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It’s called the Einstellung effect (pronounced EYE-nshtellung). In this phenomenon, an idea you already have in mind, or your simple initial thought, prevents a better idea or solution from being found.9
I think i get this sometimes
But as long as we are consciously focusing on a problem, we are blocking the diffuse mode.
“I now tutor students in math and economics and the issues are almost always that they are fixated on looking at the details of the problem for clues on how to solve it, and not on understanding the problem itself.
Do not confuse the “aha!” of a breakthrough in understanding with solid expertise! (That’s part of why you can grasp an idea when a teacher presents it in class, but if you don’t review it fairly soon after you’ve first learned it, it can seem incomprehensible when it comes time to prepare for a test.) Closing the book and testing yourself on how to solve the problems will also speed up your learning at this stage.
You may think there are so many problems and concepts just in a single chapter of the science or math subject you are studying that there’s no way to do them all! This is where the Law of Serendipity comes to play: Lady Luck favors the one who tries.23 Just focus on whatever section you are studying. You’ll find that once you put the first problem or concept in your library, whatever it is, then the second concept will go in a bit more easily. And the third more easily still.
You shouldn’t waste willpower on procrastination except when absolutely necessary! Best of all, as you will see, you don’t need to.
To prevent procrastination, you want to avoid concentrating on product. Instead, your attention should be on building processes—habits—that coincidentally allow you to do the unpleasant tasks that need to be done.
Next time you feel the urge to check your messages, pause and examine the feeling. Acknowledge it. Then ignore it. Practice ignoring distractions. It is a far more powerful technique than trying to will yourself to not feel those distractions in the first place.
If you feel muzzy or featherbrained as you’re trying to look away and recall a key idea, or you find yourself rereading the same paragraphs over and over again, try doing a few situps, pushups, or jumping jacks. A little physical exertion can have a surprisingly positive effect on your ability to understand and recall. Try doing something active now, before recalling the ideas of this chapter.
Whenever I find my spirit bending low, I discover it is because I have stopped looking for people’s positive attributes. This means it is time for me to look within and make changes.
“When I was a graduate student, I used to see other students vigorously highlighting steps in proofs or sentences in a passage of a book. I never understood this. Once you highlight, in some sense, you have destroyed the original without any guarantee that you have placed it inside you, where it can flower.
“My own experiences, then, echo the research findings you are learning about in this book. Highlighting should be avoided because, at least in my experience, it provides only an illusion of competence. Retrieval practice is far more powerful. Try to get the main ideas of each page you are reading cemented in your mind before you turn the page.
For many people, math- and science-related scaffolds develop slowly, alternating focused-mode and diffuse-mode thinking as the material is absorbed. Especially when it comes to learning math and science, the bingeing excuse, “I do my best work under deadlines,” is simply not true.
