Setting Yourself Up
This past week, things have calmed down a little. It is mid-term season, time to study and watch as it gradually gets to freezing temperatures outside the library window. We are not there yet, but my midterms are not over either.
One thing I have noticed in my own behaviour this time is trying to anticipate friction points to then reduce them. After all, it is my fifth year of university, so I guess some reflexes kick in during exam season. I will give you examples of how I optimise my own space and time to get into the flow state and actually get stuff done.
First of all, it is rather useful, not to say essential, to get some sleep, movement, and decent nutrition. I agree that this is a whole task of its own, but without these factors it is easier to give in to vices because our body is not fueled and rested. Keeping in mind that my month of September was spent not respecting my body to that extent.
The rest after that is simple shifts. It is mostly about being grounded enough to tell oneself that maybe indeed, as a human, I am a mere mammal that gets distracted. We can control it, but we are not capable against companies whose whole business model is built on distracting you with countless algorithms working against you.
One clear example is notifications. These are distractions that everyone, including myself, has a belief that we can control ourselves with. Yet everything is meticulously built so that we smoothly find ourselves in the endless personalised feeds.
Having my preprogrammed "Work Mode" that turns off notifications on all devices and turns my phone black and white is great. Even if there is a notification that I end up seeing when picking up my phone, it is way less flashy in black and white, so I can simply retrieve the information without the urge to click on the shiny icon.
Even if I have the notifications off, I will try to put my phone out of reach so that in a moment of uncertainty I can not simply pick it up to fill time. If not possible, then out of sight is already good enough for me. This adds friction to the vice and removes friction from the work.
When distractions are removed, there is still the actual work to do. For this, there are many different approaches, but the main idea is that you need to suck it up and start. One approach is the ten-minute rule, for example – just commit to ten minutes and then see if you want to keep going. Usually it already gets the ball rolling enough to stick to it.
During deep work sessions, it is a great habit to take some breaks. Some people like the Pomodoro method (25min work, 5 min rest), but I find it to be too short intervals. I usually go by feel nowadays, but what I have used is Forest. It blocked my phone for 1-2 hours, and then I took a 30-ish minute break to let my mind rest.
That is already a good overview of how I approach studying. This specific approach may not apply to everyone's curriculums and jobs. That being said, I find that the general thought process of reducing friction for work and adding friction to distractions can be applied to almost anything.
This Week's Suggestions:
Completely different from the suggestions from the past few weeks. This is some pretty heavy-going rock. The tension builds for almost 2 minutes and then releases everything. It is a friend's suggestion that really caught me off-guard in a good way.
💡"JACK KEROUAC on THE STEVE ALLEN SHOW with Steve Allen 1959":
I spoke about Kerouac's "On The Road" quickly in Play Ball, Again a few weeks ago. Discussing the book with a friend, he suggested to me this great little extract from 1959's TV show, with Kerouac reading a chapter of his own book with some pleasant blues in the background.
Have a great start to the week!