Samurai Battles iDistraction and Loses

02 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Mind, Samurai Time Management, Uncategorized

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crack time management, deliberate practice, electronic distraction, zen habits

This kiddies is a floppy drive with an actual floppy disk. I need a tech guru to help me manage my flow. Yes, I’m getting medieval.

You may read this blog and see the picture of real wasabi being washed in clear water and think—ooh this is so Zen. Or you may actually read my posts and think–err, maybe not. :). It’s spring break and I have a little more time for personal projects with a heap of potential work (planning, grading, thinking) for school to do as well. I am proud to say I have wasted a lot of that time on iDistraction. Here’s how:

I actually did do school work, reading essays and letters students wrote and shared with me on google docs. I noticed my pulse rate increasing after the third time I noticed an un-capitalized “I” pronoun.
I started listening to podcasts about how to improve WordPress blogs and integrate all kinds of plugins, etc. I started to think about all I didn’t know. Great podcasts. Too much information.
Somewhere along the line I got the idea that I could convert a lot of my previous writing to Kindle and try to publish it. I’ve some interesting interviews and I thought it would be great service to people to put it out there. I’m embarrassed to say that a good portion of my writing is on a 2002 Gateway computer that I have held on to. I’ve not only had to figure out how to transfer that material but also figure out how to properly format it for Kindle.
The organization to which I applied for a grant to travel to Japan decided to tweet winning proposals every hour, in addition to mailing out snail mail notifications. I received a grant three years ago, so it’s a long-shot, but that did nothing to settle my iDistraction.

I fired this thirteen year old computer to get at an interview that I think would still help people. Check out the floppy disk on the right.

I finally realized that I had to do something when I realized that I had children in my home. There’s a moment when you realize that they aren’t watching television any more and have moved on to exploring flammable chemicals. Not really but that’s what it felt like. 🙂

It’s a new day and I am not feeling so much iDistraction. The organization is not issuing any tweets and it looks like their website has crashed. I am not making any promises but I am aiming to do a few things that might help this iDistraction:

set time limits on my different efforts. Part of what I learned to do while I was on Silverspoon was do things in little bites throughout the day. Learning Japanese is such a huge project that the idea of it all can swamp me. But I learned to use different “time-boxes” and “chillax” periods to keep persisting without the overwhelm.
re-read or skim Steve Chandler’s Time Warrior and Wealth Warrior. He really writes cogently about the importance of silence, reflection, and non-overwhelm.
Re-investigate a spiritual path, meditation, or at least go back to recording things that I am grateful for at the end of the day. Ironically, the project I was working on was an interview on the interplay between a spiritual practice and money with Jerrold Mundis, author of How to Get Out of Debt, Stay out of Debt, and Live Prosperously. Mundis really emphasizes the importance of operating from a calm center in relationship to money:

And indeed, when we are obsessed with material and wealth, acquisitiveness, craving it’s very hard to lead a spiritual life. One can lead a spiritual life and still have material things, and still have money, but the spiritual life comes first. And, out of that center and calmness one can use money quite healthfully and well.

I’m going to get on all of that. After I check one more tweet.

How to Keep a Samurai Mind Notebook

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Mind, Notebook

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deliberate practice, learning strategies, notebooks, samurai time

Random Collection of Notebooks. Samurai notebooks help keep me inspired, searching, while at the same time keeping me anchored.

I’ve mentioned samurai notebooks lately, but haven’t really gotten into detail about them for a while. Samurai notebooks are notebooks where you put positive ideas, plans, information, etc and review on a regularly spaced basis. My samurai notebooks aren’t necessarily pretty, but they have been transformational.

The Why:

Daniel Coyle reports that a great percentage of high performers keep some kind of notebook, whether it’s an actual notebook or even a shoebox of loose papers. Coyle cites Serena Williams, Eminem, and Twyla Tharp among others. Write down “results from today, ideas for tomorrow.”
A samurai notebook helps you create your own channel, the information and ideas that you brush up against. You can bathe in the fear, sarcasm, and negativity that gets offered up 24/7 or you can create your own channel.
A notebook helps you direct your life by helping you remember. Adding spaced repetition keeps reviewing from becoming burdensome.

