Storytelling as deliberate practice. Homework for life.
Five minutes a day is all it takes to never run out of stories again.
A storytelling workshop can change how you think about stories in a day. But like any skill, storytelling only sticks if you keep using it.
That's where deliberate practice comes in: consciously practising a skill, and putting it to use, on purpose.
My own version
Each morning I reflect by writing in a journal. It sounds simple, and it is. But it took practice in itself. The first few weeks felt forced. Now it's the part of the day where I notice what happened, what mattered and what I learned. And it's where most of my best stories come from.
Homework for Life
Matthew Dicks, a multiple-time champion of The Moth storytelling competitions, describes a habit he calls Homework for Life in his book Storyworthy.
The idea is simple. At the end of each day, ask yourself: if I had to tell a story from today, what would it be? Then write down that moment in a sentence or two. Not the whole story. Just enough to remember it.
Most days, the moment will seem small. A conversation with a client. Something a colleague said. A mistake. That's the point. Small moments are where the best business stories live.
Why it works
You start noticing. After a few weeks, you begin spotting story-worthy moments as they happen.
You build a bank. Within a month you have a collection of real stories ready for the moment someone asks "why?"
You remember more. Writing a moment down holds on to details you'd otherwise lose: what was said, how it felt, what changed.
Three ways to start tomorrow
Pick a time. End of the working day, or first thing the next morning. You need just Five minutes.
Pick a place. A notebook, a notes app, a document. Whichever you most enjoy using.
Keep it to one line. "The client who laughed when I admitted I didn't know the answer." That's enough.
A second commitment: a story in a sentence
At the end of our workshop, delegates make two commitments. The first is Homework for Life. The second is to be able to say their story in a single sentence, so it's ready whenever the moment comes.
Try it. What's your story, in one sentence?
Next in the series: The storyteller's reading list: six books and one talk.
Find out more about storytelling with Co-Lab People.
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