After long hours of studying and exam papers of long durations, I have become increasingly tired as I returned home in the evening. I decided to myself that I simply do not have the energy to study anymore and I needed to have some time to myself, when I can consolidate what I need to settle personally. My habits have been paused, and I am not ready to get into another intense study session. My mind is dying to let off some steam.
But, here is the deal - I have a legitimate reason to relax a bit tonight because I really needed some time to catch up my breath before going on. I can really feel that I may be overstretching myself if I press on with more revision. For the past few weeks, is this me every single day? It is impossible for me to get so stretched out everyday because I did not have much pressure outside of preparing for my exams, and the only thing that I am spiteful about is I get frustrated almost every time when I do Mathematics questions. So, I must be slacking.
Not too good. What can I do to make myself feel more ready to study? Or is there no such thing as in the mood to do so?
Let me clarify why I am thinking about this first. I understand that last-minute studying never works for an academic assessment. I have tried to squeeze some facts into my brain before the exam paper for today started but they just slipped out of my mind when I tried to recall about them today. I had to rely on some vague impressions to get through the mind block. I am clear that revising for the long term will yield me better results. Yet, I am not doing it. I just find myself panicking to start a few weeks before a test on the content matter comes out and I rush to finish whatever revision I needed to do.
Is there some way for me to take control of my studying and do it at my own pace?
I will need to work on two things: how do overcome the initial resistance to start studying, and how to have the determination to see it through.
To find out how I can get started on revision as soon as possible, and stay more focused in work for a long period of time, I did some thinking and reflection.
First, I will try to see how I can sustain my focus, as the lack of which had been preventing me to make further progress in my studying. Read on to find out more...
Flow state
Source: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
So, how do we get into this enjoyable state where we can lose ourselves in work?
According to a post from Melli O'Brien, there are four habits that helps one to attain flow state:
Step 1. Before you begin the activity, pause, then take three deep slow conscious breaths. Let the mind be fully engaged in the breath for that time and nothing else.
Personal reflection on this: I find this quite useful for getting myself to concentrate on an examination before examination start. So, before I start to get anxious about why I am not doing any work yet, I will need to cool down first before my brain can warm up again.
Step 2. Focus all of your attention in the present moment. Pretend for the moment that past and future do not exist. Take awareness to your sense perceptions. Be fully present in the now.
Personal reflection on this: honestly speaking, I have been trying to manage my emotions with a smartphone app and it usually asks whether I am thinking about something from the past or from the future when I share about my emotions. It can be quite surprising how past events or future worries have influenced my emotions in a lot of ways. Sometimes, I envy clocks, because they are always in the now, and never had to be concerned with the past or the future.
Step 3. Slowly, with deliberate movements, go about your activity. Make it into a meditative practice but with an intensity of focus.
Personal reflection on this: the state of mind described above really happened during my examination today. I really liked that kind of feeling, so I am seeking to replicate it into my revision. I sincerely hope every study session can be as productive as an actual exam.
Step 4. Remain alert and keep the mind fully attentive to what you are doing in that moment only– not allowing it to slip off into unconscious mind chatter. Be completely absorbed in the activity as if you had just been born into this world. You will find that the activity ‘comes alive’ when you practice it with mindfulness. If your mind does slip off into ‘autopilot’ simply guide it back to being intensely engaged in what your doing.
Personal reflection on this: step 4 made me realise how distracted I was when I am studying. I will usually scratch my body or adjust my position, trying to make myself feel more comfortable. This is totally different when I am focused on something, in which I think of nothing else but what I am doing. I did not find myself making anymore small movements. I guess this is a good indicator of the 'flow' state for me.
Now, I have understood more about what it means by getting absorbed in work. But there is another barrier that I could not quite overcome - the resistance to get started. There will be this train of thoughts replaying in my mind: 'I feel so frustrated and tired' >> 'I can't do this good enough' >> 'Maybe I am not ready yet' >> 'I am going to take a break and stop doing work.' What happens in the end? I will end up feeling guilty about the time I just wasted. Sigh.
The resistance to get started, and overcoming it
I searched, and found an article from Psychology Today. What I will quote from this article is the the meaning of resisting work:
The article states that adolescents are pushing off work as they want more self-determination in what they want to do and they will like to do something else that earn them more respect.What is work? For purposes of this discussion, think of Work as the outcome of Will motivating Effort to get some Task accomplished.
When work is not easy, freely chosen, or enjoyable, it can become harder to do. At such times, work ethic and self-discipline can come to the rescue. For the most part, these two self-management skills must be learned through practice which adults have had more time to develop than adolescents, particularly early on.
