• Shake a leg. Lack of blood flow is a common reason for lack of concentration. If you've been sitting in one place for awhile, bounce one of your legs for a minute or two. It gets your blood flowing and sharpens both concentration and recall. (Tap your foot while you play.)
  
  
• Food for thought: Eat breakfast. A lot of people skip breakfast, but creativity is often optimal in the early morning and it helps to have some protein in you to feed your brain. A lack of protein can actually cause headaches.
  
  
• Food for thought, part 2: Eat a light lunch. Heavy lunches have a tendency to make people drowsy.
  
  
• Reduce stress + depression. Stress and depression may reduce the ability to recall information and thus inhibit learning. Sometimes, all you need to reduce depression is more white light and fewer refined foods.
  
  
• Take a break. Change physical or mental perspective to lighten the invisible stress that can sometimes occur when you sit in one place too long, focused on learning. Taking a 5-15 minute break every hour during study sessions is more beneficial than non-stop study. It gives your mind time to relax and absorb information. If you want to get really serious with breaks, try a 20 minute ultradian break as part of every 90 minute cycle. This includes a nap break, which is for a different purpose than #23.
  
  
• Change your focus. Sometimes there simply isn't enough time to take a long break. If so, change subject focus. Alternate between technical and non-technical subjects. (An example would be switching between technique and falsetas.)
  
  
• Change your focus, part 2. There are three primary ways to learn: visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. If one isn't working for you, try another. (Try learning from tabs, sound only, or video.)
  
  
• Focus and immerse yourself. Focus on whatever you're studying. Don't try to watch TV at the same time or worry yourself about other things. Anxiety does not make for absorption of information and ideas.
  
  
• Give yourself credit. Ideas are actually a dime a dozen. If you learn to focus your mind on what results you want to achieve, you'll recognize the good ideas. Your mind will become a filter for them, which will motivate you to learn more.
  
  
• Motivate yourself. Why do you want to learn something? What do want to achieve through learning? If you don't know why you want to learn, then distractions will be far more enticing.
  
  
• Set a goal. W. Clement Stone once said "Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve." It's an amazing phenomenon in goal achievement. Prepare yourself by whatever means necessary, and hurdles will seem surmountable. Anyone who has experienced this phenomenon understands its validity.
  
  
• Think positive. There's no point in setting learning goals for yourself if you don't have any faith in your ability to learn.
  
  
• Organize, part 2. Learning is only one facet of the average adult's daily life. You need to organize your time and tasks else you might find it difficult to fit time in for learning.
  
  
• Every skill is learned. With the exception of bodily functions, every skill in life is learned. Generally speaking, if one person can learn something, so can you. It may take you more effort, but if you've set a believable goal, it's likely an achievable goal.
  
  
• Prepare yourself for learning. Thinking positive isn't sufficient for successfully achieving goals. This is especially important if you are an adult, as you'll probably have many distractions surrounding your daily life. Implement ways to reduce distractions, at least for a few hours at a time, else learning will become a frustrating experience.
  
  
• Prepare yourself, part 2. Human nature is such that not everyone in your life will be a well-wisher in your self-improvement and learning plans. They may intentionally or subconsciously distract you from your goal. If you have classes to attend after work, make sure that work colleagues know this, that you are unable to work late. Diplomacy works best if you think your boss is intentionally giving you work on the days he/she knows you have to leave. Reschedule lectures to a later time slot if possible/ necessary.
  
  
• Constrain yourself. Most people need structure in their lives. Freedom is sometimes a scary thing. It's like chaos. But even chaos has order within. By constraining yourself — say giving yourself deadlines, limiting your time on an idea in some manner, or limiting the tools you are working with — you can often accomplish more in less time.
  
  
• Think holistically. Holistic thinking might be the single most "advanced" learning technique that would help students. But it's a mindset rather than a single technique. (Think of how a falseta fits into a whole piece.)
  
  
  

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ORIGINAL: at_leo_87

Constrain yourself. Most people need structure in their lives. Freedom is sometimes a scary thing. It's like chaos. But even chaos has order within. By constraining yourself — say giving yourself deadlines, limiting your time on an idea in some manner, or limiting the tools you are working with — you can often accomplish more in less time.

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By constraining yourself — say giving yourself deadlines, limiting your time on an idea in some manner, or limiting the tools you are working with — you can often accomplish more in less time.

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gj - what does "per aspera ad astra" mean? I've never heard it before. I assume it's Latin, but I didn't study that at school. I thought you were talking about Aspidistras at first.
Val

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I set the metronome at a pace that is just slightly challenging and set the timer for 5 minutes.

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I was going to do SO much in my retirement, but now the pressure's off i manage one task a day if I'm lucky. It has to fit in around my siesta.

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When my wife sends me on a mission for grocery, I have to ask which is Basil or Thyme, which is Sage and which Rosemary…and still do not get it!!.

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Drinking half a litre of coffee really does the job. But be cautious!
Never drink half litre of coffee at once without milk, it'll disable your concentration.

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learn to "sing" whatever it is you are learning so you can do it in the car are where ever.

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I can't speak for anyone but myself, (obviously) but more and more I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to get in contact with a real live teacher and work with him for 6 months to a year or so.

Books and videos and on-line lessons are nice, but they can't replace a living, breathing teacher.

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I am constantly practicing in my head. I have trouble falling asleep at night because i cant turn my brain off. :)

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i cant turn my brain off. :)

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I set the metronome at a pace that is just slightly challenging and set the timer for 5 minutes.

this is a really interesting method. i do similar thing except instead of using a timer, i just wait until i get bored.

• Sleep on it. Dr. Maxwell Maltz wrote about in his book Psycho-Cybernetics about a man who was was paid good money to come up with ideas. He would lock his office door, close the blinds, turn off the lights. He'd focus on the problem at hand, then take a short nap on a couch. When he awoke, he usually had the problem solved.