The thing about creating consistent habits is to make them as easy as possible start doing. Keep it simple and make it convenient to begin. You’re less likely to start if doing that thing takes some setting up. The best way is to make it so that you can just jump right in. That means putting that smartphone away.
Recently, I launch the goal to learn the piano, which entails creating a habit of playing the keyboard every single day. With the aim to make it super easy to get started, I actually spent more money than necessary to create an actual piano station, if you will. Everything is in place, plugged in, and ready to rock. I just have to sit down, put on headphones, and press on the power.
The original idea was to plug the piano into my MacBook Pro to connect with the learning app. However, this involved moving the piano to my desk every single time, along with power and the sustain pedal. While this isn’t exactly cumbersome - takes a few minutes, that’s all - I want to eliminate this hurdle so that I would be more inclined to start playing.
As with most things in life, this means throwing money at the problem. In order to have a piano station, I had to buy another chair, and more importantly, an iPad. The tablet will be permanently plugged into the keyboard, with the Piano Marvel app a few taps of the finger away. Seems a bit overkill to buy an iPad just for this, though I’m sure I can find other uses for it (hello, Kindle app).
I’m still waiting on the chair to arrive, plus other bits and bobs to complete the setup. I think next week is when I can finally start this piano journey in earnest. Can’t wait!
But first, a firmware upgrade!