1. Procrastination

Why ?

Your brain tends to choose something less painful to do in order to mitigate the pain.

How to prevent it ?

It’s all about getting started

I don’t want to do this but I will start doing it for 5 minutes and if I hate it, I will stop.

  • Habits save energy.
    • Four parts of a habit:
      • The cue: the trigger that launches you into zombie mode
      • The routine: your zombie mode.
      • The reward
      • The belief
  • Pomodoro
    • Set 25 minutes
    • Cut off possible disturb such as email notification, phone and noise.
    • Focus on your work
    • Reward yourself
  • Harnessing Your Zombies to Help You
    • The only place you need to apply willpower is to change your reaction to the cue.
    • The cue
      • Location
      • Time
      • How you feel
      • Reactions(Change this one to make difference)
    • The routine
      • Have a plan to review
    • The reward(very important)
      • Always make sure you and your zombies get lots of rewards
      • Take a few minutes to savor the feelings of happiness and triumph
    • The belief
      • The belief that you can do it.
      • Belief that your new system works is what can get you through
  • Process Versus Product
    • Tell yourself: quit wasting time, and just get on with it, you will fell better soon.
    • Focus on process not product. By focusing on process rather than product, you allow yourself to back away from judging yourself (Am I getting closer to finishing? ) and allow yourself to relax into the flow
  • Juggling Life and Learning
    • Make to-do list the evening before. So your subconsciousness will help you arrange your tomorrow’s tasks when you fall asleep.
    • Use diffuse mode to solve problems when you are doing some trifles.
    • Use process-oriented task definition rather than objective-oriented. e.g., reading for an hour instead of finishing reading chapter 3.
    • Planning your quitting time is as important as planning your working time.
    • Try to work on a most important and most disliked task first. At least just one Pomodoro, as soon as you wake up.
    • Take notes about what works and what doesn’t

2. Sleep

The benefits of Sleep in Learning:

  • Refresh : sleep helps to wash away the toxin in your brain
  • Memorize : sleep strengthens memory
  • Recall before Sleep

Tips:

  • Make to-do list the evening before.
  • Recall the knowledge you have learned during daytime, so it will be strengthened when you are sleeping.

3. Exercise

Two experiences that help your neurons to grow and survive

  • Exercise!
    • The best gift that you can give your brain is Physical Exercise.
    • Help new neurons survive
    • Exercise is by far, more effective than any drug on the market today to help you learn better.
  • Exposure to new environments or ideas.
    • try new path to your work place
    • try to do things in a different way
    • try new tastes, new styles…
    • Low of serendipity: Lady Luck favors the one who tries.

Just try one tiny thing to learn, then another. Just keep trying.