Ever try a practice journal?

I’ve been lazy at practice for awhile. I’ve got tons of things I want to work on in my technique and tons of things that I’ve purchased that I have yet to even look at. I’ve decided to take a page from the playbook of a few other guitar players I know and try a practice journal.

There is no correct way to do this, but I’ll go ahead and outline my strategy.

1. Only plan a week of practice at a time. This should help accommodate the changing needs of what I should practice.
2. Always start your last practice session of the week by planning the next week so you don’t end up with a day with no plan.
3. Write down what you want to work on, and that day write down what you actually worked on.
4. Be descriptive, draw shapes, keep good notes.
5. Keep something handy to record if you stumble upon something awesome.
6. Mix it up, don’t spend multiple days on the same topic if you can help it.
7. Put in some of the things you would otherwise avoid (transcription, reading music, etc.)

I think the beauty of this is that it’s a forcing function to make you practice. So often we’ll just jam and call it practice, or go days without practicing. Since I have a plan, I find a way to commit 30 minutes to an hour on some specific thing I want to work on.

Have you tried this? Did it work for you? Sound off!