Declutter Your Practice: Useful Isn’t Always Necessary

I'm in the s-l-o-w, very slow process of decluttering my house. It's been on my need-to-do-badly list for years.

Recently, I discovered decluttering expert Dana White and came across two questions she uses to make decisions quickly:

1. Where would I look for this if I wanted it?
2. If I needed this item, would it ever occur to me that I already had one?

They're surprisingly effective because they cut through the emotional overthinking that can make decluttering so difficult.

Then I came across another question that stopped me:

Can you tell the difference between something being useful and actually using it?

That distinction isn't just helpful for closets and kitchen cabinets. It can be incredibly useful in the practice room, too.

Is your practice actually useful to you right now?

As musicians, we collect exercises, routines, warm-ups, etudes, equipment, and techniques that are supposed to help us improve.

But sometimes, we're doing something because it's "useful" rather than because it's useful right now.

Ask yourself:

• Am I going through the motions of a "good warm-up," or can I tell what my playing actually needs today?
• Are those 45 minutes of long tones helping me, or are they helping me avoid the difficult section of Weber 1?
• Am I practicing the legato etude because I need it this week, or because I've decided I "have to"?
• Am I repeating an exercise because I'm paying attention to it, or simply because it's become a habit?
• Am I buying new equipment because I genuinely need it, or because today's practice felt bad and I want something to change?

The answers will be different for every musician.

If you're early in your training or working with a teacher whose guidance you trust, listen to your teacher first. But as your career develops, you also have to learn how to evaluate your own time, energy, and priorities.

Declutter instead of adding

We often respond to a practice problem by adding something.

Another exercise. Another warm-up. Another piece of equipment. Another 30 minutes.

But sometimes the better solution is to take something away.

Your practice doesn't need to contain everything that could possibly be useful. It needs to contain what serves you where you are today and in this season.

So as you clear space in your house, your calendar, or your mind, try applying the same idea to your practice.

What do you actually need right now?

And just as importantly:

What are you doing simply because you've always done it?

When you clear that mental space, you may find that there's suddenly more room for the things that matter.

Now for the plug >> the Practice with Purpose Planner is built for exactly this. The to-do stack isn't doing much. But having a way to sort (declutter) the priority from not (hence the "not to do" list) is the answer!

One more thing, for which I'd love your two cents.

Thrive is being rebuilt with new tiers, new content, a free layer to start with, and before we finish it, I want to know what you're actually working on. When you think about the career side of music, not just your playing, which feels more true right now?

Cheering for you,
Ixi & team 360

P.S. My Goodwill pile currently has its own zip code. Send help.

P.P.S. If you're the kind of person who feels the seasons turn in your own work, not just outside your window, Field Notes for this fall's seasonal practice goes out. this small, intentional space is for musicians who want to harness the energy of this season to do three things: take honest stock of what the summer actually produced, make deliberate choices about what to carry forward, and step back into the the professional year with momentum.

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