“Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder.
Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. On his desk next to his computer sat crunched Red Bulls, empty Gatorade bottles, some extra pocket change and scattered pieces of paper. In the pocket of his sweat pants rested a blaring iPod with a chord that dangled near the floor, almost touching against his Adidas sandals. On his computer sat even more stray objects than his surrounding environment. There must have been twenty browser tabs open. The tabs included political blog news, random Wikipedia entries, Facebook profiles and a Myspace page blasting more music at him. Two notifications with sound popped-up simultaneously in the top-right corner of his screen. One was an email; the other was a tweet. Behind his dozens of browser windows sat a pending music download and a handful of blinking IM’s.
Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above. He’d write a little bit for his history paper, check his pending download, reply to his IM’s, and then start all over.
Do you know a person like this? I do. Those were my concentration habits at one point in my life. Yet, I made a series of decisions that resulted in a 180 degree turn. This book is about how to make that 180 degree turn. And this chapter centers on understanding a core component for getting focused: short-term focus (or concentration). We’ll first outline what science teaches us about concentration, and then we’ll dive into how you can concentrate when you feel overwhelmed through 8 steps.
The Science Behind Concentration
In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. Many fall into this pattern because constantly shifting attention and multitasking eases the pain of doing something you hate in the first place. We mitigate essays and projects with blasts of dopamine delivered through tweets, music and gossip.What science tells us, though, is that not only does multitasking make our work 50% less valuable; it takes 50% longer to finish. Plus, it’s physiologically impossible for the brain to multitask.
When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. And this rapid shifting kills the mind, it waters its effectiveness down significantly. When we follow Mike’s pattern above, the mind shifts through three phases:
Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert
When Mike decides to start writing his History essay, blood rushes to his anterior prefrontal cortex. Within this part of the brain, sits a neurological switchboard. The switchboard alerts the brain that it’s about to shift concentration.
Phase 2: Find and Execute
The alert carries an electrical charge that’s composed of two parts: first, a search query (which is needed to find the correct neurons for executing the task of writing), and second, a command (which tells the appropriate neuron what to do). This process propels Mike into a mental state of writing for his History essay. Your mind literally puts a writing cap on.
Phase 3: Disengagement
While in this state, Mike then hears an email notification. His mind rapidly disengages his current writing state, and then sends blood-flow back to Phase 1, which then leads him to phase 2, and then when he gets distracted again, he’ll find himself at phase 3.
The process repeats itself sequentially. It doesn’t work simultaneously (i.e. multitasking). The mind shifts rapidly through this phase at a rate of one-tenth of a second. This tells us two important things: it reinforces the case that we must only focus on one thing at a time, and second, it’s critical to master selective attention, which we’ll explore below.
Concentration drives intelligence
Research surfaced recently that revealed the true drivers of intelligence. They asked, “Is intelligence simply the ability to assimilate information and recall upon it whenever needed?” Is intelligence really a measure of memory? If not, than what makes a person intelligent? Amazingly, they found that intelligence is not founded on one’s memory. Instead, intelligence emanates from one’s ability to control their selective attention. It’s their ability to control the three phases above, and where they route their blood-flow to within the prefrontal cortex.
As you improve in the ability to strategically allocate your attention, your brain also improves. In fact, it rewires itself. As you exercise concentration and selective attention, your mind rewires itself to support your new habits. You get better and better at concentrating when you concentrate. That’s the good news. The bad news is that as you age, your mind’s flexibility slows down slightly. Meaning, you can’t rapidly jump out of habits and processes as well as you could in your earlier days. Yet, by practicing the small steps and exercises today within your mind, you can establish solid mental faculties for your older years. By practicing brain exercises through mental games you can significantly sharpen your mind. For brain exercises, I highly recommend Lumosity’s brain training games. They’re fun, effective and you can sign up for free. Click here and sign up for a free account. (free brain game training)
Now that you know a bit about the science and background of your mind, we’ll explore 8 things that will help you build short-term focus (concentration).
