Understanding Energy Levels

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,: 2024

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To start off the two-hour lesson, you begin with a few scales (easy peasy) and some warmup exercises (you don’t really need a warmup, though; your heart is just always on fire for the bassoon, obviously). But your teacher is a methodical person and wants you to work through the exercise book. So you do the exercises, and with ease. Then about an hour and twenty minutes into the lesson, you’re ready to start with the good stuff: the Sonata in F Minor by Telemann. The opening of the second movement is a thing of sublime beauty, you feel. You hear it in your dreams at night. It’s a great piece, but it’s also really, really difficult.

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You tackle it confidently, but by the time you get to the second movement, something awful happens: You get tired. You start out okay, but you soon fumble and quickly lose your pizzazz. A few sad goose noises later and it’s all over. You’re a little bit heartbroken. Your methodical teacher says not to worry, practice makes perfect. He’ll see you tomorrow again, and then you’ll give it another try. But the next day when you sit down, he opens the exercise book once more and asks you to begin at the beginning, with the same old scales and warmup exercises ...

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You can see what’s happening. The person in our example has high motivation (uh, suspiciously high motivation) to play the bassoon. And yet, this doesn’t help them avoid the natural fatigue that comes with practice and learning. Energy isn’t infinite. In fact our energy levels rise and fall in a predictable pattern, and if we wish to make the best use of that limited energy, we need to be strategic (there’s that word again!) and plan our activities accordingly. In practice sessions, there are three types of energy to consider, and it's important to learn how to invest in each of them properly.

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Your energy tends to be high at the start of a practice session, and steadily fall. Your current maximum skill level tends to stay constant. Usually, traditional lessons and practice sessions start slow and build up so that your maximum skill level is reached only after quite some time has passed—i.e., after you’re already getting tired. People who excel at high-quality practice tend to practice new and difficult skills either at the beginning or middle of their session instead, avoiding the end where they might have lower energy. In other words, they reverse the conventional order and start with the most challenging thing first. The above diagram basically shows us that there are two energy modes: high-value energy, which is focused and active, and low-value energy, which is passive and less productive. High-value energy is available at the beginning and stays until approximately the middle of the practice session.

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From that point on, low-value energy takes over, and it lacks the necessary focus and productivity for effective progress. The current maximum skill level refers to the highest level of difficulty that a person can achieve in performing a skill at the present moment. It is unique to each individual and represents the edge of their abilities, where they are pushing themselves to their limit but are still capable of handling the challenge. The "new-level skill" is given priority and takes up a significant portion of practice time, either during the "high-value" or "good-value" phase. The "high-value" phase serves as an intense warmup to prepare for practicing the new skill effectively. Naturals rarely use the "low-value" phase, and they may stop practicing once they reach this level. However, this doesn't mean they neglect their routines entirely—it’s still a great opportunity to practice things like scales.

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Naturals prioritize progress and constantly push their limits with harder skills, but they eventually do come back to perfect their routines. Their approach makes it easier to transition from challenging skills to routines, as energy levels sync well. Of course, it's important not to overdo it or attempt skills far beyond current capabilities—that will just overwhelm and demoralize you. A general guideline is to work at first on skills that are about five to ten percent above the current maximum skill level. It’s that magic place just a few steps outside your comfort zone. If you are doing slow practice as described in the previous section, you might choose to lead every practice session with the single task that you are choosing to focus on. This may be a little confusing, because slow practice rests on the idea of building up to the big thing, while the approach described above encourages you to dive in and do the big thing first.

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So which is the right way? Look closely and you’ll see that both ways are. So, you might identify the second movement of the sonata as your most important skill to master. This is your “big thing." You make sure you work on this first, when your energy levels are highest. However, the first ten minutes of your lesson may be slow practice again—slowly drilling through that second movement again and again, then doing it at normal speed, etc. It’s essentially the opposite of waiting till late in the lesson to run at full speed through the most difficult task.

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Here are some more tips to better manage your natural energy levels: Reverse the Practice Order Instead of starting with routine-based skills and gradually increasing difficulty, try reversing the order. Begin with the most challenging skill or technique, using your peak energy and focus at the start of the session. Progress to easier skills as your energy decreases. This way, you can dedicate your high-value energy to pushing your current maximum skill level, leading to more effective progress. One way to structure this is to use the tail end of a practice session for consolidating what’s already been learned earlier on. So, once you’ve already worked on your most challenging skill or technique, you can gradually move it to the later end of the session as you make room for new skills and techniques. Another great thing about this approach is that you’ll be feeling more capable after tackling a challenge and can carry some of that confidence forward.

