How to become obsessed: effective study

The main topics that will be covered in this article are Schedule, Focus, Growth Mindset, Memory Techniques and Rest.

Schedule

In order to start any task, you need to devote time to it. And for this you need a schedule.

Schedule – the ability to identify in advance all the things that need to be done in advance, so that, firstly, you can get down to business when the time comes, and secondly, so as not to waste time thinking about what you are going to do during the day, saving your energy .

Before making a schedule, it should be noted that there are type of tasks.

• Superficial tasks – those that need to be done, but for which no mental work is required, or a minimum of it is required. That is, just things that need to be done, but in which your mind is not strained. This type of task can simply be labeled as something that is not useful to you personally and your progress, but needs to be done.
  Make sure that surface activities do not harm your deep activities, try to minimize the surface so that you can devote more time to depth.

• Advanced tasks – those that already require effort to complete. In such tasks, you spend energy, effort and time to get the job done. These are important tasks because they are the engine of your progress. These tasks will be discussed today.

• Rest/break – something that warms up the brain from the load received during the working day. It is important that this rest is beneficial, namely relaxing the brain, and not straining it. This time can also be spent thinking about some new ideas.
  By the way, it would be nice if you set yourself a time during which you will work in depth every day. That is, the period of time in which you will be comfortable doing your work.

Once you have identified all types of tasks in your schedule for the current day or days, structure should be indicated these tasks, and specifically give a brief description of what you will do. Again, this is to save energy and not have to think about it several times. The structure needs to be designated immediately after you have designated the task and assigned it to the desired template out of three in your schedule, that is, you need to do everything in advance.

Главная цель расписания для вас - это лишить мозг рассеянного состояния и научиться обдуманно тратить своё время. Вот у вас есть дело, и вы его должны выполнить, так выполняйте, и важно, чтобы вы были максимально преданны тому, что делаете, работая до того момента, пока вы не выполните поставленную перед собой задачу в указанный промежуток времени - время, в которое всё начинается и время, в которое всё заканчивается. Не загружайте себя задачами, а просто имейте хотя бы план на день, в котором вы будете выполнять поставленные перед собой задачи в указанные вами промежутки времени.

And by switching between tasks we mean everything that you pay your attention to in the work environment. The more you spend your attention, the more difficult it will be for you to start doing things where you need to put effort into, that is, deep tasks.
That is why a schedule is needed to eliminate such free behavior in which you are simply wasting your energy and time. Расписание придаёт смысл вашим действиям, так как вы заранее их обозначили.

Therefore, in order to begin work with the presence of energy, you need to eliminate all distractions, both before and after work. When you work, you work and are not distracted by anything.

The biggest distraction is social networks (Internet). They absorb your attention mindlessly because there will always be something there for you to pay attention to, and it is an endless process. In fact, the Internet is a colossal information field that is guaranteed to capture your attention, because there is always something exciting on the Internet. Therefore, you need to limit social media in your life in the following ways.

1. Going online should be planned in advance in your schedule. After all, if access to the Internet is not planned, you will simply be absorbed in an endless stream of information. Of course, when you are working, you cannot go online.

2. There are situations when you need to go online to perform a particular task. But given that we only go online at pre-planned times to save energy, this can stall our work. But this doesn't mean you need to go online right away.

   1. If this greatly slows down the work of the current task, then move on to another one where the Internet is not required. And when the time comes to go online, you complete the task where it is needed.

   2. If your task has a deadline, for example, today or tomorrow, then adjust the time you go online according to this work.

3. Use social networks to your advantage. Use those social networks that allow you to achieve your desired goal. Those social networks or its aspects that do not affect you in any way or affect you negatively – remove them.

Ваша задача в противостоянии соц.сетям - исключить свободное поведение, чтобы настроить мозг на важную задачу, которая требует усилия, внимание и время. А ваша цель во всём этом - не переключаться в интернет при малейшем признаке скуки. Если у вас есть расписание, значит вы будете без напряжения сопротивляться интернету. Будьте терпимы и следуйте своему распорядку, не поддаваясь прихотям мозга.

Of course, no one said that social networks are evil) But their influence on you should be limited to such an extent that it does not harm you and your energy. Everything in moderation, as they say.

Additions to this section

1. Of course, your ability to concentrate can be affected by other factors, such as poor sleep, junk food, and lack of physical activity. Not only must you be committed to deep work, but your physical body must also be in good condition.

2. Your surroundings also play a big role. If it is noisy, dirty and uncomfortable, then this can spoil the process of concentration. Try to make the environment as comfortable as you can.

I explained why you may not be able to focus on anything, often it is social media that weakens your control over yourself. Now I will explain the concept of concentration or the learning process.

