Practicing

Posted by Rich Crowley in Personal Improvement, Training

During the past few weeks, I’ve taken some time off from “real work” to do some upgrading in the various areas my project management work requires me to have some knowledge.

During this time off, it has become apparent to me that I’ve fallen into a terrible trap over what is an embarrasingly long period of time – years! This trap is that I have quit “practicing” the skills I use each day.

When we think of professional athletes, entertainers, etc, we tend to think of them in the context of their playing field or arena. That’s where we see them perform. However, these people also spend a great deal of time practicing around their performances. All professionals should. It’s a little harder to understand what it means to “practice” if you are a PM, or any kind of manager for that matter.

However, during the past few weeks, I’ve come to realize that the kind of practicing that I’ve been neglecting is rather simple in form – formal courses, reading books, reading material on the web, writing (I’ve started this blog), documenting in a detailed formal way the lessons I’ve learned from the projects I’ve managed.

What’s interesting to me is that the material I’ve taken in has been much more beneficial and interesting when not tacked on to the end of a work day at 10:00 at night when I’m too tired to appreciate it.

The lesson here is that we all need to practice our skills and the optimal time for this is when we are rested and ready to learn.