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We procrastinate about things that make us feel uncomfortable. But what makes us feel good temporarily isn’t necessarily good for us in the long run.
Procrastination can be like taking tiny amounts of poison. It may not seem harmful at the time. But the long-term effects can be very damaging.
learned industriousness,
Individuals who are reinforced for exerting high effort on a task are also secondarily reinforced by the sensation of high effort.
mental contrasting.
Individuals firstly imagine a desired future or health goal that contrasted with the reality proceeding the goal state. In other words; HOPE.
Just remember to contrast those great images with the real, more mundane life that currently surrounds you, or that you are emerging from.
Part of the point of this exercise is learning to laugh at your zombies’ antics as they predictably tell you, “Just this once it’s okay to check Facebook right now.”
Learn to focus on process, not product.
The essential idea here is that the zombie, habitual part of your brain likes processes, because it can march mindlessly along. It’s far easier to enlist a friendly zombie habit to help with a process than to help with a product.
If you learn under mild stress, you can handle greater stress much more easily.
Learning fundamental concepts of math and science can be a lot easier than learning subjects that require a lot of rote memorization.
Each completed topic signals for the next step. Once you've mastered something, you can "feel" your intuition getting stronger.
Recall, not simple rereading, is the best form of deliberate practice in study.
Recalling information on your own is the best way to make that information STICK. It's not easy, but it's engaging and in the end, rewarding. Don't be fooled by illusions of competance.
retrieval practice
They help prevent choking on tests.
But this active test of recall is one of the best learning methods—better than just sitting passively and rereading! By building your library of chunks, with plenty of active practicing at retrieving material over and over again, and testing your recall, you are using some of the best methods possible for learning deeply and well.
Highlighting should be avoided because, at least in my experience, it provides only an illusion of competence. Retrieval practice is far more powerful.
A last important trick is to reframe your focus.
When getting ready for work, don't think about all the boxes, think about how good lunch will be.
Your own self-experimentation, at least to begin with, should be on procrastination. Keep notes on when you don’t complete what you had intended to complete, what the cues are, and your zombie-mode habitual reaction to procrastination cues.
Keeping a detailed journal over several weeks is helpful in getting a handle on procrastination.
Ultimate Zombie Alliance: The Planner-Journal as Your Personal Lab Notebook
Writing the list before you go to sleep enlists your zombies to help you accomplish the items on the list the next day.
Also doing the most unpleasant, most difficult work FIRST is better.
Planning your quitting time is as important as planning your working time.
More than that, it may take you a while to figure out how to properly budget your time because you’ve never before had the luxury of knowing how much time it takes to do a good job without rushing.
As Chico Marx once said, “Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”
We develop a passion for what we are good at. The mistake is thinking that if we aren’t good at something, we do not have and can never develop a passion for it.
If you’d like to see how to apply these ideas directly to memorizing formulas, try out the SkillsToolbox .com website for a list of easy-to-remember visuals for mathematical symbols.7
Einstellung—being blocked by thinking about a problem in the wrong way.
“I often tell my students to talk to themselves instead of just highlighting and rereading.
Instead, their knowledge base is gradually built over time and with plenty of practice that builds their understanding of big-picture context.
It is the practice—particularly deliberate practice on the toughest aspects of the material—that can help lift average brains into the realm of those with more “natural” gifts.
One important key to learning swiftly in math and science is to realize that virtually every concept you learn has an analogy—a comparison—with something you already know.
People who haven’t felt comfortable with math often fall into the trap of “equation sheet bingo.” They desperately try to find a pattern in what the teacher or book did and fit their equations to that pattern.
Using the hard-start–jump-to-easy technique on tests guarantees you will have at least a little work done on every problem.
by now you are very aware that misplaced persistence can create unnecessary challenges with math and science.
Sometimes, as we’ve discovered, your desire to figure things out right now is what prevents you from being able to figure things out.
Reshaping your brain is under your control. The key is patient persistence—working knowledgeably with your brain’s strengths and weaknesses.
Lady Luck favors the one who tries.
Improve Your Physics Grade.
“Learning by solving solved problems.”