The How:

Buy any notebook. Think cheap and sturdy. I prefer Campus notebooks from Japan but don’t get hung up on what kind of notebook to get.
Put any information, thoughts, plans that interests you into this notebook on a daily basis. Make sure to date each entry. Recently my notebook includes snippets of guitar/music theory, helpful hints from a Japanese book on guitar, and ideas from several teaching resources.
Review the notebook every day. If you’ve put interesting and valuable information it will become a fun process. I put a date on the review and mark how many days from the original date. I try to review according to the following schedule 1, 2, 3 or four days, and a week after the original review. After that it is one week, two weeks, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc. I use a timer and review five minutes every morning. I also review if I feel like it on train rides, appointments, etc.
Dating entries and reviews are important. It would be overwhelming if you didn’t space out reviews.
Quickly mark what kind of review it was and include the date. I put 1D for one day. As you do reviews, you will save time by only entries that are “up for review.”
If you come across an entry that wows you or seems really important, copy it into the days new entries. Doing this puts it back in a shorter term loop and reinforces that this notebook is exciting. (BTW, you don’t have to “study” each page, just glance at it. If there is something you want to target and do some work with, go ahead.) Cross out pages that you think you may never be interested in again. Deletion and skipping over. Happy feelings bring happy learnings. (See ajatt.com on the importance of deletion.)
I’ve learned to alternate between “New” reviews and “Old” reviews. One day I will review the most recent reviews and the next day, I will begin from an earmarked “Old” page. “New” information gets to “mature” and “old” information gets a systematic chance to get refreshed. I write “New” or “Old” on the day’s entry to let myself know where to go in the next session.
Date the cover, depending on the last entry. This notebook will be up for review in two years. If anything hits me like a lightning bolt from an old notebook I make sure to a) put it in a more recent notebook and/or b) do something with the idea or information.

When you finish with a notebook, mark the outside with when the next review date should be.

Feel free to use any or none of these methods. According to Coyle, Eminem uses scraps of paper tossed into a shoe box. Whatever you want to do, some kind of notebook will help you get there. Try my samurai notebook style or flow into your own style. A simple little notebook could transform your life.

100 Secrets to Becoming a Better Player: Samurai Thru-view

23 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Guitar, Mind

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deliberate practice, Guitar, guitar immersion, memory management, metalearning

There is a lot of good information in this book that can be applied to general skill development.

After reading Daniel Coyle’s Little Book of Talent, I realized that I was spending too much of my free reading time in English and needed to veer back to Japanese. I pulled out ギター上達１００の裏ワザ (100 Secrets to Becoming Better at Guitar) by Masaki Ichimura. Following your interests in your target language is a little something I like to call hybridizing your crack, doubling the learning power.

Right now, I am mostly interested in the soft skills and philosophy of playing guitar. Here are just a few interesting principles that could apply to whatever you are trying to learn. (My translations are inexact and include other context. Take with a dash of soy sauce.)

If you practice 10 minutes a day you will accumulate 3, 650 minutes of practice. You will make a difference in your playing. 続けたことによって発見する物事があります。基本練習を毎日１０分やるとしても、１年で３，６５０分やる人と、やらない人で差があります。

In order to become a guitarist who looks at the audience, practice blind folded. 各席を見られるギタリストになるは。。。。目隠し練習. This hint reminds me of The Little Book of Talent. If you want to become better and more natural at a skill, you have to change it up.

If you take lessons, you won’t get better if you don’t practice at home. ギター教室に通うひとは。。。自宅練習しないと上達しない Of course this is common sense, but engaging and choosing with your skill is all part of the fluid choices that you get to make with your life. To tell the truth, I kind of suck at guitar. But I’m trying to practice a little bit each day, so I suck less than I did when I started. Khatzumoto recently got all neuroplastic on us and spit it like this: “Your mind, your body, your skills are fluid and mutable. While you’re alive, it’s up to you what you flow and mutate (?) them into; you have the power to choose.”

To Go Up in Your Level of Playing, Reach for the Next Hardest Level Within Your Reach. 上達という階段を登るには。。。。手の届くレベルにトライし続ける。Coyle would call this looking for “the sweet spot” or “reaches.” You won’t become Eric Clapton overnight, but where is the next “reach” or do-able “stretch” in your learning? Not just for guitar, kids.