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If you have already felt that you can do the big thing, the smaller things that follow will seem even easier and more enjoyable. Do it the other way around, though, and you may just make yourself bored with the easy stuff and intimidated by the hard stuff. Let’s say you’re practicing the violin (that bassoon obsession was a little unhealthy). At the start of your lesson, work on challenging pieces, difficult bowing techniques, or intricate fingerings—whatever it is you’ve identified as your chosen challenge. As your energy gradually decreases, transition to practicing scales or exercises that you have already mastered, using your remaining energy to refine and solidify those skills. Embrace the Growth Mindset Instead of fearing the loss of skills you have already achieved, Adopt a growth mindset focused on continuous improvement and everything that you can still learn. Understand that progress requires pushing your boundaries and seeking new challenges.

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Prioritize improvement over maintaining existing skills, and trust that your routines will improve naturally as you progress. If many of us are honest, we sometimes get a little too comfortable with what we already know. We sit down for an hour to practice something new but only dedicate a tiny fraction of that hour to genuinely new material—the rest may be familiar tasks we run through just because it doesn’t take much effort but still feels like we’re accomplishing something. With a growth mindset, you'll be more open to taking on new, demanding violin pieces and techniques, for example, which will lead to significant progress over time. Be Aware of Cognitive Biases Educate yourself about the cognitive biases that can impact decision-making and progress in practice. Recognizing and understanding these biases can help you make more rational and effective choices in your training. It’s no exaggeration to say that certain unchallenged beliefs and assumptions about learning can be an enormous impediment to learning, canceling out all your effort and intention.

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The biggest threat is almost never lack of talent or intelligence; more likely it’s another dangerous duo: fear and laziness (which we’ll charitably call “comfort orientation”). Two big biases to watch out for when it comes to better practice are: The anchoring bias, which might lead you to fixate on specific practice routines or techniques that you are used to, even if they are not yielding the desired progress. The human brain tends to overvalue the first piece of information it’s exposed to and place more weight and importance on that. While we can certainly use that to our advantage, a downside of this mental shortcut is that we tend to fall into habits and just passively assume that the habit is the best or only way to do things. In our violin example, you might keep returning to the same old practice books or list of exercises that you’ve stuck with for years just because of the momentum of habit. Your routines and habits may accidentally be just the right ones for you, but without consciously appraising their value, you won’t really know. Getting too attached to any one technique or method may keep you quite limited so that you essentially end up practicing how to be the same—i.e., stagnation and plateauing are the only natural outcome.

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Additionally, be cautious of the status quo bias, which could make you reluctant to explore new, more challenging pieces or techniques. Basically, if what you’re doing sort of works, you feel that you might as well maintain the status quo, especially since trying something new may mean more effort and risk. Challenge yourself to break away from familiar routines and be open to trying new approaches and materials to reach higher skill levels. A big caveat is due, however. Bearing in mind the importance of deliberate and strategic practice, it’s worth paying attention to what you schedule to coincide with your highest energy level. You won’t get very far if you don’t already have a clear idea of your long- and medium-term goals, nor will you succeed if you’re not really clear on what your strengths and weaknesses are (that’s where your teacher comes in handy). Returning to our roadmap, we can only “practice with focus” if we have completed the previous step, i.e., “have SMART goals in place."

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The Stages of Mastery How do human beings learn to do anything new? Have you ever considered what that process is actually like? If you’re like most people, it’s something you’ve never paid much attention to—you may have just taken your ability to learn, develop, and acquire mastery for granted, perhaps only becoming aware of it when it didn’t work as you thought it should. But learning follows predictable and observable patterns. We can develop theories about what learning is and how it unfolds, and then use these theories to help us devise a way of learning that works with our innate nature, rather than vainly tries to push against it (which is not only exhausting and demoralizing, but also really inefficient). The “stages of learning” is one such framework that helps individuals understand their progress in acquiring new skills. The four stages are briefly summarized like this: 1. Unconscious incompetence:you don’t know how, and you don’t know that you don’t know 2. Conscious incompetence:you don’t know how, but you know that you don’t know 3. Conscious competence:you are beginning to know how, and you know it 4. Unconscious competence:you know how, but you’re beyond being aware of it Let’s take a closer look.

