Spaced Practice Only Works If You're Actually Practicing

You've probably heard the advice: practice little and often.

Twenty minutes a day beats a 2-hour marathon session once a week. Spaced practice is more effective than cramming. Your brain consolidates skills during rest periods between sessions.

All true.

But here's what nobody tells you: spaced practice only works if you're genuinely focused during those 20 minutes.

If you're "practicing" while scrolling TikTok between exercises, half-watching a show, or stopping every 3 minutes to reply to messages, you're not doing spaced practice. You're doing distracted noodling with occasional focus.

And distracted noodling—even if you do it every day—doesn't build skill.

The "Indistractable" Problem

In his book Indistractable, Nir Eyal makes a crucial point: you can't benefit from any productivity technique if you can't maintain focus long enough to execute it properly.

Spaced practice, deliberate practice, interleaving, retrieval practice—all of these evidence-based learning strategies assume one fundamental thing: you're actually present during practice.

For drummers, this is a massive issue because:

• Your phone is always nearby
• Your computer is right there with YouTube, tabs open, notifications popping up
• Practice can feel uncomfortable (slow tempos, mistakes, frustration), so distraction becomes an escape
• Modern life has trained your brain to seek novelty every 30 seconds

The result? You sit down for "20 minutes of focused practice" and deliver maybe 8 minutes of actual concentrated effort scattered across constant interruptions.

That's not spaced practice. That's fragmented attention.

What Actually Happens During Distracted Practice

Let's be honest about what a "distracted practice session" looks like:

Minute 1-2: You start with good intentions. Play through a warmup pattern.

Minute 3: Your phone buzzes. You check it. "Just quickly."

Minute 4-5: Back to practicing. You try the tricky section of your song.

Minute 6: It's hard. Feels frustrating. You open YouTube "just to see that tutorial one more time."

Minute 7-10: Watching the tutorial turns into watching two other videos because the algorithm knows you.

Minute 11-12: Back to playing. You've lost the thread of what you were working on. You noodle around for a bit.

Minute 13: Check your phone again.

Minute 14-16: Practice the tricky section again, but your brain is still partially thinking about that message you need to reply to later.

Minute 17-18: Play through the whole song. It's messy. You're not sure why.

Minute 19-20: Finish up. Feel vaguely dissatisfied but tell yourself "at least I practiced."

Time spent actually focused on deliberate practice: Maybe 6 minutes total.

Time spent distracted, fragmented, or mentally elsewhere: 14 minutes.

Your brain didn't consolidate anything meaningful because there wasn't enough sustained focus to encode the information properly.

Why Distraction Kills Skill Development

When you practice a motor skill like drumming, your brain needs sustained attention to:

1. Encode the movement pattern (what am I trying to do?)
2. Monitor execution (am I doing it correctly?)
3. Detect errors (what went wrong?)
4. Adjust and retry (how do I fix it?)

Each of these steps requires focus. If you're interrupting this feedback loop every few minutes, your brain never completes the learning cycle.

Result: You "practice" for 20 minutes but retain almost nothing. The next day, you're starting from scratch again because your brain didn't process the work deeply enough to consolidate it into long-term memory.

Compare that to 15 minutes of genuinely focused practice where you:

• Turn your completely phone off
• Close the computer or turn off the monitor
• Set a timer so you don't have to think about time
• Commit fully to the practice task in front of you

That 15 minutes will produce far more progress than 30 minutes of fragmented attention.

The Indistractable Practice Framework

Here's how to make spaced practice actually work:

Before You Start

1. Decide what you're working on.Not "I'll practice drums." Specifically: "I'm working on bars 12-16 of this song at 80 BPM."
2. Eliminate distractions.Phone off or in another room. Computer closed. Door shut if possible.
3. Set a timer.15-20 minutes. You're committing to focus, not duration.

During Practice

1. One task at a time.No multitasking. If you're playing, you're playing. If you're resting, you're resting.
2. Notice when your mind wanders.It will. That's normal. Gently bring attention back to the task.
3. Embrace discomfort.Slow tempos feel boring. Mistakes feel frustrating. That discomfort is where learning happens. Don't escape it by reaching for distraction.

After Practice

1. Resist the urge to immediately check your phone.Let your brain sit with what you just practiced for a few minutes. This is when consolidation starts.
2. Note what you worked on.Literally write it down. "Practiced bars 12-16 at 80 BPM. Right hand was rushing. Slowed to 75 BPM and it felt better." This reinforces the learning.

For Students: You're Training Two Skills at Once

When you practice with full focus, you're not just getting better at drums. You're also getting better at focusing.

Attention is like a muscle. The more you practice sustaining focus, the easier it gets.

Every time you feel the urge to check your phone mid-practice and you don't—that's a rep. You're building your distraction-resistance.

Over time, 20 minutes of focused practice starts to feel natural instead of exhausting. You'll find yourself dropping into flow states more easily. And the progress you make will accelerate because your brain is actually processing what you're practicing.

For Parents: Model "Indistractable" Behavior

If you want your child to practice with focus, they need to see you demonstrating sustained attention.

This doesn't mean you have to take up drumming. But it does mean:

• Putting your phone away during conversations
• Focusing on one task at a time instead of constantly multitasking
• Creating tech-free zones in your home (dinner table, family time, etc.)
• Talking openly about the challenge of staying focused in a distraction-filled world

Kids learn by watching. If they see you constantly distracted, they'll assume that's normal. If they see you actively choosing focus, they'll understand it's a skill worth developing.

Also: Consider making practice time a distraction-free zone for the whole house. If your child is practicing, don't interrupt unless it's urgent. Respect the boundary they're setting by trying to focus.

The Bottom Line

Spaced practice is scientifically proven to be more effective than marathon cram sessions.

But it only works if you're genuinely present during those practice sessions.

Sitting with your instrument for 20 minutes while your attention is scattered across your phone, computer, and mental to-do list isn't spaced practice. It's wasted time.

Real spaced practice = consistent focus, even in short bursts.

15 minutes of genuine, undistracted practice beats 45 minutes of half-focused noodling every single time.

Turn off distractions. Set a timer. Commit to the task in front of you.

That's how spaced practice actually works.

That's how you build real, lasting skill.

Struggling to maintain focus during practice? Let's work on building both technical skills and sustainable practice habits. Contact me for drum lessons in Bristol