Taking a Day Off
By Philip Johnston
Page 1 of 3
 One of the most common practice killers is the idea that "I
won't practice today, but I will make up for it by doing double
tomorrow." People on diets tell themselves the same thing. They eat
cake that they shouldn't, and then promise that tomorrow will be nothing
but munching on celery sticks while running on a treadmill.
While it doesn't work in practice, the logic underpinning this
tradeoff is actually quite sound. Imagine, for example, that you were
supposed to do 10 minutes of practice every day. That means after two
days you would have done 20 minutes of practice.
You could achieve the same outcome by not practising at all on
the first day, and doing 20 minutes on the second day. It's still 20
minutes of practice after two days.
So if the logic stands up, why does it not work in reality? The
answer is simple - people make promises on that first day that they don't
keep. They do zero on the first day, and zero (or maybe 5 min if
they are feeling really guilty) on the second day. That's not twenty
minutes after two days. It's human nature undermining some otherwise
solid logic.
There is a solution to all of this. The solution keeps the logic
intact, while taking human nature into account (in fact, it let's your
desire to do nothing work for you, not against you).
It's called The Cashcard Machine Principle
I can't stand the suspense! Tell me how it works!
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