How much mental real estate should your activity take up?
There’s lots of different tiers. There are some activities that you don’t need to think about when you’re not doing the activity. There are others that you should be thinking about all the time.
It’s up to us as leaders to decide and protect the amount our activity gets.
A middle school musician should not be expected to give as much mental real estate to music as a college music major. An entry-level job shouldn’t expect as much thought outside of work as a major leadership position.
So how do you decide and enforce mental real estate in the people you lead?
My ensembles each rehearse 2-3 hours per week. I ask my high school group to commit to personal practice of 5 minutes per day, 5 days per week. This is attainable for anyone and helps to reinforce the value of practice. But more importantly, it sets a goal for them outside of rehearsal – 5 minutes a day is the mental real estate it should take up.
I could rehearse more, I could demand more daily practice, I could take more mental real estate in any number of ways. I commit to holding back because if I take more, I’m taking it away from something else that might deserve their attention more. Family, school, other extracurriculars, as examples.
Could my ensembles climb higher if I demanded more mental real estate? Yes, undoubtedly. Will I demand it? Not in the foreseeable future.