Your mother probably told you that practice makes perfect.  Well she was wrong.  Practice can only make better.  Practice is about making a new skill second nature.  Practice regularly but twenty minutes every day is far better than three hours once a week.

The Importance of Self Appraisal

One of the most flexible and effective ways to improve is to self-appraise.  You can decide what’s important and work at your own pace.

Clearly Talking recommends that you record your practises with a video camera.  You will also need a camera tripod so that you can operate it on your own.

Video is excellent for voice work because it’s important to see the effect of your body language and look for things like articulation and facial expressions.

3-2-1 Self Appraisal Method

Find Three Things you Like

Always find three things you like: it’s important to encourage yourself and it’s easy to be hard on yourself and hate what you’re seeing.

Find Two Things to Improve

Notice that it’s two things to improve not two things to fix.  You might want to work on something that is already good and get it better.  Again it’s easy to be hard on yourself but you’re probably not as bad as you think.

Number One Priority

Prioritise the things to improve and pick the most important.  If you try and fix everything you’ll fall flat on your face, but work on one and you’re much more likely to achieve it.  The other things will still be there later or it may be that they won’t seem as important.

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