Tip: Deadlines & Audiences

"Deadlines & Audiences"
Which one would be
positive...?

  Since I've gotten to college I've been trying to pay more attention to how I, and others around me, learn and grow to develop a system that's as efficient as possible. A big thing that had puzzled me for awhile was the fact that I'd be working on a certain technique or etude and nothing would really settle into my mind and start working until a day or two before my lesson. It kept getting me frustrated and worried because I was feeling as if I wasn't prepared at all until the last second every week. This same situation also occurs with many others around me and I've seen similar reactions to finally "getting" something at the last moment. What could be behind this phenomenon...

  The title probably gave this away, but I believe that having a deadline and audience to perform to on that deadline breeds this result. Let's a deeper look into the roles each of these elements provides.


Deadline
  It's great to set deadlines for yourself because it makes you push to get work done. Whether it's in a practice room, or finishing a paper by the end of the week, when you set deadlines stuff gets done. As long as you keep setting realistic goals and achieving them you'll be on a fast-track to success.
  The problem that can arise from setting a deadline is procrastination. You might say, "I have an entire week to learn this etude, I'll be fine." All of a sudden you're sight reading the etude a couple days before you need to have it done. This will cause stress, anxiety, and quite a few other negative side effects.


Audience
  In any kind of performing art, learning to deliver in front of an audience is the goal. This usually starts out with getting used to playing etudes for a private teacher. After that it's into concerts, college professors, recitals, and eventually professional jobs. Successfully navigating these stepping stones as a performer can be a long -nerve racking- experience, but in the end it'll all be worth it.
  The problem that arises whenever you're getting ready to be in front of any form of an audience is performance anxiety. The symptoms vary from person to person and for me these include shallower breathes, shakier limbs, and my mind starts to rush. Only by performing numerous times in front of people can we learn how to work through these problems. Personally, I have to remember to take a deep breathe before I play and make sure not to lock my knees when I'm standing and playing.


Combined Effect
  These elements have such drastic effects, both positive and negative, that when you put them together you're bound to get some powerful results...
  One of the main reasons we get teachers is so there's someone keeping us honest to our deadlines. If someone is extremely self-motivated then they haven't needed people keeping them in track as much. For everyone else, a teacher is going to keep pushing us to meet every deadline that has been set. On top of that, they can be one of your toughest audiences because won't let anything slip.


  If we take a second to remember the negatives of both elements we get the anxiety of not reaching the deadline in time, and the anxiety of performing for an audience. Now I bet, many of you are probably thinking this is going to end up meaning something really bad is going to happen. On the contrary, instead of a negative+another negative=a bigger negative it's more like a negative(X)another negative=a positive!

  The way this works is because the brain isn't always as receptive to new information as we'd like, just look at how hard it can be to get rid of a bad habit. The brain is already full of millions of ways to perform tasks, and overriding certain functions that have already spent a long time being ingrained can take a lot of work. The trick is, when all the anxiety of trying to input this new information starts stacking up the brain can actually "change gears" to a setting where it's more relaxed and accepts a lot knowledge at a much more efficient rate. This is when turning actions into habits starts to get faster and we notice a lot more results.


Conclusion
  That being said, we can now understand why we can practice an entire week and only start seeing development the last couple days. The brain needs the correct circumstances to take in this mass of new knowledge, and that may take awhile to get to. 
  What this doesn't mean that we can procrastinate until the last second and get the same results. You'll still the most done at this time since you're brain will be "going into overdrive" at this last minute work, but without a consistent amount of time each day being built up going into this phase, the results won't be nearly as good. This is more of an explanation for why you develop as you do, so you're not freaking out over it at the end of each week, and not a justification for procrastination.