Don’t forget to have fun doing it your way!

t’s Important to Do What You Like. 一番、好きなことをやろう。Reaching, stretching, etc is important but a key and often forgotten element is to do what you like and reach for what you think is fun with your skill. Ichimura illustrates this with a wonderful cartoon of a middle aged man playing guitar dressed in his socks. Happy feeling make happy learnings. 🙂

Tip 100: You are the “Producer” of Your Life. あなたは、あなた自身の人生のプロデューさーです。　No matter what age you are, you get to mix it up and do it like you want to. You get to write the score, choose the instruments, and write the dance track to your life. Enjoy.

Keep the Fire Burning, (Man)

17 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Guitar, Samurai Time Management

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5 minutes, deliberate practice, immersion, memory management, zen habits

“Keep the fire burnin’…never let us lose our yearnin'” . . . REO Speedwagon (ugh!)

Do you try to have all of your breath all at once? No. A small steady supply feeds all your body systems and your mind. Small keeps the fire burnin’.

Whatever you are trying to move in your life doesn’t necessarily have to move at once. In some ways, it may even work better to go small. I used to wait until my summer vacation and make big promises to myself to write and I did write. These days, I have around fifteen minutes every morning to write. I use a timer and then study Japanese. I’m getting a lot more done than when I had “all the time in the world.”

Small works when it is consistent. Daniel Coyle writes in The Little Book of Talent five minutes a day is better than infrequent and longer practice period. It is easier to link thoughts in writing when it is day to day. With musical instruments, it is easier to keep “muscle memory” going. Try to stop breathing for an extended time and see how much fun it is to get breathing again. On second thought, don’t. It will be a lot more pleasant for everyone if you keep breathing.

Fun illustration from １分スピード勉強法。　Short term memory expires quickly. However, through repetitions the memory can cover the distance to light the candle of long term memory.

Small leverages the short term to long term memory connection. Masami Utsude describes transforming short term memory into long

Real language exposure is the best and I get that too. However, I do a few minutes of iKnow every day. It keeps it from getting boring and takes advantage of short term to long term memory connection.

Real language exposure is the best and I get that too. However, I do a few minutes of iKnow every day. Short periods keeps it from getting boring and takes advantage of short term to long term memory connection.

term memory. He describes it as a relay race. Imagine a team of matches. One match (short term memory) runs until almost exhausted and lights the next match, continuing until it reaches a candle (long term memory).

Khatz, over at AJATT, talks about learning languages and suggests that critical frequency, moments of constant contact with the language will help it thrive and stay alive:

A language is like a cross between food, air and a pet. You can’t just binge on it once and call it a day. You need it there constantly, no, not constantly — very frequently — and when it does go, it needs to come back soon. Otherwise the skill dies.

Don’t let the skill die. Don’t prevent it from being born. Keep the fire burnin’.

“Stare at Who You Want to Become”

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Guitar, Mind

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5 minutes, deliberate practice, Guitar, learning strategies, zen habits

“Don’t wait for your mojo to get to the dojo.”………… me 🙂

Daniel Coyle talks about “windshield time” or time spent watching people doing the kinds of things that you want to do or didn’t even think of doing before. You can do it with people, books, tapes, and languages. Cultivate your windshield. photo source: unprofound.com.

A funny thing happened on the way back from the dojo. My oldest daughter takes karate lessons. My wife takes our two year old daughter, who just watches. Lately when we watch our oldest practice at home, the littlest also tries to execute the form. I’m not a real samurai but the toddler’s form looks pretty good.

It’s the power of “staring at who you want to become.” This little mantra comes from The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle. He studied “talent hotbeds” across the world. One of the patterns he noticed across a lot of these training centers is that there is often a period of training where students observe the skill with intensity before actually practicing. In one Russian tennis center, students watch advanced players before they even pick up a racket.

I would also add that it’s important to have fun with “staring” at who you want to become. You could watch Jimi Hendrix play guitar and shout, “Jimi is God! I am not worthy!” (I still say that! 🙂 ) However, even Hendrix sucked at one point. You don’t have to avoid those feelings. But, you can also choose to put them to the side and just–watch. He plays on this part of the guitar, then moves his finger there, etc.

