I used to think that mind-wandering was something that just happened when my brain was being lazy. That I simply had to will my way to greater focus. But this study makes me wonder if will-power is not the answer. And that it would be more productive to use the occurrence of mind-wandering as a diagnostic tool.
In other words, if our minds are more likely to wander when we are practicing something too easy or too difficult, perhaps the best thing to do when we catch ourselves zoning out is to pause for a moment and ask why that just happened.
Is what we’re working on too easy? If that’s the case, then maybe we haven’t set a challenging enough goal for what we’re working on. Instead of simply aiming for 5 “perfect” repetitions in a row, perhaps it would be more engaging (and increase the difficulty factor a smidge) to make each repetition slightly different than the one prior. To make the passage slightly more nuanced. More exciting. Greater dynamic contrast. Faster. In other words, to engage in repetition without repetition (ala this music example, or this sport example).
Alternately, is what we’re working on too difficult? Maybe we’re nearing the end of a practice session and getting too tired to think clearly and creatively. In moments like this, a water break, or a little stretch and walk outside could help.
Or perhaps the problem we’re trying to solve is a bit beyond what we have the knowledge and skill to solve at the moment. Well, that’s ok too. If we just keep plugging along at the stuff that is in our RPL, our skills will continue to grow, and before we now it, we’ll be moving on to solve those no-longer-slightly-too-challenging problems too.
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