Practical ways to apply "Atomic Habits" for instrumental practice at home

Atomic Habits is a game-changer for parents of young musicians! If you want to build strong practice habits but lack time to read the book, this post will give you a quick guide on how this book will help.

In my last post, I shared two principles from Atomic Habits, one of them is Integrating habits into your daily rhythm. Building systems, not just goals.

Today, let’s get practical and look at how we can build the system for success.

Step 1: Habit Stacking

Link new habits to existing routines.

Our day to day life is made out of a series of habits. We habitually brush our teeth, eat breakfast, get dressed, put on shoes, and go out for classes or work every morning. These are all established routines. What we need to do is anchor our new habits to these existing daily routines, allowing the old habits to serve as stable foundations that help reinforce the new ones.

Existing habits exist for  important reasons and are normally quite stable. By building new habits upon these established routines, we can help the new behaviors stabilize more quickly.

The practical implementation is quite straightforward:

I often ask my students, "When would be a good time for you to practice each day?" Some students practice in the morning after waking up, others in the evening after dinner. The specific timing isn't crucial - what matters is identifying the existing daily routine that precedes practice time.

For instance, if it's after dinner, we anchor practice time to the mealtime routine. However, it must be consistently maintained.

Step 2: Make Practice Obvious (Environment Design)

A practice plan is essential and should be created collaboratively by the teacher and student. Once the plan is finalized, display it—along with the piano itself—in the most prominent, high-traffic areas of the home. For example, hang it on the bathroom door or wherever the child passes by frequently. The goal is to ensure the plan serves as a constant visual reminder throughout the day.  

*Key details

• - Position the plan at the child’s eye level. Parents can crouch down to their child’s height to determine the ideal placement.  

• - Design the plan to be visually engaging—use bright colors, illustrations, or even let the child personalize it by coloring sections themselves. Visual cues are powerful motivators!  

• Consistency is critical: Once set up, maintain this environment to reinforce the habit.

My “Sticky Note” Trick (Stolen from Mel Robbins!)

• Have students place a colorful sticky note on their wall after each practice.

• Watching the notes pile up builds visible momentum and pride.

Step 3: Link Practice to Positive Experiences

In the early stages, when practice hasn’t yet become inherently enjoyable or rewarding, connect it to activities your child finds pleasurable. For example:  

- Reward practice with an episode of their favorite show.  

- Use sticker charts to track progress (e.g., a star for each session).  

- Let the child choose small rewards (e.g., extra playtime, a special snack).  

Key rules for rewards:

-Consistency is key: Ensure rewards are given **every time** initially, tightly binding the existing routine (e.g., after-dinner chores) to practice and then to the reward.  

- **Create a ritual**: Chain the three elements into a fixed sequence: **existing routine → practice → reward**. Over time, this trio becomes an automatic new habit.  

Step 4: Make Practicing So Easy That You Can’t Say No (Execution Method)

This principle ties back to the “1% Rule” from the previous post—every day, break a complex passage into small sections. The smaller and simpler the practice chunks, the more sense of accomplishment they will feel. And the more accomplished they feel, the easier it is to stay consistent.

Many people find practicing difficult because their goals are too big and vague, like “playing the entire piece from start to finish.” Instead, they should focus only on problematic parts—practice just one measure, then gradually expand to two measures, four measures, and so on. This reduces pressure while improving efficiency.

Slow practice is the key—work on each finger movement until it’s stable, clear, and smooth, and breaking through technical barriers will become much easier.

The key to this principle is: After the first day of practice, they should feel, “Wow, this wasn’t as hard as I thought!”

The four principles above are all tested and proven effective methods. However, if even one principle is missing, the effectiveness will be significantly reduced. As parents, I’m sure you already know this: building good practice habits and mastering an instrument isn’t just the child’s or the teacher’s responsibility—it requires the teacher, parent, and child to work together and implement all four principles to achieve results.

The strategies I’ve shared today focus on optimizing the external environment for practice. But Atomic Habits also offers methods to shift mindset and attitudes to help children embrace practice. Stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll dive into those psychological strategies!

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Struggling with practice battles? Comment below—let’s brainstorm solutions!