8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating
1. You can’t start concentrating until you’ve stopped getting distracted
The phrase above is self-explanatory. Yet, it’s amazing how most people look for some crazy, obtuse solution for the reason why they can’t concentrate. They reason, “I just have ADD. I can’t concentrate.” In reality, their situation likens itself to Mike’s situation above.
In the late 80′s, two researchers asked themselves a chicken-egg question. (“What came first the chicken or the egg?”). Their version centers on distraction and boredom. They asked themselves, “What came first, distraction or boredom.” What they found is rather subtle, yet it’s profoundly significant. They found that distraction leads to boredom (not the other way around). This displays that we must cut out distraction in order to get focused; or else, we’ll get bored.
2. Just do one important thing per day
Scientists also found that we can only focus on one thing at once. Nobody does that. We’ve always got something going on in the background of whatever we’re doing. We’ve always got two-dozen tasks on our to-do list. On top of this, we’ve got a handful of projects that we try and finish simultaneously.
When you’ve got a mountain of paperwork on your desk, the best thing to do is clear it all off. Pick it all up and place it in a drawer. Do anything required to get it out of your sight. After this, kick your feet up and daydream. Yes, I’m serious. Daydream and ask yourself the following question: “What’s the most important thing I can do right now?” Once you’ve identified the item that will actually make a difference, do it.
Try and make it a goal to do just one critical thing per day. This habit proves much more effective than living the routine everyone else lives: doing many insignificant things a day. They live on fooling themselves into thinking they’ve added value.
The quote below by John Wooden summarizes this quite nicely. Recall upon this daily if you’re having a difficult time breaking away from the ineffective lifestyle.
“Don’t mistake activity for achievement.” – John Wooden
3. Chunk into three’s
Most of the time your one important thing that you can do per day takes more than just one action. Oftentimes it takes a series of smaller steps to accomplish. For this reason, it’s very helpful to chunk activities into sets of three. If you set out to accomplish one important item without a plan, you’ll be just as ineffective as the crack-berry work-a-holic running around the office making copies.
Outline your three-step to-do list using an offline to-do planner (which we outline in another chapter); or if you’re working online, use a three-item FocusList to keep you focused on the task at hand. Click here for a simple, effective, downloadable To-Do List.
4. Questions that kill procrastination
The brain processes meaning before detail. This is where procrastination stems from. Your boss, professor or co-worker tells you that the task on your desk is important, but your brain doesn’t yet agree. If you push forth anyways, and embark on the task before understanding its meaning, you’ll end up frustrating yourself and wasting time because you may have to do it all over.
For this reason, whenever you find yourself procrastinating, ask yourself the following questions:
Question one: Does this really need to be done?
- If you’re in the business world, term it as, “Will this increase revenue, and/or reduce cost?”
- If you’re in school, ask “Will this impact my grade?” Note: In school, it’s not necessarily about preparing you for the real-world, it’s about assimilating information, regurgitating it on a test, and then hopefully remembering some of it in the future, which gives you more context for the real world. This is why, the question isn’t, “Will this prepare me for the real world?”
Whatever your environment, if you can’t come up with a compelling reason for doing something, ask why the task needs to be done. If it’s not your choice, and it’s your boss’ choice, have him or her step into your office and explain the situation. Tell them, “So, I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out how to best approach this project, yet I everytime I advance further, I keep coming back to why this is meaningful in the first place. Can you help me understand the big picture and value this actually adds to our business?”
The result will be one of four things:
- The person will realize that this is just busy work. Thus, you won’t have to do it,
- The person will try and convince you that it’s important. In this case, assign yourself an insanely fast deadline to finish the project, and finish it. This type of boss values people that look like they’ve done something; he or she doesn’t actually care about its effectiveness, thus they won’t care about results.
- The person will come up with a compelling reason for why it’s important, and thus you’ll be able to finish the project with grace and effectiveness because you understand its meaning and purpose.
