George Patel

Stop chasing motivation. Use a tiny routine you can pass on bad days. Do 5 minutes slow five‑finger patterns with a metronome, 10 minutes on one easy song hands separate at half speed, 5 minutes chords or a single scale in two keys. Milestones: by week two, clean hands‑together at 50–60 bpm on one song. by week four, two pieces end to end without stops at any slow tempo. Log each session and only bump tempo when you hit about 90 percent accuracy. Stick with the same two songs for a month instead of hopping around.

I keep a few five-ingredient tricks that look fancy but are weeknight-fast. I do not count oil, salt, and pepper, and I lean on high heat, the broiler, and one-pan cooking. Sheet pan honey Dijon salmon and broccolini is 5 ingredients, toss broccolini with oil and roast at 425 F for 5 minutes, stir 1 tablespoon Dijon with 1 tablespoon honey and juice of half a lemon, push broccolini aside, add salmon, brush the glaze, roast 10 to 12 more minutes until flaky. Salsa verde chicken with white beans is sear salted chicken thighs in a skillet, pour in a jar of salsa verde, simmer 8 minutes, stir in a drained can of white beans, top with thin red onion and a squeeze of lime and serve over rice. Baked gnocchi caprese takes shelf stable gnocchi, a jar of marinara, torn fresh mozzarella, a few handfuls of spinach, and a spoon of pesto tossed in a baking dish and baked at 425 F for 20 minutes until bubbly and browned. Brown butter tortellini with peas is boil cheese tortellini, melt butter in a skillet until it smells nutty, crisp a few sage leaves, toss in frozen peas to warm through, then toss with the tortellini and a shower of Parmesan. Sheet pan sausage peppers and potatoes is toss sliced Italian sausage, bell peppers, red onion, and halved baby potatoes with oil, salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary, roast at 450 F for 25 minutes and finish under the broiler for char. Apricot Dijon pork tenderloin with green beans is whisk 2 tablespoons apricot jam with 1 tablespoon Dijon and 1 teaspoon cider vinegar, sear a pork tenderloin in an oven safe skillet, brush with glaze, scatter trimmed green beans around, roast at 425 F for about 15 minutes to 145 F and rest before slicing.