使用《原子习惯》帮助孩子打造高效居家练琴习惯

《原子习惯》这本书真是广大琴童家长的救星，我建议所有的琴童家长都要读一读这本书，如果想要让你的小朋友建立好好的练琴习惯，但你没有时间读，那你就一定要看完这篇文章。

上篇文章跟大家分享了原子习惯的这本书2个原则，大家一定要先去看完。上次说到，要把好习惯融入到生活的节奏里并且建立一个系统， 今天来跟大家分享具体的执行方法：

第一是把新习惯和旧日常结合在一起

这个也叫Habit stacking习惯堆叠。我们每个人日常生活其实都习惯堆叠出来的，我们习惯早上起来就刷牙吃早饭，穿衣服穿鞋，出门上课上班。这些都是习惯。而我们要做的就是把我们要培养的新习惯和旧日常习惯捆绑在一起，这样我们在执行新习惯的时候旧的日常习惯就像一个锚一样帮我们固定住。

旧的习惯存在通常都有非常理由，也不会轻易改变，当我们把新习惯建立在旧日常上的时候，我们的新习惯会更快稳定下来。

具体的执行其实很简单：

我通常会问学生，你每天什么时候会练琴，有的学生是早上起来练琴，有的学生是晚上吃饭后练琴，具体时间不重要，重要的是理清楚在练琴之前，会有什么日常生活的习惯。

比如晚饭后，那么我们就将吃晚饭和练琴捆绑在一起，但注意这一步一旦开始一定要持续。

第二是要让练琴的提示显而易见 （环境设计）

练琴计划还是无论如何一定要做的，这一部分需要由老师和学生一起完成。做完练琴计划之后就是要把琴和练琴计划，放在家里最显眼的地方，放在每天经过最多次的地方，甚至贴在厕所门上也可以，目的就是要让你的小朋友一天要多次的这个练琴计划提醒到。注意不要贴得太高，要贴在小朋友视线范围内，家长可以试着蹲到小朋友的身高高度去找一个最适合贴练琴计划的地方。视觉上的提醒很重要，所以练琴计划也要做得好看颜色丰富，吸引眼球。也可以邀请小朋友自己涂色。

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我的独门方法其实是我从成功女性Mel Robbin身上学到，她用在自律健身，我用在练琴上：

我鼓励我的学生每天练完琴就在自己房间的墙上贴一个便利贴，日积月累，你就会看到自己一天一天的练习越来越多，这些彩色的便利贴清楚地提醒你该做的事，而当你看到这些一天天累积，成就感会激励你继续坚持下去。

第三让练琴跟开心的事情联系在一起

前期当练琴还没有太多乐趣和成就感的阶段，可以把练琴和愉快的事情结合起来，比如练完后奖励自已看一集喜欢的剧贴星星贴纸打卡记录，或是让小朋友自己选一些奖励。但奖励一定要持续和稳定，让奖励和旧日常都跟练琴捆绑在一起，形成一个旧日常+练琴+奖励的固定流程，把这三部分变成一个新的日常习惯。

第四要让练琴简单到无法拒绝 （执行方式）

这一点其实是呼应上一条视频的1%法则，就是每天的练琴里要把一个复杂的段落拆成几个小节，挑战自己分段完成。越拆越简单越小份，练习的过程就会越有成就感，越有成就感就越容易坚持。很多人觉得练琴困难，是因为目标定得太大、太模糊，比如“一次弹完整首曲子”。其实，你只需要练习那些有问题的小片段，比如先练1小节，再慢慢扩展。慢练是王道，把手指的每个动作都练到稳定，自然就更容易突破瓶颈！

这个原则就是第一天练完以后觉得，欸根本没有想象那么难，其实比想象中的完成容易多了，那就是一个好的开始。然后只要在这个可以感觉完成的程度上坚持住就可以了。大家都知道练琴不是一天就能练出来的，但太多人一开始就给自己设定太难太长的练习，导致无法练习，反而增加了挫败感和失败的几率。

以上的四个原则都是亲测有效的办法，但是少一个原则效果都大打折扣，相信各位家长也都知道，练好琴绝不是孩子或是老师的事，而是老师，家长孩子三方都要把四个原则都执行了才能达到效果。

以上的内容都是针对练琴的外在环境提出的方法，原子习惯这本书也提出一些从心态上改变的方法来帮助孩子练琴。我们下一篇会继续分享！

觉得有用的小伙伴点个赞吧！或者留言告诉我，在练琴中遇到的难题，我们一起想办法！