I’ve found that ‘dashing’ can for work music practice. Often in working on techinque or a particular passage, the practice involved is mind-numbingly boring.

When I run into something that needs deep practicing, I’ll often set a timer for 10-15 minutes (sometimes shorter) and concentrate on just one aspect of the technique that is giving me the problem.

I find that I can stay focused on that practice task for the duration of the timer.

In addition, this is usually longer that the time I would spend if I just sat down and banged away at it for a few mintues until I got bored and either left practicing or moved on to something easier.