- The person will get angry at you for questioning the process. This indicates that you’re at a bureaucratic organization that devalues innovation and purpose. If you’re OK with this, enjoy a work-life of hell. If you’re not OK with this, sprint to the exit as quickly as possible.
Question two: Can I delegate this?
If you find yourself with a task that has meaning (with or without a lie from a boss), and you don’t want to do it, delegate it. Doing something you hate is a lose-lose. It’s bad for you, as well as your organization because you’ll likely turn in sub-par work.
5. Be Smart With Your Time
The Pareto principle is founded on a theory that 80% of effectiveness is driven by 20% of our activity (or causes). I argue that it’s more like 99%:1%. It’s amazing how many insignificant tasks we’re constantly filling our lives with. Don’t make it your goal to involve yourself with 20% of meaningful items during the day. It gets too confusing, and your untrained mind will still end up taking-on too much. As state above, just do one important task per day. Say no to everything else–even your boss. Be humble, but be logical.
There’s three types of people in corporations:
Type 1: Busy People
This is the person who constantly stresses themselves out by running around with paper, working on vacations and constantly checking email. They look like work-a-holics, but they get very little work done. They end up burning themselves out. They can even end up lashing out at others.
What ends up happening is that others perceive them as being able to get the most done, thus people assign more work to them. The work results in being half-assed because the busy person doesn’t have the appropriate time needed for the task. People end up giving the most work to those who are least effective. This is why busy people and work-a-holics are bad for organizations. They eventually end up hurting companies.
Type 2: Lazy People
Lazy people are those that put the blame on their external environment for a lot of things. In the back of their minds sits hope that they’ll one day succeed and hit that million-dollar home-run. Yet in the meantime, they fill their lives with activities that release dopamine.
Activities such as T.V., potato chips, video games, researching whether or not Tupac faked his death and conspiring over whether our government is run by free masons. I was this person once. These were my habits. I occupied my time with message-boards, reading hours of sports articles, and more. I wanted to achieve my dreams, but my mind craved dopamine derived from reading sports blogs. Getting out of this state and into the state below is what this book is about.
Type 3: A Sage
A Sage is one that doesn’t involve themselves in dopamine-driven activities; instead, he or she is very selective about what they do. They have a habit of asking themselves questions that most people are too busy to ask. They pre-occupy themselves with the unspoken, yet meaningful assumptions that others fail to address. Sages ask questions about the meaning behind any activity that they embark on. They view turning down work as a logical decision, not an emotional one. They even say no to their bosses in a strategic way. In order to become a Sage, you must become indispensable to your organization, which is accomplished through practicing Wu Wei (which we will cover soon in the chapter on Flow). Of course, when it comes to business, nobody is indispensable, even the CEO and Founder can be replaced (e.g. Yahoo’s CEO/Founder, Jerry Yang). By becoming indispensable, I mean you must be economically indispensable. Meaning, to the economy, you must be indispensable. In other words, you, yourself, can generate monetary value wherever you go–even if you work for yourself. The most empowering feeling is knowing you can land a job at any time, or just make money for yourself whenever you want to.
A true sign of being indispensable is not a pat on the ass from a boss. It’s not a bonus or a raise. A true sign of being indispensable comes from making money on your own and getting job offers when you’re not looking for a job.
In summary, in order to be a Sage, you must earn it. You must earn it by being economically indispensable, and we’ll learn shortly that this falls into place naturally.
6. Mind Maps
Whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s critical to allow the mind to disentangle itself by mapping out your thoughts on paper.
There’s two types of maps: (i) PS Map, and (ii) Fear Map
I. PS Map:
A PS Map is short for a problem-solution mind map. This becomes a helpful tool when you’re trying to get something done, yet your mind keeps wandering towards a problem you think you have. A PS Map is also critical for when you feel restless–when your mind won’t stop racing. You tend to pace around the house contemplating a problem. Whenever you’re in this state, pull out a piece of paper and at the top write: “Problem.” Then map out every single detail and nature of the problem. Halfway down, on the same piece of paper, write out “Solution” And then map out possible solutions to this problem. This simple exercise slows down the mind, puts things into perspective and makes the solution shockingly clear.
