Knowing that "practice is the only secret recipe for improving" is painful and blessing at the same time. It is painful because I cannot practice properly to satisfy myself. It is a blessing because I am focusing on my inner self after many years. So, I am here to get some advice and help to figure out my problems.
Main Topic
I have doing competitive programming for the last two years. I could not improve much because of my lack of practice. I have been trying to practice since 2020, but I am facing problems consistently during my practice sessions. My problems are,
- I cannot solve problems or think about problems after one and two hours of intense thinking, but I can spend time on one problem for an infinite amount of time. In another word, I can try or hold a problem for a long time(even months), but I cannot think or brainstorm more than an hour at once.
- I am mentally tired during my training session most of the time. If I do it after waking up from sleep morning, I think very clearly. But after an hour or two hours, I cannot even think of any brainstorming work and I get fully distracted. It will take 7 or 8 hours to recover, and sometimes a day.
So, I believe, if I last at brainstorming for a large amount of time during a session, I can improve much. How can I increase mental strength to last many hours(7-8 hours together) of practice at one session?
Many thanks for your concern. If you have any suggestion, advice or solution, please let me know. I will be thankful to you.
yes, it's hard when you can't solve a problem, can't find a soln online, and no one in the group can solve it either :')
I cannot brainstorm for more than one hour. This is my concern. I can not even think after one hour, and my brain doesn't work then. Can you please help me with this? I am starting to doubting myself and my brainstorming power.
tbh 1hr is LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG
Different things work for different people, but for me, I learned more when I started using editorial more. If you have no new ideas, especially if you are having trouble focusing, just read editorial, implement it, reflect on how you should've came up with it, and move on. You're only having trouble focusing because it is hard to focus when stuck. No point in forcing yourself to think about a problem for so long, and it probably isn't very useful after you're out of ideas, as the most important thing in practice is to expose yourself to as many ideas as possible.
Great idea, "Something is better than nothing". I should work according to this. I slip off my mind that, one thing I can obviously do is to understand problems statement and learn from the editorial any time, even in tired condition. Thanks for your suggestion.
I agree with SuperJ6, I made that mistake too. I will further add this.
I too can't do that and I only practice for 2 hours on most days(started from 40 mins). I tried forcing myself to do two sessions in morning and evening it became too much after 10 — 11 days of doing that straight and I had to take a break of a week before solving another problem after that and almost 20 days before I could start doing problems consistently again.
So, I figured consistency is more important and this video further convinced me(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fbCcWyYthQ). Long story short if I was ever going to do long hours of practice consistently everyday, I would choose to get consistency right first, then going longer hours gradually. The other way did not work for me time and again(ie. forcing myself to go long hours consistently from day 1).
You are right, "Consistency is more important than inconsistent lengthy training". If I can be consistent enough, I should improve. The lengthy session seems attractive but without consistency, it gives less output.
A very very valuable reply
I just watched the youtube video, you mentioned. That was so good and logical that I am seeing things with little bit new perspective. Thanks a lot for your help again.
glad it was helpful :)
Personally, I improved my endurance by just practicing until my brain fried. Sometimes I kept going after my brain fried. P.S. You definitely do not need to be able to practice 7-8 hours in one session.
How? What approach do you follow during low brain energy? I mean, what do you do during that time, when your brain is giving much less thought? do you read editorial then or see others code then? what I am totally distracted when my brain is not working. It seems, even if someone points a gun at me, I cannot go further. So can you please tell me more about your practice?
For me, getting tired doesn't make me get stuck. It just makes it easier for me to get stuck. When I do get stuck, I keep trying to make progress. Sometimes I can't go forward and I end up running around in circles for an hour, so I take a step back and try again. Sometimes that doesn't work and I have to look at the editorial, and that's fine.
Getting stuck might mean that you aren't making progress in the problem, but it certainly doesn't mean you aren't making progress in CP. You don't have to solve every problem you try. It's okay to be stuck.