Don’t have “enough time” to practice? Think again!

The struggle is real... You wanna practice, but “you just don't have time”

I get it. I used to work a job (and now run an online business) and have other responsibilities like cooking food, getting some exercise, and working on long term projects for my business that eat up my free time 

I KNOW what it's like to "not have time" to practice, because in 2019 I would have had to mess my priorities up to see real improvement in any event, and doing so would have been extremely counter-productive to my goals 

Realistically, I *could* make more time for cubing practice if I abandoned some of my responsibilities

I could be lazy and not exercise

I could procrastinate on my important long term projects and forgo future profits because of it

I could save time from cooking and eat MacDonalds & KFC

But I don't

I also don't particularly want to dedicate ALL of my free time to cubing. Sometimes I wanna go out and have fun with my friends, other times I just wanna read a book

The reason I want to make this whole point clear, is that not everyone wants to put their life aside for a plastic toy

And you know what? I'm totally with it

But we have to get a few things straight

First and foremost, if you're reading a blog about actionable cubing advice, there's a good chance you DO care a decent amount about being better at cubing…

There are obviously other things you could be doing that have a higher ROI on your life like exercise, learning subjects that can make you a lot of money, learning other languages so you can speak to more of the Worlds population etc etc

However since you're not reading the Bilingual Bench-Pressing Bitcoin Blog, then I'll assume that you're more interested in Cubing than the average person

Next, the young guns who can practice 3-8 hours a day without fail are going to have an advantage no matter what. However, if they spend their practice time poorly, you CAN still surpass them

BUT, if they really USE all 3-8 hours WISELY? You're gonna get left in the dust real quick if you actually expect yourself to compete at their level (and this shouldn’t be your goal if you’re short on time)

Which leads me to my next point

The LESS time you have, and the MORE you want to get FAST, then the SMARTER your practice HAS to be. There is absolutely no way you can get anywhere with 30 minutes of screwaround practice a day. You NEED to be working smarter if getting faster is something you TRULY care about

If you're in a position where you've only got 30 mins a day to cube, you're NOT going to out-hustle and out-grind the young guns. You just won't

Here’s what you CAN do

• 1. REALLY figure out how many hours a day you can cube. If you can set aside 2 hours a day without ANY of your day to day responsibilities getting in the way, then that's FANTASTIC and means you can be a LOT more flexible

  I don't care if you spend 5 hours a day playing Fortnite and not getting any sun. If you can still make time for 2 hours of cubing practice despite that, then you do you

• 2. Once you know how much time per day you CAN spend on cubing, figure out a personal schedule for yourself

  If you have 2 hours or more per day to cube, I would dedicate at least half an hour to doing intentional practice where you learn new algs, tricks, and make an effort to become more efficient a solver in some way on most days

  This could be doing unlimited inspection and forcing yourself to plan first pair more, or it could be doing slower solves where you FORCE yourself to not look at what your currently solving, which will help your look ahead

  After that half hour of focused practice, spend the rest of your time either doing an avg50/100/200, or doing more focused practice. It doesn't really matter as long as you're doing average of 50-100 solves on SOME regular basis

  Basically, just don't spend ALL of your cubing time looking at tutorials. If you critically think about what you do and don't suck at, you should KNOW what you need to work on. Compare your solves and skills to the likes of Feliks, or even just people 2-5 seconds faster than you

  Note that if you’ve got more than an hour a day to cube, you really don’t have to follow the exact regimen that I’ve laid out. You can probably get away with doing 0 intentional practice for days on end as long as you’re making a good effort when you DO, and you’re strict with implementing the correct ideas when you do solving sessions
  Now…

  …IF YOU DON'T HAVE AT LEAST 1 HOUR A DAY WHERE YOU CAN PRACTICE, either check point number 3 below, or accept the fact that you need to REALLY make a careful practice schedule and STICK TO IT

  If you're in the position where you've only got 30-60 mins a day to cube, I would suggest not trying to do both solves AND intentional practice/learning new things on the same day. Do solves one day, then the next day ONLY do intentional practice to work on your weaknesses, rinse repeat

• 3. If you DON'T have 2 hours a day where you can reliably practice each day, then you're either going to have to make SACRIFICES, or just accept the fact that you're working at a SERIOUS disadvantage

  I've already covered how to deal with only having 30-60 mins of practice time at the end of point 2, so this is mostly going to be some ideas to get you thinking of where you can MAKE time in your schedule

  Maybe you spend too much time on social media (Google ways to find out how much time per day you spend on sites like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc etc, the tools and apps for this are out there and they'll wake you up to say the least...)

  Maybe you spend too much time watching Netflix. If you're watching even 3 episodes of a show EVERY NIGHT, for most shows that's going to add up to MORE THAN AN HOUR OF YOUR LIFE. If you can be disciplined and save the Netflix for another time, then you've already got an extra hour that you can spend on cubing

  Maybe you have a social life, but it's a bit of a DEMANDING social life in the sense that it's taking up waaay too much of your time

  When I was a bit younger and a lot dumber I would go out clubbing and partying 2-3 times a week. Needless to say it didn't help my cubing improvement (or any aspect of my life for that matter other than social skills arguably). Have a social life, but also be willing to stay in and spend time on other things that are truly important to you

  Maybe you play too much Fortnite. I'm gonna be super blunt with this one

  If all you do all day is sit around and play video games, watch cubing videos, and do some solves for fun, you could legitimately be the next Lucas Etter or Patrick Ponce if you just stopped dicking around. I shouldn't have to explain to you how many extra hours a day you could spend on cubing practice if you limited video games to 0-2 hours per day

  Maybe you read too many books. I don't even know how many people this is going to describe, but it's a cubing newsletter so probably at least one person

  Read if you think it's making you smarter. Again, just be honest with yourself and consider how much time you're dedicating as well as how much you're actually GAINING from reading so much (are you getting actionable advice from these books? are you actually implementing the advice? does what you read give you paradigm shifting knowledge and thoughts?) 

Bottom line, if time is of the essence, you gotta work harder, smarter, and consistent, all at the same time

Nothing that’s impossible, or even complicated for that matter. Don’t expect it to be easy though (nothing worthwhile ever is)