Because most parents find that it takes unending labor to live and make a living. Accepting this hard fact of life, they tend to feel frustrated when the early adolescent (around ages 9 – 13) becomes more reluctant to do work compared to when he or she was a child. They naturally wonder, what happened to Mom’s or Dad’s willing and eager little helper?
In view of this, maybe why Asians are so tenacious and conscientious when it comes to academic work is because there is the strong culture of respect for the learned scholars and people who are educated. Without this motivation, it may be harder for one to study more.
Back to the case of adolescents trying to put off work, as they grow older, they will start to appreciate to maintain themselves and to progress in this world, they will need to put in some amount of effort into the work they are doing. In this case, the resistance is not as bad, but if there are unhealthy work habits that start from young, it can possibly lead to procrastination.
How do we beat this? How do we make work fun like video games, or something that is about as manageable as wiping a pair of glasses?
Here are some tips from zenhabits.net:
1. Become aware. The problem usually is that we don’t think about Resistance. We don’t understand it or even realize it’s there most of the time. We just think, “Oh, I better straighten out my desk … or get my to-do lists in order” or we get distracted by something on the web, or we feel that we have to check our email, or we’re just going to watch this one TV show, or any of a limitless amount of distractions.
Combat this by realizing that you are facing Resistance. Once you become aware of it, you can fight it, and beat it. It can be difficult to become more aware, but the key is to focus on it for a couple of days. Print out the words “Defeat Resistance” and put it somewhere visible as you work. That will help remind you to be aware of Resistance. Every time you do something that isn’t the most important thing you could be doing right now, be aware of what you’re doing.
2. Become a pro. This is the main technique that Pressfield outlines in The War of Art: combating Resistance by turning pro. The professional, unlike the amateur, comes to work ready to work. He’s doing it for a living (and loves what he does) and knows that as long as he shows up and starts working, the rest will come. Approach the work like a pro, and you’ll get the work done.
3. Be very clear, and focus. Before you start the day, be very clear about what you want to accomplish. You won’t be able to finish 10 major projects, but maybe you can finish one important project, or at least move it along to a certain point. Set three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Once you have those things defined, you’ve got to focus on them to the exclusion of all else (at least, during your prime work time). Do them first. Focus, finish, then move on to the smaller tasks you need to complete today. If you find yourself being lured to do something that’s not on that short list of three things, bring yourself back and focus.
4. Clear away distractions. Don’t spend a lot of time on this, because eliminating distractions can be a distraction itself. Instead, take one minute: close your email program and IM program and turn off all notifications. Shut down the Internet if at all possible. Close all programs except the one you need to do the important task in front of you. Clear your desk quickly (stuff everything in a drawer or something — you can organize it later) and turn off the phones if possible. Put on headphones or alert your coworkers (or family, if you’re at home) that you’re not to be disturbed for the next hour (or however long you plan to work on this task). Then get to work.
5. Have a set time and place. Make your first important task a daily appointment. For me, that’s writing. I always start the day with a writing task (such as writing this post, for example). For you, that might be different. Have a set start time, and possibly a set ending time — you’ll have to see what works for you, but the important thing is the set starting time. And when that time comes, you have to start. No exceptions.
6. Know your motivation. Why are you doing this? Why is this task important? What is it working towards? And how important is that end goal to you? Why is it important? You need to know these things to build up the motivation to overcome Resistance.
7. Just start. In the end, all the tips in the world won’t make as much a difference as this simple (and timeless) instruction. Just sit down and start. Feel Resistance to doing that? There’s no way to overcome it than to just start. Reading more about Resistance won’t help. Going to an online Procrastinator’s Forum won’t help. Working on your to-do lists won’t help. Only doing actually helps. And the only way to do something is to just start.
I must say they are very comprehensive and workable. In particular, the second, sixth and seventh tip struck me the most because they are amazingly simple. I need to figure out why I am doing work, and imagine that I am actually good in this to expect good quality work from myself, and the fastest way to get started is to not leave myself anymore time to contemplate how life sucks and start doing it anyway. I guess this is what Nike's "Just Do It" motto encapsulates.
Applying it in Mathematics, the notion of becoming good at it and applying it to something that can be useful later in my life sounds good to me. Also, I will just treat myself as someone who aces Math and imagine that there are a lot of people who are trying to be as good as me and work as hard as me. In order to stay ahead of others, I will really have to work hard.
That being said, the last step is to really get started.
Final words
Every time, even in the midst of an exam period, I get to learn and appreciate new lessons.. I am grateful for that. I hope my takeaway for me to believe in myself that I will be able to pull anything through and start immersing myself in studying. I believe it will be exciting!
I will continue to work hard. I also wish all those who are taking their exams right now the best of luck!
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