How does concentration work?

When you are learning or doing something, you have to be actively involved in it, especially when it comes to tasks where you need to put in mental effort, i.e., advanced tasks. And to be actively involved, you must attract your own attention and force yourself to concentrate.

• This is the key idea – the ability to focus is not an automatic process, it all depends on your efforts to bring your mind back to work when you are distracted or forgotten. Waiting for interest or attention to appear in your activity is wrong and useless, because learning or doing anything is not interesting for the brain, which inherently likes to be in a relaxed state.

  The ability to concentrate is a process that depends only on your efforts. This process is not automatic. It comes only from you. This is also a discipline, and like all other disciplines, it is developed through practice, experience and pain.

Remember one more key idea – to become the best at something = hurt. But only failure and stress trigger brain plasticity, a state in which you can actively learn something. You make sure that the neural circuit that is needed for this in-depth work is allocated for in-depth work. You will gradually get used to this state, gradually improving your level of learning.

And a large part of this process will be strongly tied to the fact that you will be uncomfortable, and that you will always have to go beyond your comfort. If you feel that it is difficult for you, then this is good, since tension is a sign that the brain is gradually becoming actively involved.

So understand, there is no flow. Studying/studying is not the same as eating or going to the shower. Flow creates a false impression in which entering the zone of concentration is easy and automatic.

Focus comes only from your efforts. And these efforts will give rise to discomfort, and you need to come to terms with this thought. You can only become better through pain. No pain, no gain – a hackneyed phrase, but it conveys the essence)

Quality work = time spent x power of concentration.

Additions to the section

1. When you are learning or doing something, telling yourself clearly that it is necessary for you is an easy way to voluntarily concentrate on the task.

2. When you absorb any information, think of it as learning, not as boring. Although in any case you will have to concentrate your attention on the material.

3. Information must be processed in your head, so as you study it, stop to think about it. Obvious, but the point is emphasized – take your time while studying information, slowly but surely burn important ideas into your head.

Amount of time spent in concentration. How is it measured and where is its limit.

• When you sit down to work, start counting the time by starting the stopwatch. Once you feel that your enthusiasm and quality of work have decreased significantly, look at the stopwatch, this is your time during which you can work in depth.

Try starting with an hour a day, trying to be as focused as possible during that hour.

You can also divide your time by splitting it up so that in one half of the day you spend 30 minutes during which you work, and in the other half of the day you also spend 30 minutes, which adds up to an hour per day. If this option is attractive to you, of course.

• The time for in-depth work increases in a simple way – by adding time to your norm at the moment when you are already easily immersed in in-depth work with your average value – 1 hour for example. And add to your norm, which you already easily immerse yourself in, for example, 10 minutes.
  And so on continuously until you completely adapt to this state, so that you can then increase the time value by another 10 minutes.

And your in-depth work throughout the day has a limit. You can divide your deep work throughout the day based on your average amount of time spent in concentration, but even so, it will all add up.
Work sessions will accumulate in terms of workload, and you may become tired. Therefore, do not work beyond the norm you have identified during the day, because the effect of working when you feel tired is small.

So once you finish all your in-depth tasks on your schedule, you don't do them again for the rest of the day.

About growth mindset

This topic is indirectly related to the topic of training. But it definitely won't be superfluous. I'll briefly look at how you should approach stress and how to work through your mistakes.

Let's start with how to perceive mistakes

Throughout your life you will make mistakes, and that's okay. After all, mistakes make it clear where you are imperfect, allowing you to fill these empty spaces by eliminating the errors themselves.

When you make a mistake, do not react to it emotionally; emotional fixation on why something didn’t work out for you and why is wrong. Don't react to failure by giving up.

Instead, you respond to failure by working harder. You've made a mistake. Your reaction should be – what is the correct answer or course of action to resolve the situation? Then you ask yourself one question – how could I get this wrong? And then you work hard to figure out why things didn't work out for you.

То-есть, вы реагируете на свои ошибки не эмоционально, а с безжалостной объективностью, позволяя мозгу устранить ошибку. Таким образом вы можете лучше понять, как стать лучше, когда вы совершили ошибку.

About stress

Specifically here I will talk about how stress can help you.

Let's start with the fact that in any task, absolutely any task, you will experience stress to some extent. And the harm of stress will vary depending on your belief in it, that is, if you believe that stress can improve your performance, then it will..
But if you believethat stress only brings harm, then so be it.

It all depends on your faith. Moreover, if you believe that stress improves your performance, then it even increases your self-esteem to some extent. And this faith weakens stress is harmful to you, and also increases the level of focus on your mistakes to further destroy them.