II. A Fear Map
Sometimes, thoughts and ideas creep into our mind that are intrinsically negative in nature. These thoughts generate fear. In this situation, it’s best to outline the consequences of your fear. Through outlining the results of your fear, you can oftentimes find how insignificant the fear really is. And even in the case of where the fear still seems significant, at least you know what the worst thing could happen is. Oftentimes you’ll find that the worst thing that could happen, really isn’t that bad.
A fear map forces you to apply simple logic to the source of your fear. It’s founded on ‘If X, then Y.
On paper map out the following formula “if x, then y.” Where “x” is the fear, and “y” is your estimate of the fear’s result.
Through mapping out your thoughts, you can calm the racing mind, which will free your mind to focus on the task at hand.
7. Blame something
Other times, sitting down to concentrate is as simple as blaming a simple object for your inability to concentrate. As we discussed above, lazy people are those that blame almost everything on their environment. You don’t want to do this, as it’s not a long-term, sustainable solution. However, in instances where you can’t get excited to actually pump blood to your prefrontal cortex (phase 1 of concentrating), a simple object can help you out. Such an object would be coffee, a drink, a Bonsai tree or a walk. You can reward your mind for concentrating by saying, “OK, mind, here’s the deal–it’s hard to concentrate on this right now, but I’ll pick up a bonsai tree, which will create a more compelling environment to concentrate.” You’ll find that this object-based motivator actually works.
8. Interest
Researchers found that concentration is not a gift. It’s not about intelligence. It’s not about being a prodigy with a gifted memory. It’s not about possessing the ability to recall an insane amount of facts (That’s what Google’s for). Researchers found that concentration is driven by interest, and interest is driven by attitude. If your attitude towards a specific project swells with interest, intrigue and passion, concentration is astonishingly easy.
Conclusion
A core component of concentrating is building up a repertoire of purpose-driven habits that enables you to seamlessly step into “flow.” It’s my thesis that “flow” is the combination of mastering short-term focus and long-term focus. This book is about building this repertoire through goals, habits, exercises, philosophies and practices which will result in you becoming a more focused person.
What’s Next
As we covered, the key to proper concentration is creating your own purpose-driven habits that enable you to step into “flow.”
It’s my thesis that “flow” is the mastery of both short-term focus and long-term focus. In this chapter, we’ve outlined the science behind short-term focus, and the 8 actions you can do to improve concentration.
Remember – intelligence comes from focused concentration. Beware of the distractions around you. We’re all human and prone to laziness or becoming an inefficient work-a-holic, but we can choose to be strategically lazy, and thus, becoming effective.
More About ‘How to Get Focused’
This book is about building the habits of focus through goal-setting, exercises, philosophies and practices that result in an increased ability to focus for success.
In the next chapter, we’ll explore the concept of flow.
As always, please let me know how you liked this chapter and what can be improved in the comments section below.
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{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s easy to understand,but hard to act that way!
Googya — Yep, you’re right. That’s the reason I outlined the concept of hard work in the Forward of this book
Scott, i found this chapter immensely helpful! Nice, bite-sized chunks that get help us get our minds around the topic of being focused.
I certainly could relate with the ‘busy-people’ syndrome and have experienced that ‘over-workload’! I had feelings of guilt and incompetence surface for a moment there, and then checked myself to realise that is exactly why i’m reading your material – to change these ineffective habits! Thank you.
May i add – point 3 regarding strategically lazy people: i was a little confused by dispensable vs indispensable. Perhaps it’s just i haven’t understood it properly? I would like to see a further example or explanation? Funny how i am having trouble with perhaps the very point at which will change my perspective! Yikes!
Can you elaborate?
Apart from that, i really enjoyed the following:
1. the brain processes meaning before detail (I will certainly make use of this at work!)
