2026 is going to be your year, but it’s not going to happen by “just practicing.” In this tip I’m talking about a simple, methodical way to make real headway on guitar: prepare, plan, execute, and journal. When you sit down, you’ve got to know what you’re going to work on before you even touch the instrument—especially if you’re on a real time budget. Then you do the work, and when you’re done you write it down: what you practiced, what time you started, how long you did it, and what you’re going to tackle next time. The reason the journal matters is simple: a lot of times we practice and we don’t feel like we’ve made any progress because you can’t see the forest for the trees. When you keep a running log, you can go back and see exactly where your time went and how consistent you’ve been. It also keeps you from going down a rabbit hole—some random YouTube video or whatever—and helps you stay focused on the big picture. If you want a ready-to-go template, I’ve got a free practice log in the free resources at guitarcollegelibrary.com so you can track date, start/finish times, hours, what you practiced, and a running total.