Когда вы испытываете стресс в течении работы, то просто поймите, стресс создаёт определённые нейрохимические условия и нейронные цепи, которые нужны для обучения, чтобы улучшить восприятие нынешнего процесса обучения.

But, of course, your stress must be adequate. When you get to the point where you can't absorb information, take break to restore and then continue.

Methods for remembering information

Now you have studied the material. It's time to remember it to increase your efficiency. There are 2 ways.

1. Active memorization

Active memorization. The essence of the method is that you reproduce the received information from scratch. By this I mean action = you sit down and solve a test or write whatever is in your head in text form.

And to do this, you need to develop the material you read in your head, repeating it, making sure that the resulting material takes root in your head and grows in it like a tree. You take this information and simply hammer it into your head so that you understand the essence of the material and all its details, so that you can then reproduce the material from scratch on a blank sheet of paper (it doesn’t matter whether it’s a real sheet or on a computer).

This method heavysince you need to get all the material into your head and remember it in order to describe it later without prompts. It takes a long time (depending on the amount of material) and puts a strain on your brain, but it's very effective. It ensures that you fully understand the material.

2. Testing

Testing. If the first method is aimed at strictly memorizing the material in order to later reproduce it from scratch, then this method is aimed at questions and answers – that is, testing in the literal sense. But this method can be used in conjunction with active memorization, which is cool.

Testing is the most effective method of memorization. You literally create a test for yourself using all sorts of programs (anki, for example).

Even if you make a mistake in a test, that's good, the brain will remember what you find difficult to remember in the test. It is the test that makes it clear what you know and what you don’t know – this is the key idea. And with the help of mistakes, your nervous system forces you to record what is right and what is wrong.

Yes, you can repeat stupidly, but it is ineffective. In the first method, you also repeat and memorize as efficiently as possible, but then you reproduce this material from scratch on a blank sheet of paper.

Repetition – passive teaching method.
Testing – active teaching method.

Maybe repetition of information gives you confidence that you remember the material well – this is not so.
Тестирование кажется чем-то трудным и вызывающим дискомфорт, что не придаёт уверенности в эффективности данного метода, но только в тестировании ваш мозг начинает активничать, корректируя пробелы в вашем разуме.

Now a little about the testing structure

• When should you test yourself?

  It is better immediately after receiving the information. If not immediately, then in a day or a couple of days, but it’s better not to delay it. The sooner the better.

  Your test can be in any form, the main thing is that it retains the essence of the tests = you have a question in front of you, and you are trying to remember the answer. And there should be as many of these tests as possible.

  If you can't pass the test right away, try to remember the material in your head. A kind of test in the head. And if the material is unclear to you and you don’t remember it well, that’s good, since the brain has taken the first step to remembering the information.

• What should the test be?

  Open questions with short answer. There should be a minimum of hints or no hints at all.

  Open-ended questions better force you to remember the essence of the material covered..

Micro addition to the section

1. Sleep well. Sleep significantly affects memory. When you repeat something before bed, you remember it a little better. And if you repeat it after you wake up, you will be even a little better.

About rest. What should he be like?

Rest or breaks are needed in order to unload the brain from the deep work done, and in general, to gather strength and get to work. Without rest you will not be effective.

After finishing the working day, you should rest, since it is impossible to keep your brain in constant tension, this contributes to burnout or exhaustion.

But in order for your vacation to bring more benefits, you need to plan it in advance – specifically when you will relax, how much and how. Here we need structuring of rest.
This is necessary in order not to think about how to rest, in order to once again save energy for in-depth work. And in general, for many people, relaxation means using the Internet, in an information field that mercilessly eats up your strength.

Therefore, write down your vacation, what it should be like and how long it should last. Natural distractions are also good. This is when your attention is captured unobtrusively, where you don't have to direct it.

Rest is a support for deep work. If your vacation is planned, then it is meaningful and enjoyable.

A few words about burnout

Just a few words. The problem of burnout occurs because you do a lot of difficult tasks due to some reasons, for example, to compensate for wasting time on unnecessary things. Because you're trying to make up for lost time with productive time, you add a lot of work, and a lot of work into your free time, which makes you emotionally unable to cope with it all. You get tired because you are trying to be above your limit.

Do not add up all the work, but do it in parts and in moderation. Feel what you are capable of and what it is better not to waste your energy on.

Conclusion

In general, the state of deepening into one's tasks is a very useful and good activity. When you are absorbed in something, you spend your time rationally and enjoy the mere thought that it is useful and important to you. This kind of passion for your task gives meaning to your life, making it more reasonable.

Live meaningfully. Learn to feel the meaning of your life.