2. Concentration = driven by interest = driven by attitude!
I am often feeling the ‘odd one out’ at work when i display my enthusiasm, energy – amongst the ‘mediocre’ attitudes – but i will no longer feel embarrassed by that! Thank you!
I hope my comments assist you,
Kind regards,
QLD, Aust.
“Carpe Diem!”
Hey Angel — Thanks for the feedback. I’ll be sure to make point 3 clearer. Thanks!
Great chapter, insights, and research.
Instead of Lumosity, I would suggest people do Dual N-Back training using the free http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/
I’ve done both and I don’t think that Lumosity has much advantage when it comes to working memory and concentration. With Dual N-Back, you can immediately tell when your concentration drops.
I would also of course recommend meditation for improving concentration.
Where did you get the “one-tenth of a second” figure for task switching?
Huy — I’ll be dedicating an entire chapter to meditation soon. Stay tuned for that. Also, thanks for sharing BrainWorkshop that looks really interesting. I like that it’s open source.
Lots of brilliant tips and bookmarked for later reference as well.
Do like interest, at the moment got a few projects to finish that don’t really interest me, I keep on putting them back, then putting them back again. I will do try to approach these ones with “interest, intrigue and passion”
Thank you
I personally have a few methods that get me to hit flow:
1. I set myself an artificial deadline to finish the project in, after the deadline passes I tend to have either finished it or nearly finished it, but I’ve ended up putting myself into flow so a little push after normally gets it finished.
2. Music and headphones. Find dance music or music which is at a constant speed is useful for me, I get into the rhythm of the music and that transfers into the rhythm of flow for work.
3. Just start on it for a minute, then for 5 minutes, then for 10 etc and at some point tend to hit flow
Hey Steve — Thanks for the insight and comment. I like your last point. It’s amazing how the first step is the hardest, but once you get going, it’s easy to get on a roll (if you enjoy what you do).
Hello i have read the 8 things everybody ought to know.Its really amazing facts and its so true.I will make sure to read the whole chapters because those information are really valuable and important to build a good organized mind and personality.
Thanks for stopping by, Eslam. Hope you enjoy!
Hey Scott,
Got a few suggestions on the writing in this chapter.
1. Saw a typo “yet I every time I advance further”.
2. I think adding the little sketches you have here on HTGF to the middle of this chapter under the PS and Fear maps would help illustrate them more effectively. Throw them up side-by-side right there in the text as an example, “here’s a fear map I made before writing this book”.
3. This passage confused me: “A fear map is a science. Literally. It’s founded in logic. Logic games are based on, as well as the basis of programming, are built on this principle. It’s founded on If x, then y.”
Maybe try: “A fear map forces you to apply simple logic to the source of your fear. It’s founded on ‘If X, then Y’.
4. This is just my opinion, but here’s another look at how you could arrange the conclusion. It felt a little rushed as I got down there, whereas as the reader I’m looking for a clear, tidy ending reminding me what we just learned.
“The key to proper concentration is creating your own purpose-driven habits that enable you to step into “flow.”
It’s my thesis that “flow” is the mastery of both short-term focus and long-term focus. In this chapter, we’ve outlined the science behind short-term focus, and the 8 actions you can do to improve concentration.
Remember – intelligence comes from focused concentration. Beware the distractions around you. We’re all human and prone to laziness, but we can choose to be strategically lazy.
More About ‘How to Get Focused’
This book is about building the habits of focus through goal-setting, exercises, philosophies and practices that result in an increased ability to focus for success.
In the next chapter, we’ll explore the “how-to’s” and benefits of long-term focus. Long-term focus is a quality shared by the most focused, and most successful ___________ (*insert something here)
As always, please let me know how you liked this chapter and what can be improved in the comments section below.”
Thanks, Nate. As always; very much appreciated. I’ll update it shortly with your suggestions.
Just updated it, and credited you, Nate. Thanks again!