There are many ways to ride the stare-way to betterment:

keep the quotes from people who are doing what you want to do and think the way you want to think and review it in your samurai notebook….also copy out the phrases of writers whose style you admire
get into the sounds of the foreign language you want to acquire . . . no self-loathing because you don’t understand it yet just let yourself bathe in it . . . find the fun, funny and inspirational and move on … see AJATT.com on this one
don’t get threatened or angry at people that are “better” than you in whatever skill you want to acquire . . . watch them closely . . . watch for how they work and also how they bring joy and fun to their work . . . be grateful for people who are better than you. If you still feel threatened or angry that’s fine . Hating yourself for your feelings isn’t productive. Recognize it and find something to stare at (in a nice way!).
listen to the people that inspire you on headphones . . . the only English I allow on my headphones is audiobooks by Steve Chandler . . . I don’t agree with everything he says but I like the positive direction and humor of his work.

Don’t short-circuit yourself by rehearsing how bad you feel about your lack of skill. If it’s true that you become what you focus on, have some fun. Stare into the present.

Let’s Get Physical: Samurai Moving

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by taijuando in Body, Deliberate Practice, Guitar

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5 minutes, deliberate practice, Guitar, lifehack, zen habits

“Let’s get physical, physical..let me hear your body talk.”….Olivia Newton-John, metaphysicist and 80’s pop star.

One of my lockers where I cage my books and laptop. Reading closely and savoring each word still has its place, but adding a little velocity to your learning game through speed reading or pre-reading is a way to shake things up. Do you have any books on your shelf that you think you should read but haven't. A quick read might give you the lay of the land to read it or get the best part out. Feel free to eat the best part of the tuna!

One of my lockers where I cage my books and laptop. Physical activity can be a form of review, which is really key to moving forward in your life. The physical act of going through spaces wakens up ideas and possibilities. Pick one space to “review.” Throw out the irrelevant bring forth the joy.

A couple of posts ago I quoted Snoop Dog, and now I am quoting Olivia Newton-John. Yeah. That’s how I roll. Just the other day I was reviewing my samurai notebooks, where I put ideas and borrowed inspirations and information. As I often do, I use a timer to keep me moving through different tasks. (Timeboxing, read about it later.) I wondered whether I should time the physical act of getting an old notebook out of a storage space. I decided to include it.

When you are making moves towards your goals, you are also making physical moves. Yes, Shakespeare wrote Hamlet and sonnets and all that, but does anyone talk about how many times he had to sharpen his quill? There are all of these unsung moves that needed to happen. Do you want to play guitar? Hey, you know the guitar is not going to get out of the bag by itself.

Ay, here’s the rub. Sometimes making the physical move gets you a little further along your “goal.” You’ve gone through the small act of getting the guitar out of the bag, you’ve tuned it, and strapped it around your neck. Are you just going to put it back down? Probably not. This little physical motion is already giving you momentum.

Khatz over at AJATT taught himself Japanese in fifteen months. A lot of how he explains he did that is physical. Not only was he listening and watching Japanese all the time, his walls and bookshelves were covered in Japanese. The key part is fun. Yes, I get frustrated that I fumble over “stretch” activities I am learning on the guitar. But once I have that guitar strapped around my shoulders, I make time to actually “play” with the guitar.

Make it so that you literally trip on the material you want to become. Inside you will find two lightweight notebooks (one current and one for review), a Japanese book on guitar, and random junk. 🙂

Part of the game becomes finding ways to “physical-ize” your goals. Here are some of my recent moves:

leaving a music theory book underneath my laptop so I there is more of a chance that I will look at it
making sure I always have a Japanese book in my “man-bag”
leaving a travel-sized guitar in the closet at work….buying a $20 tuner . . . after all the work is done for the day I try to spend 15-20 minutes…reviewing and/or farting around
making sure that the battery on my computer at the Writer’s Room stays charged at 80-90%. This means I need to show up everyday and work
make Netflix work by constantly having Japanese DVD’s in my laptop
keep various “study” and “fun” windows open on the browser so they are just there

Make 2013 the year when you get physical with your goals. Let me hear your body talk. Body talk. 🙂

Take a Little Off the Top (and the Sides), Samurai

02 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Guitar, Samurai Time Management

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5 minutes, deliberate practice, Guitar, immersion, zen habits

Take a little off the top and the side. Don’t be overwhelmed by the seemingly impossible.