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Unconscious incompetence: At this stage, the person lacks awareness of what they need to know or learn to perform a specific skill effectively. They may not even realize that there is a skill they need to develop. Conscious incompetence: In this phase, individuals become aware of the skills they lack and the areas they need to improve. They recognize their incompetence and may feel challenged by the complexity of the skill they are trying to acquire. Conscious competence: At this stage, the person has acquired the skill but requires conscious effort and focus to demonstrate it successfully. They can perform the skill, but it still requires concentration and practice to execute it effectively. Unconscious competence: This is the final stage of learning, where the individual has achieved mastery of the skill.

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Performing the skill becomes effortless and automatic, requiring no conscious effort or thought. They can combine skills or create unique blends effortlessly. You might be wondering how it helps to know about these four stages. Practical implications of these stages include gaining awareness and self-confidence during the initial learning phase and continuing to practice and refine the skill even in the mastery stage to maintain proficiency and possibly combine it with other skills for even greater expertise. In other words, it’s about pitching your efforts to match the level you’re actually in. Depending on where you are, you will need to focus on different needs and acquire different skills. Let’s take a look at each stage in turn, with an example that will demonstrate just how much a person’s needs and challenges shift as they improve in any chosen task.

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The task for our example is one that many of us have had to master: driving a car. The first stage is unconscious incompetence—and ignorance is bliss, as they say. You don’t know what you don’t know, and you may completely lack comprehension about just how “bad” you are at the skill, or what it takes to acquire it. In our example, let’s say you’re a plucky teenager who has yet to earn their learner’s permit, and glibly thinks, “Man, driving looks pretty easy. I bet I can get the hang of it in no time. What a waste of time to have to get this stupid learner’s permit first ... ” Therein lies one of the biggest risks at this level: overestimating your own abilities. (Isn’t it funny how the people who know the least often think they know the most?

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That’s not just teenagers, sadly, but most humans!) When you overestimate your abilities or underestimate the size of the challenge, you end up failing to prepare or strategize. The risk then is that you are overwhelmed by the challenge and quit prematurely. First, it’s normal to start out any new project of skill acquisition as a beginner. It’s part of the process to be a total newbie who doesn’t even grasp how much of a newbie they are. That’s worth repeating: It’s normal. If you’ve identified that you’re at this level of your learning, great—there’s no shame in it and it’s not a mistake.

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Your task is to maintain open-minded curiosity and energy and be willing to learn (that usually means be willing to make a bit of a fool of yourself). What you should focus on: •Enjoy yourself and have fun. Be playful. Don’t get in the car with fear and seriousness—remind yourself that learning should feel like exploring, not like a dreaded chore. •The masters. Identify key players and see what you can learn from them. Don’t worry about yourself just yet—focus on what the experts do when they do the task.

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Look at how people who have been driving for years drive. •Look for patterns and underlying themes. Ask questions—a lot of questions—and be willing to hear a range of different answers. What you should avoid: •Being in too much of a hurry to get out of this stage. Being impatient with yourself and judgmental of your beginner’s efforts (in fact, as we’ll see later, the “beginner’s mind” is a pretty powerful place to be) •Assuming you can be trusted to just know what the next step is. Who knows, maybe you’re a brilliant genius who really does know, but in case you’re not, be humble and seek guidance about the exact skills you need to be learning and how to start chipping away at those skills. The second stage is conscious incompetence.

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This stage can be a bit of a bummer because, if you’ve stuck with it, you’re suddenly much more aware of just how much it’s going to take to gather mastery. In other words, you still don’t know how to do the thing, but you’re painfully aware of the fact and can see just how big your skill gap is. Another bit of bad news is that this stage can sometimes last the longest, and that can be a blow to the ego. There’s a big difference between a “growth mindset” (i.e., you believe that ability is more like a skill to learn with effort rather than an innate characteristic) and a “fixed mindset” (i.e., you either have the talent or you don’t, so there’s no point trying to learn anything). The growth mindset is one that will help you navigate this stage with grace and humility, while the fixed mindset is the one that will lead you to giving up before you’ve reached the goal you wanted to reach. Here, your main task is simply to persist. What you should focus on: •Identify a rock-solid source of motivation and tap into it regularly to stay motivated and resilient in the face of setbacks and challenges (more about this later).

