, you might find you can never concentrate for five minutes, always getting distracted by stuff. But it's okay - you're not the only one. Just train yourself to don't let yourself get distracted.

Learning to focus takes practice! After a while, you'll find you can concentrate for quite a while without other thoughts getting in the way. Build it up slowly, be confident with a 2-minute focus and build it up over a month or two.

🚨 I rarely use this approach for exercises that require longer than 5 minutes! I know I can concentrate much longer, but five focused minutes is usually enough to practice one thing.

And since most times exercises involve Technique practice, let me talk about guitar fatigue.

6 Extra Tips to Achieve Success

Please, don't skip this section, especially if you're used to practicing until you hurt yourself or feel you practice a lot but never really improve! :)

#1 - Avoid Physical and Mental Fatigue.

Another interesting benefit of using a countdown timer when you practice is giving you an endpoint. I've mentioned it before but wanted to talk more about it. Practicing in short bursts also helps you avoid fatigue, which is important both physically and mentally.

When practicing something physically demanding, like learning barre chords, you must take breaks to avoid injury. Mental fatigue is a lot less likely if you take regular breaks, too, especially if you 'refresh' between blocks. At the very least, I stand up and walk around the room or have a quick drink. Something to release the focus before diving back in.

#2 - Use a Holistic Practice routine.

Another major benefit of using a timer is to stop yourself from practicing a particular thing too much. It's easy to practice what you enjoy but leave out things you find difficult - which is unlikely to bring great results. :( It's easy to get excited about particular skills while ignoring other areas of practice!

For example, people often work far too much on technical exercises and nowhere near enough on transcribing, repertoire, aural training, or music theory. Other people spend all their time playing songs and not doing any technical work - both of which are as bad as each other. The only forgivable one would be someone who transcribes all the time, that person would end up a good player, but that's a whole other story…

💡 If you missed my Holistic Practice lesson, check that out too and learn more about the 6 guitar areas you should be practicing!

Even if you don't use a set practice routine, a timer can still be super helpful for the other reasons mentioned in this lesson.

#3 - Stop Procrastination.

My tip number three is to stop procrastinating! :) And it's easier than you think: just do it! Gamifying your guitar practice might be fun and a great boost in your routine, so you might want to try tools like my songs app.

But a notebook and pencil will do - just remember that ticking the boxes off gives you extra satisfaction, so try and gamify your guitar practice. :) Even if you don't use time boxes, short bursts of focus will help avoid procrastination. You'll still focus and practice way better!

#4 - Don't Multitask!

Humans can't think of more than one thing at one time. Our brains can only really focus on one thing at once, so don't even attempt to have multiple things going on simultaneously unless that's the objective! So, when practicing, focus only on what you're doing. Don't try to multitask, and do not let your attention flit around.

🚨 If you're doing the fingerstyle practice while watching tv and you're deliberately trying to distract yourself, of course, that is okay! But other than stuff like that, don't try to multitask.

Working on 5-minute blocks will really help you with this, and not just for guitar! Many students told me that this kind of practice helped them in many areas over the years. ;)

#5 - No More Disruptions. :)

When you're doing your 5-minute practice block, don't answer the phone or allow yourself to be interrupted! Unless, of course, you're a fireman, or there's an emergency at home, of course. :)

🔕 Don't forget to turn off notifications on your phone, particularly if you're using it as your countdown timer.

Tell your family that, if they see you focused, you'd like them to come back in 5 minutes. Not many things can't wait for 5 minutes. Sometimes, you'll get to pause your practice session - but try and do your best not to!

#6 - Don't forget the playtime.

If you're following my guitar courses, you already know it: having fun with your instrument is as important as practicing and doing new lessons. That's why we learn how to play real songs in our very first module.

It's very important to schedule time to jam and play anything you want! Have fun with your guitar: play the riffs you like, muck about, connect with your instrument - exploratory, curious practice is as important as timeboxing! You'll learn much more doing this than you might first think!

I hope this helps you make the most of your... precious time. :) Next - a special lesson for fingerstyle lovers!