In one of our first daily nuggets, we featured Anders Ericsson, Michael Prietula, and Edward Cokely’s introduction to the powerful concept of deliberate practice. Today, we build on this foundation with an article by Cal Newport, a professor of computer science at Georgetown University, on his popular Study Hacks blog.

Citing from Talent is Overrated, an excellent book on deliberate practice by Fortune editor Geoff Colvin, Newport makes the point that, so far, deliberate practice has been fully exploited only by professionals in highly competitive, yet narrow, fields, such as sports and music.

In Newport’s words: “To become a chess grandmaster requires 5,000 hours of deliberate practice. But to become a highly sought-after CRM database whiz, or to run a money-making blog, or to grow a campus organization into national recognition, would probably require much, much less. Why? Because when it comes to deliberate practice in these latter fields, your competition is sorely lacking.”

Read on to learn more about how Cal Newport applied the principles of deliberate practice to his work, and how you can do so, too!