Just yesterday some friends shared a little clip from an organization called code.org. I have to admit, just the thought of coding is something that overwhelms me. But according to Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and the creators of twitter, dropbox and many other mega-sites explain, it is an approachable skill. One of the coding stars explains that it is like any skill that might seem scary at first, whether it is playing an instrument, learning a sport, or hey learning a language. I don’t know if this clip is propaganda for some kind of coding cult but I like its message of how the seemingly impossible can be possible.

One phrase that helps me with this these days is “take a little off the top.” I am a teacher and a father of two young children. I am pulled in ten thousand directions, so the thought that I would also write, learn Japanese, and learn guitar seems ludicrous. But taking a “little off the top” is doable and that’s what I’ve learned to do day to day.

I think the ability to persist in small and steady games has been one of the benefits of doing Silverspoon, an online coaching service I used to immerse myself in Japanese more. In one of the emails I got from Khatzumoto, he summarizes the game/plan of action:

AJATT 7-Step Victory Formula: 0. Have no good intentions whatsoever. Just pick a good direction. No intentions. 1. Start off on the wrong foot. 2. Set your quitting time ahead of time (timeboxing) 3. Do a bad job. Quick. Dirty. Ugly. 4. Do only half the job (or less), using only what tools are immediately available. 5. Stop and switch games at quitting time, before quitting time or as soon as you get bored, whichever comes first. 6. Get more, better tools. 7. Return to step (1)

(BTW, AJATT has a really interesting new article on the importance of skimming.) I could complain that I don’t have all the time in the world to write the great samurai self-help book or I could play around with writing in 15 minute stretches every morning. I could whine that I don’t know that I don’t know how to play guitar or I could pull out a lesson from my SRS deck, Jamplay, or any other tools and then just let myself play. I may not be able to put in 10,000 hours but I can “take a little off the top.”

You can also take a “little off the side.” What I mean by this egregious hair metaphor is the importance of changing tactics,

Some Brazilian players play “futbol de salao.” Small, challenging environments can improve skills. Work it! BTW this isn’t futbol de salao. 🙂

environments, and tools in addition to the persistence of “taking a little off the top.” I just finished reading The Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle (in five minute daily increments). His tip #9 is “To Build Soft Skills Play Like a Skateboarder.” He encourages people to explore and expand their skills “inside challenging, ever changing environments.” He is alluding to the skateboarders that are featured in Dogtown and Zboys. One of the ever changing environments they discovered were empty pools. Confined, ever changing environment that took skateboarding in new directions. Coyle also discusses how some Brazilian soccer teams train in small rooms that force them to learn all kinds of new skills.

Games are fun because of their limits. Don’t be scared to develop the skills you want because of limits. Bend time and space like a ZBoy. Take a little off the top. Come at it from all sides. Enjoy.

Claim Your Song, Samurai

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Guitar

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5 minutes, creativity, Guitar

Image from unprofound.com. You don’t have to be Keith Richards or Beethoven to claim your own corner of music. Life is short. Play.

“Everybody loves music. What you really want is for music to love you. And that’s the way I saw it was with Keith…You’re not writing it, it’s writing you. You’re its flute or its trumpet; you’re it’s strings. That’s real obvious around Keith. He’s like a frying pan made from one piece of metal. He can heat it up really high and it won’t crack, it just changes color.” – Tom Waits

Note: this is a break from a self-helpy vein though there is a little message about claiming your abilities. If you are allergic to personal stories,, skip to the end.

In August of 2010, I returned home late in the middle of the night. My youngest daughter had just been born. I was browsing through Facebook and found out that my friend, Tom, had died in our hometown of Lexington Ky. Joy and sadness can live so close side by side and even right on top of each other.

Tom and I knew each other mainly through the same group of friends. We didn’t hang out alone. Tom was a talented musician. One of my fondest memories of Tom was when he wrote and recorded a blues song based on a concert gone wrong. One summer night, I was the designated driver to go to a Steve Winwood concert. Jimmy Cliff was the warmup act. All went fine until my mother’s car decided to have a flat tire an hour or so away from Lexington. To add to the fun, someone locked the keys in the trunk. A couple of angry mothers later, we were able to go back home. Tom wrote and recorded a song that I wish I could still find.

