Become a Time Manager

It looks like your main struggle is lack of consistent practice at home. Maybe when you are in class, with a teacher and a group of fellow dancers, you are doing fine. At the same time, you know that you need to do additional practice on your own to see real progress in your dance. Or maybe you don’t even have access to in-person classes, but you want to master the art of belly dance using online learning. You may even know exactly what you need to practice and how to work on your skills, but your main issue is to make yourself actually start the practice and keep it consistent.

That doesn’t mean that you don’t need to work on your technique, creative skills, or deepen your history knowledge. It just means that right now your main blocking issue is procrastination and lack of consistent training. In order to see significant growth in your dance, solving this issue should be your current priority.

Here are some actionable ideas on how to improve your dance habits:

• Schedule your practice in advance. If it’s not on your schedule, it most likely won’t happen. Don’t wait for some ‘random free time’ that you can dedicate to dancing. Create that time. You need to know WHEN, WHERE and for HOW LONG you are going to practice. Answering those questions are non-negotiables for you. Additional tip: try to schedule your dance training earlier in the day, when you have more energy, AND earlier in the week, so it's not left till the last moment which often transfers to the next week, or eventually never happens.

• Don’t overschedule. This is a very typical mistake that often makes us feel frustrated and overwhelmed, and eventually makes us give up any attempts to change our habits. If you have a super busy schedule, you may not be able to do 2-hour training sessions three times per week. So there is no use in trying to schedule those 2 hours in the first place. Don’t let ego get in your way: your final goal is to improve your dance skills, not to accumulate practice hours. Be realistic, and remember: 20 minutes of practice is always better than none if they are done consistently. 

• Stop focusing on obstacles. Start searching for opportunities. We all have busy lives, and often get overwhelmed with our daily to-do tasks. It may seem almost impossible to fit dance into our schedule. At least that’s what we think…⁣⁣ Or another excuse: no space to practice at home. Yes, indeed not all of us have the luxury to dedicate a separate room for our home studio. But I’m here to prove that you don’t need it. Any corner can be transformed into your sacred dance temple. You can fit training into your daily routine even if you have only 5 minutes and 1 square meter to practice on (and everyone does have these). For instance, how about dedicating three minutes in the morning, right after you brush your teeth, to work on your shimmies? You don’t even need to leave the washroom to do it! What a beautiful way to wake your body up while improving your dance technique. Think about your own daily dance ritual that will help you improve your dance skills.

• Come up with your personal rewards. We usually reward ourselves only at the end of the journey instead of celebrating small wins along the way. Instead, divide your goal into digestible chunks and NEVER SKIP your celebration moment! In your case it may be to reward yourself for showing up for your practices. It doesn’t even matter if there are any visual changes in your technique for now. Your main focus at this stage is improving consistency in your training, so boost your motivation with cool rewards. For instance, celebrate 10 days of consistent practice with a new cute hip scarf, or one month of learning a new choreography with a spa salon visit, etc.

• Dress up. It’s very difficult to feel motivated if you don’t like what you see in the mirror. Especially when we practice at home, our tendency is to put on whatever is comfy and available close by. Very often we may not even like those clothes, but who cares? Nobody sees us. At least that’s what we think. - Yes, nobody sees us, except ourselves! And you are your most frequent audience member, so why not take care of her! Get rid of any training outfit that is damaged, looks old, or simply doesn’t inspire you. Believe me, once you update your training wardrobe, you’ll feel the urge to wear those outfits more often.

• ⁣No distractions. Put your phone away and on silence mode during your training time. Seriously. A phone is a huge distraction for all our activities. If you keep checking it during your training, you won’t even notice how you wasted all the time on scrolling Instagram/emails, instead of using it for the actual dance practice. In addition,  your muscles will have to switch from relaxed to engaged state all the time, AND your mind will need to shift its focus constantly.

• Engage online resources. We all have those days when even though we have scheduled a proper time for practice, we feel absolutely lazy and not enthusiastic about dancing at the moment. If you feel that you are dragging yourself through the session, and it feels more like a waste of time rather than a productive workout, turn on an online video class. This way you delegate the decision-making task to someone else, and you'll be surprised how much easier it is to follow someone else's instructions rather than be a student and your own teacher at the same time.

