I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve given up on creative work.

First of all, actually sitting down to do the creative work was rare enough. The list of prerequisites was long: tidy office and home, emails answered, bills paid, routine tasks accomplished. I may as well have been Cinderella trying to go to the ball, simultaneously playing the role of my own evil stepmother.

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When you first start playing guitar, the physical pain can be quite a deterrent.

“It’s like getting a sunburn on your fingertips,” I tell students. “It’s okay. Keep playing every day — just take a lot of breaks.”

It gets worse before it gets better. However, for those who persist through the discomfort, magic awaits. Your body will, in obedience to your habits, provide assistance in the form of calluses. With this hardened extra skin, your guitar chords will ring out true and clear. Playing won’t hurt anymore, and your learning will accelerate.

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Ali, an eight-year-old piano student, was having trouble keeping her wrists level. She kept resting them on the piano case while she was playing, thus creating tension and restricting motion. Every few seconds, I had to either verbally correct her or gently nudge her wrists up.

Because I secretly desire to be a mean piano teacher rapping knuckles with a wooden ruler, I did this:

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When I started waking up at 5 AM, everything changed. Regardless of when I went to bed the night before, I had clarity and energy.

I could get more done before 8 AM than I would normally achieve in an entire day. In time, waking up at 8 AM began to feel like more of a hardship than waking at 5. I was missing my best time of day.

I’ve come to suspect that there’s nothing intrinsic to the morning hours that makes me so productive. Rather, the act of waking up early makes me feel virtuous and on top of things. I’m starting my day with an achievement that I feel good about.

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The human brain is extraordinarily good at optimization.

You do something a few times, and your brain goes, “Okay, I get it — we’re doing it this way from now on.” The neural pathways are strengthened so that next time, it takes less effort to get the same result. Meanwhile, unused pathways are ignored, like decommissioned highways.

Our nervous system facilitates and streamlines our learning. It gives us the so-called “muscle memory” we rely on when it comes to developing complex skills like learning a musical instrument, typing, or skateboarding. It allows us to chunk smaller pieces of information together, like recipes, times tables, and addresses, in order to memorize them.

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