I think my main problem is the interest part. I have absolutely 0 interest in what I’m studying now. It’s just something I have to do in order to actually study something I do have interest in. Feels like I’m wasting 2 years of my life when it should be spent studying the thing I love. This education system blows (UK).
Hey David — Sorry to hear about it. Is there any creative way that you can spin what you’re studying now into what you plan on doing? For instance, if you were studying neuroscience and wanted to move into finance, you could show how irrational behavior and decision-making drives financial trading. Just throwing it out there. Sorry to hear about it, again!
What sets this piece apart from the universal bunch of be-better-texts, is how it’s not marketing, but it is honest, because it feels like a real person is writing it, and not someone trying to sell self-improvement via re-labeling stuff that we’ve heard many times.
So the specific hints are nice but not miraculous in themselves. Also you may put it into tags and numbers or don’t, well it’s catchy.
What counts is that it is curious and imaginative.
I can say this, explain that – bottom line: My guts agree with you.
Hey Fil — Thanks a lot. I really like hearing that. I try and speak from the heart; instead of reading what everyone else says, and then adding my spin to it. Again, I appreciate your words very much.
Hi, I stumbled upon this post from Lifehacker; a great one, might I add
This is the only part of your book that I’ve read, and I haven’t noticed any mention of managing work time vs. free time. By free time I mean quality time, such as playing an instrument, being with the one you love, with your friends, etc. We cannot just live as drones dedicated to maximize our efficiency in completing tasks; free time is a must. It’s reasonable to find strategies related to getting focused on “howtogetfocused.com”, but still, I do believe well spent free time is an integral part of our lives that might even have an impact on how we work every day.
Regards from Argentina,
Rodrigo
Hey Rodrigo — Thanks a lot! I absolutely agree with you. I believe a focused person gets what he or she needs to at work; thus, freeing up time for family. The chapter I’m working on now actually addresses this. Stay tuned, I’ll likely be releasing it within the next couple days.
-scott
Thanks for great article. I’ll try your tips.
One sentence concerns me : Under the fear map part, I found this sentence “And even in the case of where the fear still seems insignificant, …”. I think this should be ‘significant’, not ‘insignificant’. Isn’t it?
Thanks for pointing that out, Lyla. Just updated it. Thanks!
I must begin by saying that I found this article while being distracted by facebook. That said, I typically find that I get distracted from my work, which takes a good amount of concentration, by the phone, emails that are meaningless to me, and IMs about tasks that I have already completed or will not work on for weeks. Once I am off task, I begin to wonder through all of the media by which I may need to communicate during the day.
The best way that I have found to remain on task is to turn off notifications for email, mark my IM status as busy or out of the office, and check for all notifications at specific intervals. I find that I need a break hourly from any given task, so that I can spend 15 minutes on distractions every hour or two (sometimes I just put my head back and try to clear my head of random thoughts that have popped up).
Hey Jim — Yep, that’s the carrot-stick approach. I do the same thing using my FocusList (http://faction3.com/buy-now/). I put two items that I’d like to do in the next hour, followed by a 15-minute break for reading or for just getting up to walk around.
I like the relationship of ;concentration’ to ‘flow’. I think most dopamine seeking behavior is just a poor substitute for the endorphin rush we get through finding ‘flow’. I’ll stick around and check out your other articles.
Note: minor mistake in the following passage — “Through outlining the results of your fear, you can oftentimes find how insignificant the fear really is. And even in the case of where the fear still seems insignificant”
Hi Marlon — Glad you liked it! I’ll update the typo now. Thanks.
I thought that this whole article was interesting, and although I’ve heard a lot of this advice before I like how you have it all organized here. You did a good job of explaining how these different tips are part of a larger strategy as a whole.
You started to lose me when you talked about being strategically lazy because I thought, “Surely, this is how you get fired.” But you immediately grabbed me again when you described being economically indispensable. As a Translation/Fine Arts student, this is my greatest long-term goal at the moment, and I am very interested in reading some more on that in particular. I think that networking will be very important for me to reach this goal and yet this is the area where I procrastinate the most, although I really enjoy it. I just don’t understand why I don’t do it more.
