The hidden training habits of 21 world-class performers

Kobe Bryant analyzed defensive schemes at red lights. Maya Angelou composed poetry while mopping floors. Tesla ran complete invention simulations in his head during dinner conversations. What these elite performers understood — consciously or not — was a principle I call Practice Surface Area: the total volume of time and space in your life where practice can happen.

While formal practice matters (obviously), the people who reach the absolute pinnacle of their crafts share a stranger trait: they’ve dissolved the boundary between “practice” and “life.” Every idle moment becomes a rep.

Below are 21 concrete examples of this for those who learn by example rather than explanation.

1. Richard Feynman’s “Teaching to Nobody”

Feynman would explain physics concepts to imaginary students while walking around campus or sitting alone. He’d literally lecture to empty rooms, working through problems out loud.

2. Kobe Bryant’s “Film Study Everywhere”

Kobe famously watched game film on his phone during red lights, between commercial shoots, even at his kids’ recitals (looking down during breaks).

He had game footage downloaded for flights, meals, everything.

3. Maya Angelou’s “Writing in Her Head While Cleaning”

Before she became famous, Angelou worked as a streetcar conductor and later in various domestic jobs.

She’d compose entire poems and passages while mopping floors or during repetitive tasks, using the rhythm of physical work as a metronome for her words.

4. Magnus Carlsen Playing “Blind Chess” During Boring Situations

The chess world champion plays entire games in his head during conversations he finds boring, meetings, or while doing cardio.

"I'm thinking about the game all the time," he said a couple weeks ago during his appearance on Joe Rogan. "Like, I'm thinking about the game while I'm sitting on this chair. I'm still analyzing a game that I played today. It never goes completely out of my mind."

5. Jerry Seinfeld’s “Bit Development in Real Conversations”

Seinfeld doesn’t just write jokes at a desk. He tests and refines material in regular conversations, watching people’s micro-reactions to different phrasings. Every social interaction becomes a comedy lab.

6. Eminem’s “Constant Internal Rhyming”

Em has talked about how he can’t turn off the part of his brain that rhymes everything. He’ll hear a sentence and immediately start generating rhyme patterns for it.

Interviews, conversations, even arguments become inadvertent freestyle practice. He’s mentioned doing this since childhood, essentially living inside a 24/7 rhyme scheme.

7. Gordon Ramsay’s “Mental Kitchen While Eating Out”

Ramsay mentally reconstructed every dish he ate at other restaurants, reverse-engineering techniques, timing, seasoning. Then he'd run a parallel simulation of how he’d improve or recreate each element.

8. Pablo Picasso's "Napkin Sketch Compulsion"

Picasso compulsively drew on restaurant napkins, tablecloths, and receipts during every meal out. He'd work through compositional problems while friends talked. Waiters would sometimes find dozens of sketches left behind. He reportedly created over 50,000 artworks in his lifetime, a feat which wouldn't have been possible without such a high "canvas surface area."

9. Michael Phelps’ “Visualization During Downtime”

His coach Bob Bowman had Phelps run "mental movies" of perfect races whenever he had idle time: waiting rooms, before sleep, during warmups for other activities.

The routine was even more intense on race days. Here's Bowman:

There’s a series of things we do before every race that are designed to give Michael a sense of building victory.

When the race arrives, he’s more than halfway through his plan and he’s been victorious at every step. All the stretches went like he planned. The warm-up laps were just like he visualized. His headphones are playing exactly what he expected. The actual race is just another step in a pattern that started earlier that day and has been nothing but victories. Winning is a natural extension.

10. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Freestyle Walking”

Miranda has described how he freestyles raps during his daily walks around New York, using the rhythm of his footsteps as a beat.

He’ll improvise entire songs about what he’s seeing, turning his commute into a mobile recording studio. The constraint of walking pace forces a specific cadence that shows up in his composed work.

11. David Foster Wallace’s “Recursive Self-Observation”

DFW would observe himself observing himself thinking, turning his own consciousness into a practice ground for the recursive, self-aware prose he became famous for.

12. Quentin Tarantino Working at Video Archives

Before becoming a director, Tarantino worked at a video store and treated every shift like film school. He’d watch movies on the store TVs with the sound off, forcing himself to understand visual storytelling.

He’d pitch alternate endings to customers, basically running hundreds of micro writing rooms.

13. Conor McGregor’s “Movement Lifestyle”

The UFC star is constantly doing what he calls "movement flow" throughout the day. Balance work while waiting for coffee. Shadow boxing during phone calls.

He hired movement coach Ido Portal specifically to help him turn every physical moment into practice so that he's never not training.

14. Jiro Ono’s “Rice Feeling Practice”

The sushi master from "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" (please watch this if you haven't) trained himself to judge rice temperature by holding it briefly while doing other tasks.

Throughout the day, he’d touch various objects to calibrate his temperature sensitivity.

15. Bobby Fischer’s “Pocket Chess”

Fischer carried a pocket chess set everywhere and would play against himself during any downtime: waiting for food, riding the subway, even between tournament games.

He'd also analyze positions using ceiling tiles as boards while lying in bed.

16. Stephen King Reading During TV Commercial Breaks

King reads 70–80 books a year by having books everywhere: bathroom, car, kitchen. He reads during commercial breaks while watching the Red Sox.

He’s said this constant reading during "garbage time" is why his prose stays fresh.

17. Serena Williams’ “Shadow Serving in Mirrors”

Serena practices her serve motion in mirrors throughout her house. Not full serves, just the motion.

Brushing teeth? Quick service motion check. Walking past a hallway mirror? Toss visualization. She’s mentioned doing this thousands of times.

18. Bruce Lee's "Isometric Everything"

Lee practiced isometric exercises constantly. He'd push against walls while on phone calls, do static contractions while reading, resistance exercises while watching TV, etc. He installed wooden dummies and striking surfaces throughout his house. Every doorway had a pull-up bar.

He literally couldn't move through his home without training opportunities.

19. Anderson Silva’s “Dance Fighting”

The UFC champion would go to Brazilian dance clubs and practice his striking combinations disguised as dancing. He’d throw actual combat sequences to the rhythm, getting in hundreds of reps while everyone thought he was just getting down.

20. Martha Graham’s “Grocery Store Choreography”

The legendary dancer/choreographer would practice new movement phrases while grocery shopping, using the cart as a barre. She’d develop entire sequences while moving through aisles, using the linear paths and turns of shopping as choreographic constraints. Other shoppers just saw a weird lady—she was composing masterpieces.

21. Nikola Tesla’s “Mental Invention Iterations”

Tesla would design, build, run, and refine entire machines in his head over weeks before ever touching physical materials. He’d “check in” on his mental machines while walking, eating, or socializing—letting them run in the background of his consciousness, noting wear and improvements. He claimed his mental models would show wear patterns after running for weeks in his imagination.