For ten summers, I had 25 minutes a day for 20 days to turn a total beginner into a drummer who could perform in front of the whole school. It’s proof that small progress adds up to something real.
I want to share something that I think will help us all feel a little better about small progress, even when it’s inconsistent.
10 Years of Proof
I taught private drum lessons for 20 years (between tours and studio work). For the last 10 of those, I taught a 5-week summer program at a school in Los Angeles, CA. I would have between 8-10 students, one-on-one for 25 minutes each day. That’s it. 25 minutes each day to teach a kid how to play drums. A few kids came in with some experience, but most had never played and just wanted to try it for the summer.
The big challenge was that the school always had a performance week at the end. So really I only had 4 weeks to teach them because week 5 was the big show.
I did this for 10 years, and every single time I thought it was impossible. There was no way I was going to be able to teach these kids how to go from zero to performing a whole song (playing along to a recording) in front of the school and the parents. And every year I was proven wrong. Every kid was able to do it. I can’t think of any exception. These were 2nd grade to 8th grade kids.
They were able to learn to do something incredible with only 25 minutes of focused teaching each day (honestly more like 20 minutes by the time they found their binder, drumsticks and told me why their pages were wet).
Why Small Progress Compounds
If you’ve read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, then you know the power of 1% improvements. A 1% daily improvement over 180 days is nearly 6 times better if you compound the results, or 180% better if you just add up all the 1 percents. Either way, it’s a big win.
I don’t really know what being 180% better means for music, math or writing exactly, but it definitely makes me feel better about days that are not as productive as others. Some days a I’m only productive for 10 minutes because… well, life finds a way. But 10 minutes every day for a year is over 3600 minutes or 60 hours of improvement.
Small progress still compounds.