Also, my biggest distraction is my computer and yet all the work I do is computer-based. I’ll definitely be reading more of this site as it seems that everything I’ve read flows together seamlessly and hopefully it will help me figure out how to concentrate better on my language studies. From my own research I have learned that language acquisition is less about problem-solving and book-study and more about practice. Hopefully this site will have some information to come up with a plan in that area as well.
Hey Michelle — Thanks for stopping by. The next series I’ll be working on centers on how to become economically indispensable.
Also, I suggest you check out Lukas Mathis’ interview here. He works on a computer, but has a pretty fascinating system for getting things done: disconnecting.
http://howtogetfocused.com/chapters/how-software-engineers-and-designers-can-increase-their-focus/
I keep a guitar next to my home office desk. Works on the prefrontal every time.
Haha. Cool, Dave.
The chapter is impacting knowladge. But it is too long.
@Uzoma Thanks! Yea, Hopefully the book will be a more pleasant reading environment for you
P.S. To everyone: I just upgraded my site, and my comments (which were nested and threaded), no longer show up. I’ll get it fixed soon.
Am currently writing on a topic captioned the “integrity of a mam” sir can you contribute to that and i shall acknowledge you in the atticle for so doing. Thanks.
Uzoma — Sure, I’d be interested in hearing more and helping you out. Shoot me an email: me@scottscheper.com
Hey Scott, I am a student and I was wondering if you have any suggestions for balancing multiple assignments when you have to do multiple assignments in a day to be able to keep up and complete them on time? I like to switch between tasks when they are making me drowsy or I’m not focused and that sometimes helps me. Then I feel like I’m made some progress in everything. If I only study for one class, I’ve neglected the three others and have to make up for that with less than ample time the following day.
For a super specific example I need to read 200 pages of Spanish literature in the next two days for one class, prepare for another class tomorrow night, and start a comprehensive review for another class that can’t be done in one sitting.
Hey Andrea —
I used to alternate subjects. It would keep me awake. Usually, I’d tackle two subject chunks. For instance, I’d hit Finance and Marketing with a 15-30 minute break between each. After I finished this two part chunk, I’d usually have a longer break for lunch or something; I’d then study two different subjects. Or, if there was a deadline coming up, I’d go back to the same two subjects.
I had a system for this that’s kind of fuzzy right now because I haven’t studied like that in a couple years. The good news, though, is that I have my planners saved. So I can read through them and re-discover the strategy I used!
Also, how many units are you taking, and are the scrunched within only a couple days, or are the spread out?
Let me try and break down your specific example.
- Today is Tuesday.
- Spanish Literature reading is due Thursday.
- Tomorrow night you need to prepare for one class (I don’t get what you mean by this. You need to do reading for a lecture or class? Or are you presenting? Or something else)
- Start a comprehensive review for another class.
Here’s what I’d do in that situation:
- Tuesday:
Read 100 Pages of Spanish literature
Do a light preparation for the class tomorrow
Do a light outline and plan for the comprehensive review
- Wednesday:
Read another 100 pages of Spanish literature
Do a heavier preparation for the class tomorrow
Do a light comprehensive review session
As you can see, I’d do all three in the day; however, I’d weight my time and effort towards the one with the most priority. I think doing all three is good for the brain, so that you won’t get burnt out by pulling all-day intensive study sessions for just one per day.
Studying is a different game than the real world. In the real world, productivity is much more weighted towards doing just one important thing per day than managing your time. Both are critical, though. And I’m definitely a bigger fan of college than high school–because at least college puts the burden of getting work done on your shoulders, not on some other person’s shoulders.
… Anyways, hope that helps
Hey Scott,
Thanks for the reply.
I’m in a unique situation right now… I am studying in Spain and I have 4 classes – 2 of which have a final exam and a final paper that make up 100% of your grade.