Tom and I weren’t necessarily close friends. But never let emotional or physical distance make you underestimate the power of relationships. I would see Tommy once every other year, mostly at poker games when I visited my hometown. But when I found out he was gone I missed him terribly and wished he hadn’t gone. If you happen to go, you will be missed terribly by more people than you think.

Over the next few weeks, I had to decide whether to go to Tom’s memorial. The memorial was the weekend before school started again, and we had a three year old on top of a newborn. We don’t have a lot of family or extra help in New York. I also worried that I wasn’t part of his “inner circle.” (If we’ve had contact, please feel free to consider yourself part of my inner circle.) I also needed to buy an airplane ticket at a time when my wallet was pouring out dollars for diapers, wipes, and did I mention diapers.

But I really missed Tommy. After talking to Yoko and getting a sitter to help, I decided to make the trip to my hometown. At the memorial, I got to see friends that I had seen in years in addition to good buddies that I would always see when I came home. The pastor spoke about Tom’s natural ability to play music and bring joy and creation. He explained that even though we may not have the same musical abilities that it was up to us to keep the music alive, in our own ways, even if it meant we had to work a little harder. Maybe someday I will return the favor to Tommy and write my own blues tune.

Five minutes of playing is better than not playing at all.

It’s strange that my daughter’s birthday will also always be around the anniversary of my friend’s passing. On the first anniversary, my friend Jeff posted a barrage of music that Tom loved and was inspired by. It was kind of like I was getting to know Tom better even though he wasn’t on this physical plane.

I’d love to report that after that memorial, I took up music with a passion and have kept the music going every day. I have let the dust accumulate on the guitar for months at a time. These days I am going for a minimum though I’m promising nothing to anyone not even myself. I’m trying to follow Julia Cameron’s advice on how to take up an art form:

sit down at the piano and touch the keys. Five minutes a day is better than no minutes a day.

Now is the time to claim your song, whatever form it may take for your. If you can’t claim it through joy, claim it through anger or grief and let it lead back to joy. Life is precious. Claim your song.

Samurai Mind on My Money Hack

23 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Guitar, Wallet

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

money energy, motivation, wealth habits

With my mind on my money and my money on my mind. ……Snoop Dog

I don’t want to get all new age-y on you, but in a lot of ways money is energy. You, or in the case of stocks etc, or somebody else did something for that money. You could honor that energy or just throw your money away. (Call me, and I will be downwind from you. I will be the goofy guy with the butterfly net and the suit made out of fly paper. 🙂

Iknow.jp hooks me in with fun sentences and little pavlovian rewards for meeting learning goals. It's a little mechanistic so I listen to Japanese youtube and limit using this web service to about five minutes a day.

Iknow.jp hooks me in with audio sentences and little pavlovian rewards for meeting learning goals. It’s a little mechanistic so I listen to Japanese youtube while I am using it and limit using this web service to about five minutes a day.

One of the ways I like to honor money is to use it to trick my mind to learn more. Money can function like a timer, turning learning into a game. See how much learning you can get with your money. I remember in the old video arcade days that one of the advantages of getting skills was that you actually spent less money. See how much you can get out of a service or product by keeping it in “play.” I try to “make contact” with products and services that I’ve purchased to help me learn:

Iknow.jp: hundreds of sentences read by native Japanese speakers. The service can be come hypnotic/robotic so I only try to make a “target” of 30 minutes a week.
japanesepod101.com: now that I have more language under my belt, I am appreciating the grammar and cultural explanations. I switch between yojijukugo, beginner, video, lower intermediate, upper intermediate, and cultural lessons. I listen on my way to work and switch to Japanese music or podcasts when I am done.
silverspoon/neutrino: I am done with this but it was one of the most expensive pay by month services. But it was kind of like going to a trainer who changes the way you think about exercise. It seems expensive but the benefit, if you “play” it right lasts long.
jamplay.com: this is a guitar learning website. I like the teachers and the tracking tools so much I’ve put a link to it on the right. However, as the time to renew (and pay) approached at New Year’s I beat myself up for not keeping up with it. (Note: don’t beat yourself up. It hurts you more than you.) I recently came across a whole stash of Julia Cameron quotes from back when I was “doing” The Artists Way book. This is a gem:

Instead of thinking about conquering an art form, think instead of kissing it hello, wooing it, exploring it in small steps…sit down at the piano and touch the keys. Five minutes a day is better than no minutes a day.