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You keep reminding yourself of why you want to drive and just how great it will be to pass that test and have that freedom. •Small, achievable goals you can dedicate to yourself daily, or even just hourly if the task is big and intimidating. Forget about highway driving and overtaking and parallel parking; just focus for the moment on one skill: smoothly transitioning from first to second gear. Just do that first. •Taking action. The previous stage is about more passive learning, whereas this stage is about identifying what you can do to get out of your comfort zone, and then committing to doing it. What you should avoid: •Comparing yourself to others.

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You want to pay attention to how expert drivers do their thing, but don’t turn that into a judgment about yourself. Be inspired by them. •Being lazy. You need to be patient and put in the work. That’s pretty much the long and the short of it. Book your lessons and attend every one, no excuses. •Having no plan.

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You need goals, and you need a plan. When (note, not if, but when) your plan goes awry, shrug your shoulders, find the lesson, and move on quickly. The third stage is conscious competence. Now we’re getting somewhere! At some point, all of this patient practice starts to pay off, and you’re beginning to make progress. You’re improving. It feels amazing to focus on a weakness, work hard at it, and notice that you’re gaining ground.

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Go you! The truth is, though, that at first you might dip in and out of this stage, occasionally falling back into the previous level as you work at retaining your newly acquired skill. So, maybe you’re pretty good at driving in the quiet suburbs, but get muddled on busier roads. At this stage you know exactly what competence looks like, and you know when you’re hitting that mark ... and when you’re falling short. What you should focus on: •Continually refine your skill. Keep going (remember each stage of the deliberate practice roadmap?), and when you mess up, grab hold of it and become curious why. •Transfer what you’re learning to other contexts or situations.

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Try driving around a supermarket parking lot. Try driving someone else’s car. Try driving an automatic. Drive for longer distances. •Deliberate, consistent practice that is dynamic enough to change and adapt as you learn. What to avoid: •Complacency. Especially with something like driving, it may be perfectly okay to learn the bare minimum to pass your test, and then just get on with life.

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But be honest with yourself about what you want and are capable of, and don’t get lazy when your skill reaches the “good enough” level. •Avoidance! Sometimes, we can fall into the habit of avoiding our weaker areas in favor of drilling what we already know and are comfortable with. Reverse this tendency and deliberately drill your weaker areas. •Burning yourself out. You need to take breaks, step back occasionally, and reassess. Some skills need time to settle in and for us to really process them properly.

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It’s a mistake to assume you don’t need to pause now and then! The final stage is unconscious competence. You’ve passed your test and have been driving for a year now, and it’s all pretty much automatic for you. You know how to drive, but you’re not consciously aware of this ability at all times. You’ll know you’ve reached this stage—no matter what skill you’re learning—when you can simply use this skill as a tool without skipping a beat. It becomes invisible to you, the way that language is invisible when you’re having a very meaty and high-level conversation. There was a time when you were a baby, for example, that you didn’t know how to coordinate your legs or even stand up.

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But, having mastered that skill, you are now able to run, jump, crawl, swim, skip, tiptoe, or do the hokey pokey without giving it a second thought. Your goal in this stage is to enjoy yourself and revel in your mastery. You could also strive to teach others or develop your practice even further and into different areas—in our example that might look like signing up for an advanced driving course or going on a 4X4 ATV adventure in the deserts of Namibia. Some skills are like “riding a bicycle” and are pretty much banked forever once we learn them, but the more complex ones do require some maintenance, so it’s worth protecting those gains and embarking on continuous development and refinement. Perhaps the biggest challenge at this level is accurately identifying exactly how far you want to go in this field of mastery. Do you want to be average? Better than average?

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Expert? Not every skill needs to be pressed to its absolute human limits (can you imagine?), but we should also be on guard against letting fear and laziness trim our dreams down too small. Well-defined goals will allow us to confidently say, “I’ve done the thing. I can stop now." Thinking of learning in terms of stages in this way reminds us to not take certain processes for granted, but to continually become aware of where we are, what we’re doing, and what we need to do better if we hope to achieve something bigger than that. Before we move on to the next chapter, ask yourself which stage of mastery you might be at (it’s possible to straddle two stages). Then identify one thing you can begin to focus on moving forward.

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Thank you for listening to The Science of Self. If you like what you just heard, we hope you'll pass along our web address, newtonmg.com, to your friends and colleagues, as well as that of the author, Bitly slash Peter Hollins. This has been a Newton Media Group production. Join us next Thursday for another episode of The Science of Self.