So right now I’m struggling with managing my time between these core assignments:
– Studying/preparing/re-learning for each of the 4 finals through notes
- Finishing a 500 page Literature book
- Writing paper for Literature Class
- Reading book for History Class for a paper
- Writing the paper for History Class
I’m also in a rough spot here because there is no place to study after 7pm and on weekends. All of the universities and libraries close. So finding times and places is also a huge stress. Doing hw and studying in your room, with a roommate who has 1/4 of the work that you do, is hard. haha
I’m hoping to just be motivated enough to work on each thing a little bit each day.
Hi Scott
just a few comments i think many people listen to music and work at the same time (i used to)I sort of did an experiment for my recent exams – i went to a quiet room, took the corner seat facing the wall and just studied. No computer. No music. i realized that if i actually stopped listening to music altogether while studying my concentration improves.
Another thing i realized is that sometimes when i totally lost concentration it’s better to take a nap/relax then to keep “attacking”. Continuing just makes it worse.
Thanks for writing =D i’ll keep reading
Cheers
Beng Hui (Singapore)
Beng — Thanks for the great insight. I, too, agree that I got my best studying done without music. It’s interesting, though, that music helps some people. Stephen King, for example, starts his day by listening to Metallica when writing!
Anyways, thanks for stopping by, Beng. I really appreciate the insight.
-scott
To be candid, person who fails to plan has planned to fail. It takes only for us to programme ourselfs and all the eight tids you lamented about above will be actualised.
Uzoma — I really like your quote. But what I like most about it is… it’s true!
Over the last months I was looking for a way to get more things done on my list. I have tasks that are assigned to certain days and a long list of tasks that need to be done soon but not on specific dates (~ 200, randing from simple like hanging a picture to longer ones like learning to cook or doing more sports incl. bying helmet and shoes for biking). My biggest problem is that I e.g. assign 5 tasks to each day, tick off 2, then something else happens (e.g. no motivation, unexpected work, or a “problem” like I bought the wrong tools to do a certain task, etc.) and so the next day I end up with 3 old, 1 unexpected, and 5 new (= 9) tasks, etc. etc. After a while this is really overwhelming and I didn’t even start with my long list of undated tasks.
For a while I tried assigning all tasks to dates which is pure chaos and I also tried assigning no tasks at all which created “oh, nothing to do” in my mind
Any ideas or help? Thanks a lot!
Joe — Here’s an idea that I write about: Outline just one critical thing to do per day, and do it.
Dont’ do 5 average things. Just do one important thing per day.
Hi Scott, i’m reading the whole book and keep finding every text more insightfull then the other.
I was thinking about your tip of doing one important thing at a day. Suppose i finish all the tasks for an important thing in, say, four hours. What do you suggest we do on the other work hours on that day? Try to do another important task? Read? Study?
Thanks, Cassio! I’m glad you like it!
With the other four hours, it really depends on your objective or your goal. I suggest carrying out a purposeful, meaningful activity. Whether that be working on a project, spending time with the significant other, or whatever, do something meaningful!
2 Minor edits:
Section: Question 1: para 3
Tell them, “So, I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out how to best approach this project, yet I everytime I advance further, I keep coming back to why this is meaningful in the first place.
should be
Tell them, “So, I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out how to best approach this project, yet every time I advance further, I keep coming back to why this is meaningful in the first place.
Thanks for the edits Fred!
Hi, Scott.
You have a typo in section 5–Be Smart With Your Time. You say “There’s three types of people in corporations:”
Should be “There are three types…”. Sorry, it’s the editor in me. ;-}~
wat if you cant get your butt off a chair or your face off the computer screen? ‘cuz thats what i’m going through right now…
Couple tips:
1) Quarantine your computer by putting it in a separate working room (not your living room).
2) Unplug the internet
3) Start the day with a jog
4) Get this application:
http://getconcentrating.com/affiliate.php?id=12
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