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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jim Kwik
Read between
August 29 - August 30, 2020
frustrated,
Training yourself to achieve flow regularly and even in multiple sessions in the same day will have you performing like a superhero.
Here are the four supervillains you need to keep at bay if your flow is going to thrive:
1. Multitasking
research repeatedly shows that people who multitask are considerably less productive than those who focus on one task at a time.
Clear your schedule of everything else and get into the flow.
2. Stress
Defeating this supervillain requires two expert moves. The first is to look the supervillain in the eye before you start and ask yourself if there’s anything that you absolutely must deal with before you can get into flow.
contend with this supervillain by putting up your force field. Make your space impenetrable by outside stressors so you can concentrate completely on the task at hand.
3. Fear of Failure
“Perfectionism reduces creativity and...
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“It is a steady source of negative emotions; rather than reaching toward something positive, those in its grip are focused on the very thing they most want to avoid—negative evaluation.
Perfectionism, then, is an endless report card; it keeps people completely self-absorbed, engaged in perpetual self-evaluation—reaping relentless frustration and doomed to anxiety and depression.”
If you go into a task with the belief that you absolutely must perform this task perfectly and that failure will be devastating, you’re going to be so focused on not failing that you’ll...
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4. Lack of Conviction
a lack of belief in what you’re doing. “The brain perceives uncertainty as a threat, which sparks the release of cortisol, a stress hormone that disrupts memory, depresses the immune system, and increases the risk of high blood pressure and depression,”
If you go into a task doubting your ability to complete it, ask yourself these questions: Do I have the necessary skills to do this? Do I have all the information I need to do this? Do I have enough passion for this project to do this?
In this context, method is the process of learning how to learn, also called meta learning.
In this section, you’re going to learn the science of accelerated learning and meta learning in five areas: focus, study, memory, speed reading, and thinking.
What’s the difference between someone performing at superhero levels and someone failing to ever discover their superpowers? In many cases, it’s a matter of focus.
The primary enemy to focus is distraction.
“Concentration is at the crux of all human success and endeavor,”
“If you can’t concentrate, you can’t manifest.”
Concentration is something you can learn and something you can practice to get better at,”
“I define concentration as my ability to keep my awareness on one thing for an extended period of time. Every time my concentration drifts, I use my will power to bring my awareness back.”
it isn’t your mind that’s moving; it’s your awareness.
He sees awareness as a glowing ball of light that moves to different parts of your mind.
In order to excel at concentration, you need to make yourself keep that ball of light trained on one spot in y...
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If you’re having a conversation with someone, make a concerted effort to pay attention to nothing other than that conversation.
If you’re reading a report for work, train your eyes on the words as though nothing else exists.
If you make the commitment to practice concentration an hour or so a day, it will soon become second nature.
Whenever possible, try to do one thing at a time.
By doing one thing at a time, your concentration “muscle” will become incredibly strong, and your focus will reach limitless levels.
Another key to boosting your concentration is de-cluttering your environment.
physical clutter in your surroundings competes for your attention, which results in decreased performance and increased anxiety and stress levels.
“Anxious thoughts can overwhelm you, making it difficult to make decisions and take action to deal with whatever issue bothers you”
“Anxiety can also lead to overthinking, which makes you more anxious, which leads to more overthinking, and so on. How can you get out of this vicious cycle? Repressing anxious thoughts won’t work; they will just pop up again, sometimes with more intensity.
“the thinking time, the strategic pause that’s in between the busyness.”
“the oxygen that allows everything else to catch fire.”
Some interesting studies in neuroscience underscore this, showing us how distraction is actually changing our brains.
it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.”8 That’s more than 20 minutes every time you’re distracted—and how often are you distracted every day?
some things you can do. Three important ones are:
1. Breathe
Holistic health expert Andrew Weil, M.D., developed a breathing tool that he calls the 4–7–8 Method. It works like this: Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of 4. Hold your breath for a count of 7. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of 8.
This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.
2. Do Something That Has Been Causing You Stress
it’s very possible the reason this is happening is because there’s something that you need to do that you’ve been avoiding doing.
3. Schedule Time for Distractions
You can learn how to unlimit your studies. And when you do, it’ll be a superpower you’ll employ the rest of your life.
the key to get from conscious competence to unconscious competence is obvious. It’s practice. Practice makes progress.