• Create obstacles for skipping the practice. If you absolutely don’t trust your self-discipline and commitment, create ‘obstacles’ for skipping your practices. The best way is to involve other people at first. For instance, enroll in online live streaming classes that offer no recordings, or a very limited time to rewatch the class afterwards. This is a great option if you are one of those people who keeps postponing dance training for later. You simply cannot do it with such a class, so you are forced to show up, or you will lose your money. Another option is taking individual online classes. It makes you commit to show up at a specific time, because you know that your teacher will be there specifically for you. Eventually, you can think how to transfer such time constrictions into your own dance practice even without involving other people.

• Gather your own accountability group. I bet there are other dancers in your city who would like to boost their dance training as well as connect to likeminded people! Put together a group of 3-5 dancers dedicated to enhance their training, and arrange weekly or biweekly dance meetings. It can be in-person or via Zoom/Skype. On each meeting you rotate a facilitator who prepares what your group is working on: it can be the drilling of a specific combo, an online video class, or a discussion topic. This hack is similar to the previous one, but it has its own benefits. First of all, it’s free. You don’t need to purchase any classes. Secondly, it’s fun because you never know which topic other dancers will bring up. And lastly, it forces you to practice and explore more when you are preparing your own facilitator topic to present to the group. Be creative!

I hope you got inspired with some of the suggestions! Don’t try to implement them all at once. Choose one or two that spoke to you the most, and implement them right now. Then in a month add one or two more, and so on. Gradual change has more chances for success, but your commitment needs to be consistent. Good luck with it!

Action-steps review:

• Schedule your practice in advance. 

• Don’t overschedule. Be realistic, and remember: 20 minutes of practice is always better than none if they are done consistently. 

• Stop focusing on obstacles. Start searching for opportunities. Think about your own daily dance ritual that will help you improve your dance skills.

• Come up with your personal rewards. 

• Dress up. Get rid of any training outfit that is damaged, looks old, or simply doesn’t inspire you. 

• ⁣No distractions. Put your phone away and on silence mode during your training time. Engage with online resources. 

• Create obstacles for skipping the practice.Enroll in online live streaming classes that offer no recordings, or a very limited time to rewatch the class afterwards. Another option is taking individual online classes. 

• Gather your own accountability group. 

Suggested book:

"Atomic Habits" by James Clear. It will teach you how to make small changes that will transform your habits and deliver amazing results.

Related episodes of the Belly Dance Life podcast:

Ep 211. Jasirah: How to Find New Business Ideas as a Dancer

Ep 137. Maris: Finding Joy & Transformation in Belly Dance

Ep 105. Nabila: It's Never Too Late to Start and Succeed

Ep 59. Amir Thaleb: Art Needs Discipline & Respect, Not Labels

Ep 56. Daliya: Improve Your Dance Every Day

Ep 31. Jillina Carlano: How Food Can Influence Your Dance

Ep 19. Jasirah: How to Practice on Your Own. Tips & Tricks

Ep 15. Cassandra Fox: Healthy Does Not Have a Face

Suggested articles:

How to Keep Accountability for Your Training

Additional resources for the members of the Iana Dance Club:

The Iana Dance Club is an online platform that offers 300+ video tutorials in the format of 20-min technique drills, choreography breakdowns, 3 to 10-week intensives, and in-depth full-length courses. If you are not a member of the club, you can join it for a 7-day free trial, and explore all the tools available there.

• If you are struggling with consistency of your training, start it easy. Simply follow the three suggested technique drills that are published weekly on the Members Area page. Each tutorial is only 20 minutes long. You will be doing a warm up and technique section together with me, so no need for any extra preparations. Just try to do each drill on a separate day, not jamming them in a 1-hour session. That will build a habit of CONSISTENT practice.

• A series of intensives have short 4-min exercises that can be your daily ritual for improving technique. Check intensives like Hips Shimmy, Egyptian Knee Shimmy, Vibration Shimmy, Belly Flutters and Rolls, and Fluid Arms. You can follow the entire intensive, or just borrow those ideas for short daily workouts.

• If you need the feeling of a supportive community around you, participate in our current intensives. We do group assignments, keep each other accountable, and follow motivational deadlines with fun gift raffles at the end of each intensive. This is a great option of combining social aspects with benefits of online, on-demand training.