One of the nice advantages of paid learning services are tracking tools. I was a lot more active on jamplay before and am easing back into playing. Part of the mental trick of practice is moving “the bars” of progress a little bit. I do it with jpod, too. I don’t think of mastering the language but just moving the bars forward.

books: get thousands of dollars of value out of books. How? First, enjoy the heck out of them. (Check out ajatt’s article “If Your Played Songs The Way You Read, You Would Hate Music.“)Go to the parts that you like. Skip around. Read the book that you really liked again and again. Read it backwards. Read it fast. Read it slow. Put the juicest parts in your samurai notebook.

Money is just a like the boundaries of a game. Limits can frustrate you or they can force you to be creative and really play. Become a pinball wizard. Bend it like Beckham. [insert sports or game metaphor here]. Put on some good tunes while you’re “doing it.” Enjoy!

Keep on Hacking, Samurai!

17 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by taijuando in Deliberate Practice, Reading, vocabulary

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5 minutes, immersion, time limits, vocabulary hacks

When I first tried to start immersing in Japanese, I carried around a CD player and an electric Japanese dictionary. (Yes, I was one of those guys who refused to get the latest technology.) I ditched the CD player many moons ago and when I bought an iPod and then an iPhone. I left the denshi jisho at home and started using the Midori app. My arms and my back thanked me as I dropped all the weight.

Midori allows you to create different lists in addition to allowing you to view your history. I started lists of vocabulary from a few books but these days I just try to enjoy books and immerse in vocabulary through context.

Midori is a robust little Japanese-English dictionary app that allows you to look up Japanese and English words and names, either by typing or drawing the kanji. One nice feature is that Midori allows you to create word lists and also allows you to create flashcards from those vocabulary.

I have a couple of “rules” when I look up and study vocabulary:

I have to be genuinely interested in the word. When it comes up again on flashcards, I like to have some pleasant association. Like when I went on a hiking trip with three Japanese folks in their 60’s. We stopped at a souvenir shop and discovered bags of candied rice grasshoppers (いなご). Pleasant.
I don’t have to “finish” studying vocabulary on my list. Midori is mainly an option when I don’t have internet access, I don’t have easy access to a book, and have a little “crack” of time. I just take a little off the top each time. When it stops being fun or starts feeling like work, I stop.

However, I’ve added a little change to my vocabulary games. Learning vocabulary by studying words in isolation is not the most efficient way to learn vocabulary. Both antimoon and ajatt have both clearly laid out why using sentences and engaging content are the best way to acquire vocabulary and another language. (Informallanguage goes as far as saying “Disregard grammar …acquire vocabulary. Kind of unrelated but a fun post.)

It’s great to look over the history of which words you’ve looked up.

Lately, I realized that I was falling into the learning vocabulary by isolation “rut.” So I’ve added a step to Midori flashcard reviews. Once I come across a word I’ve forgotten, I look up the word again. Most definitions include sample sentences. I read those sentences aloud (or mumbling if I’m in the subway–just another New Yorker talking to himself in tongues 🙂 ). I stop before I’m bored. I “own” a few more words because of that.

The bigger point is to keep inventing games for yourself. Daniel Coyle, author of The Little Book of Talent, writes that when you get in a rut you need to shake it up:

Research by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University and co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, shows that the best way past a plateau is to jostle yourself beyond it; to change your practice method so you disrupt your autopilot and rebuild a faster, better circuit.

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Khatz, the dude that turned me on to that little book, recently wrote “Dude. Do It. It Will Work.” He explains why you should keep on following your mind and trying new methods:

Because I just know. It’ll work.
And even if doesn’t work…it’ll work.

Why?
Because when you do it, you become a doer, a tryer, a player ¹. You become the kind of person who:

Has crazy ideas, and

Actually acts on them

I know, doing flashcards differently is not shaking up the world but it’s all part of how I am moving in ways that I wasn’t two years ago. Party on. Excellent.

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Keep on Hacking, Samurai!

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