I have tried alternating 30 minutes of work with 30 minutes of play, with the aid of an alarm clock that let me know when it was time to quit whatever I was doing, and it worked pretty nicely. I have confidence in my ability to sustain such a schedule habitually without finding it particularly unpleasant. (I have tried schedules with higher work-to-play ratios and shorter “play” intervals, and I got burnout.)
I have just printed a 30-day table that is meant to be filled in with data on my study habits. My goal is set to 5 exercise pages / day; I have rows for each day and columns for”I did 5 pages (or more)”, “I did less”, “I did none”. Every day I have to tick the option that corresponds to my activity level that day. The table would also show the days when I had completely neglected the goal, not even bothering to tick an option, so that I would also gather data on how long I can sustain my interest in my goal.
I have noticed an increase in my ability to reason well under strong emotions. Granted, my emotional state does influence my optimism/pessimism levels, but the way I reason using these more or less optimistic premises approaches my rationality level in a neutral state of mind. I have the intuition that this is symptomatic of the general improvement in my ability to recognize flawed thinking; once you learn to do it well, you can’t help doing it no matter your mood. Then again, some might have different experiences.
I have begun recognizing instances of the planning fallacy in my own thinking. Tried to do a layperson’s version of reference class forecasting; found out that realistic estimates point to guaranteed failure. No wonder my mind tended to flinch away from it; it’s like not just knowing you’re going to fail, but having to live with the disappointment for months before it would actually happen. Now I know I either dramatically improve my productivity or start to get used to the idea of failing my final exams. The problem is, I might be irrationally optimistic about my ability to improve my productivity; I’m not unlikely to say to myself, “Don’t worry, things are looking pretty gloomy right now, but rest assured you will begin to work much more in response to this sense of urgency!” and then just confidently pile up responsibilities on my future self while not doing much in the meantime. While the fact that I have gone from zero effort to some effort over the course of this summer gives me a reason to believe this is not impossible, I can’t say I trust myself to make this leap.
I have begun riding my bike to school for a change. (It wasn’t a very welcome change, since the main motivator was that public transportation was getting much too expensive.) The school is far away enough so that I get loads of intense physical exercise from one trip, and not doing it would mean that I’d either miss classes or get stuck with my bike far from home. It’s difficult, physically demanding, and I arrive to school soaked in sweat, but at least I don’t have to pay anything and I’m getting my share of exercising.
(Note: my main goal is getting better at math. When I talk about work or exercises, I mean whatever math topics I’m currently working on.)
I have tried alternating 30 minutes of work with 30 minutes of play, with the aid of an alarm clock that let me know when it was time to quit whatever I was doing, and it worked pretty nicely. I have confidence in my ability to sustain such a schedule habitually without finding it particularly unpleasant. (I have tried schedules with higher work-to-play ratios and shorter “play” intervals, and I got burnout.)
I have just printed a 30-day table that is meant to be filled in with data on my study habits. My goal is set to 5 exercise pages / day; I have rows for each day and columns for”I did 5 pages (or more)”, “I did less”, “I did none”. Every day I have to tick the option that corresponds to my activity level that day. The table would also show the days when I had completely neglected the goal, not even bothering to tick an option, so that I would also gather data on how long I can sustain my interest in my goal.
I have noticed an increase in my ability to reason well under strong emotions. Granted, my emotional state does influence my optimism/pessimism levels, but the way I reason using these more or less optimistic premises approaches my rationality level in a neutral state of mind. I have the intuition that this is symptomatic of the general improvement in my ability to recognize flawed thinking; once you learn to do it well, you can’t help doing it no matter your mood. Then again, some might have different experiences.
I have begun recognizing instances of the planning fallacy in my own thinking. Tried to do a layperson’s version of reference class forecasting; found out that realistic estimates point to guaranteed failure. No wonder my mind tended to flinch away from it; it’s like not just knowing you’re going to fail, but having to live with the disappointment for months before it would actually happen. Now I know I either dramatically improve my productivity or start to get used to the idea of failing my final exams. The problem is, I might be irrationally optimistic about my ability to improve my productivity; I’m not unlikely to say to myself, “Don’t worry, things are looking pretty gloomy right now, but rest assured you will begin to work much more in response to this sense of urgency!” and then just confidently pile up responsibilities on my future self while not doing much in the meantime. While the fact that I have gone from zero effort to some effort over the course of this summer gives me a reason to believe this is not impossible, I can’t say I trust myself to make this leap.
I have begun riding my bike to school for a change. (It wasn’t a very welcome change, since the main motivator was that public transportation was getting much too expensive.) The school is far away enough so that I get loads of intense physical exercise from one trip, and not doing it would mean that I’d either miss classes or get stuck with my bike far from home. It’s difficult, physically demanding, and I arrive to school soaked in sweat, but at least I don’t have to pay anything and I’m getting my share of exercising.
(Note: my main goal is getting better at math. When I talk about work or exercises, I mean whatever math topics I’m currently working on.)