snapslikethis:

So this is about studying, but it can be applied to any kind of creative, educational, or work endeavor.

My college classes are full college classes, but they’re compressed into 8 weeks. So for the next 8 weeks I will be working full time, going to school, doing this massive volunteer project, and managing 5-6 kids’ activities. To say that I’m anxious about it is an understatement. When I’m anxious about something, what do I do? Research! Here’s what I’ve found out:

• Multitasking is a myth, at least for adults. Single tasking is the way to go. OK.
• From personal experience, that ‘use those small pockets of 15 minutes to do a small slice of ‘x’ activity is generally unhelpful. I have several pockets of 15 minutes but it feels completely chaotic to constantly switch activities.
• We have limited capacity for what our brains can handle. They need sleep. They need rest during the day too, apparently. (Here’s another.) So I purposely schedule in break time between tasks to veg, or meditate, or walk.
• But what to do when I’m on task and being productive? As a fan of the Pomodoro method for keeping on track – 25 5 25 5 25 5 25 15 – I have found (through experience and research) that this might be great for cleaning the house, but it’s actually awful for anything that requires actual concentration. Why?
• The research around attention says that takes office workers around 25 minutes to get back on track after an interruption. And I’m going and interrupting myself! It’s basically setting up my brain for self-sabotage.
• The research around deep work and flow states (x x etc), on the other hand, essentially tell us that long blocks of uninterrupted time, hyper focus, when we are at our best are ideal for big projects.

How am I applying this to my schoolwork, my writing goals, etc? 

First, I’m writing everything down. And then I’m diving them into what I think will be 2-3 hour chunks of time. For school, I’m taking two classes this 8 weeks, which translates to two chapters per class per week. On weeks when I have a test, it’s just one chapter each. That’s four deep work sessions of schoolwork.

• First of all, I wrote down everything I needed to do. 
• Then I did a small visualization exercise. This sounds hokey, but reaffirming why you’re doing what you’re doing really helps. 
• Distraction management: ate a snack, refilled my water bottle, went to the restroom, hid my phone, etc.
• Prepared my workspace. Designate a workspace. It’s important

And then I got to work. For each session I was tackling one half of my schoolwork for that class for the week:

• Peruse the chapter.
• Read the lecture notes.
• Listen to the lecture -take supplemental notes.
• Read the chapter – fill in notes on your powerpoint printouts.
• Retype the combined notes.
• Do the end of chapter questions.
• 4 discussion board posts.
• Take the quiz.
• Analyze and print out the quiz results.
• Prepare notecards.

The first session took me about three and a half hours, and it was absolutely brutal. BUT it would have taken me 5-6 otherwise. 

I gave my brain a 30-45 minute break, ate, took a bathroom break, phone break, etc.

Repeat session: MUCH faster.. 2 – 2.5 hours for the same amount of work.

Repeat break: dinner, rest, music.

Repeat with the first session for math class: 1.5 hours.

This – longer work sessions – is nothing revolutionary, but it does run counter to what we’re told a lot of the time. I finished what would have been 12-15 hours of distracted, miserable work in an afternoon/evening. I feel really good about the quality of that work, and I feel so prepared for this week. 

I have also been doing this at work – closing my inbox, turning off Skype and my phone – and it has yielded amazing results there, too. I already do this with painting. I think I’m going to do 1-2 deep writing sessions a week instead of trying to squeeze in a little big every day. I’ll adjust and test different variables over the next 8 weeks (shorter breaks, different times of day, etc), but I was super excited and wanted to share.