Expert Advice on How Much Practice is Too Much
The faster you get to 10,000 hours of practice the better, right? Not so much. Unquestionably, every hour of practice is not equal. 5 hours of practice in a single day may be too much for some people and as a result 3 of those hours go to waste. For others 2 hours of practice may be too much or even as little as 1 hour of practice may be too much.
So how do you know how much practice is too much practice? While this may seem like a difficult question to answer being that everyone is different, it’s actually quite simple. Renowned psychology professor, author, and “expert on experts” Anders Ericsson has the definitive answer for how much practice is too much.
Ericsson states:
Focus and concentration are crucial, so shorter training sessions with clearer goals are the best way to develop new skills faster. It is better to train at 100 percent effort for less time than at 70 percent effort for a longer period. Once you find you can no longer focus effectively, end the session. And make sure you get enough sleep so that you can train with maximum concentration.
So, there you have it. Once focus dips to a level where your mind and body are no longer in sync you have practiced too much. This means if you want to practice longer to get to that mythical 10,000 hours of practice faster, you must get more sleep so you can focus and concentrate for longer amounts of time as well.