Beating School, Part 11

Memorization is going to be your companion throughout your whole educational career. Although it’s not as effective a method of learning as other techniques, it’s going to become a requirement for numerous tests. But relatively few people understand how to effectively memorize for a test.

The proven technique is called stacking, and it consists of mastering an amount of information and adding to it. Stacking works like this:

Suppose you are expected to memorize a list of 10 items for a test. Write them down on a sheet of paper, get in an area with some peace and quiet and:

• Memorize item one. Put the paper away and repeat it aloud.
• When you have item one down, memorize item one, then two. Put the paper away and repeat both of them aloud.
• Continue through the end of the list
• When you miss an item in the list, go back to that level and restart. Ex. – if you’re working on item 8, but you miss item 4 when repeating, go back to item 4 and move up from there.

A couple of things are at work here: writing helps to solidify your thoughts, speaking them aloud firms them up a little more and taking things in a regular order lets you chain associations of a lesser retained item to a stronger one.

And if you can take a short nap after your session, it’s proven that sleep will solidify memory.  Just as long as you remember to get up and start studying again!

 

Beating School, Part 10

College is a rare and wonderful time that’s going to be a real eye opener for you.  Never again are you likely to have so many opportunities in front of you and so much freedom to pursue them.  At the same time, it’s a real challenge in self-discipline and self-direction, since this is likely to be your first “on your own” experience.

So I’d like to give you just a few pieces of advice on how to make the most of your college career:

• Take responsibility for your self. You’ll be out from under parents’ watchful eyes, and for the most part there’s not going to be anyone to cover your bases for you.  So pay heed to Mom and Dad’s previous advice. Stay clean.  Exercise.  Eat right.  Be careful.  Take precautions to stay safe.  We nagged you because we were looking out for your well being.  Now look out for your own.
• Take responsibility for your own learning.  There are opportunities everywhere for learning, both inside and outside the classroom.  You’re paying a lot of money to get an education, so get it.  Don’t  be satisfied with “making the grade”.  Make sure you come out of college knowing what you want to do with your life and some skills to get there.  Set goals, track your progress and pursue your education.
• Take significant courses in your major as soon as possible. You might learn that you’d prefer another major, and better to learn earlier than later.
• Make the most of your classes.  Come prepared.  Come on time.  Stay focused.  Ask questions. Make friends in every class that will support you.  Be friendly with the teacher. Try to come out of every class ready to take a test on that material.  If you don’t understand it, make sure you do before the next class.  Remember, the more you absorb in the classroom, the less time you’ll have to spend studying outside of it when the social scene happens.
• Study until you know the material.  Find a time and place free of distractions.  For me, it was sometimes in the late hours when I was the only one up.  Sometimes I studied in the library.  When I couldn’t find a quiet place, I’d use my car.
• If you have trouble with the material, get help.  Get a tutor.  Get time with your professor.  Don’t assume a shallow knowledge of the subject is good enough for the test.  Learn the material.  Especially in your major, the next class’ material usually builds on the earlier stuff, so get your basics down pat.
• Try new things.  Make new friends.  Try activities you weren’t involved in before.  College is a great melting pot and a chance to redefine yourself in the eyes of your peers.  You might find things you really enjoy.
• A lot of students major in drugs and alcohol.  Don’t be one of them.  When you consider the thousands upon thousands of dollars you’re putting out to get an education,  that’s the most expensive drink you’ve ever taken.
• Shop early for textbooks, and never buy new ones.
• Keep up with your finances.  Credit is not free money. Set a budget and stick with it.
• Use a daily planner and some system of reminders.  Don’t depend on your brain to absorb everything.  You might have been great at this in high school, but you’ve just moved up a notch.  Put your assignments from your syllabus on this calendar so you see them coming  up.
• Have fun

 

Ask why

One of the most important skills to master in life is critical thinking – the process of asking “why”.  It’s also one of the most difficult skills to acquire because it isn’t taught or encouraged in most life settings.

• In school you’re taught to sit still, be quiet, do your work and don’t ask questions.  You’re required to learn the curriculum whether or not it has any value or meaning for you.  In my school years, we studied textbooks written by mostly white Americans with a decidedly nationalist point of view.  I know of several teachers that in retrospect were not really qualified to teach the subjects they did.  I knew standardized testing did very little to benefit me and everything to benefit the schools’ funding process.  I had to submit to unnecessary disciplinary rules that were designed to keep less mature students in check.  And I would have been in real trouble had I debated these facts with the administration.
• In most workplaces you are to do your job and keep your mouth shut.  You aren’t supposed to question the direction of the company, the morality behind their decisions or the choices of anyone with a superior position.  While every company says they welcome suggestions and criticism, the squeaky wheel tends to get marginalized or replaced.
• In most religions, you’re expected to accept the words coming out of the pulpit without question.  If something doesn’t make sense to you or you think your elders in the faith have made some poor choices, they don’t want to know about it.  Most will entertain your questions, but if you don’t accept the party line in a reasonable amount of time, you’re branded a troublemaker.
• In politics, the persons in power want you to pay your taxes, accept the policy and smile about it.  They will tolerate a bit of activism in a democracy, but only to an extent, and that’s because they have to.

In most cases, people in power want you to be ignorant, naive, trusting, quiet and sedentary – it makes it easier for them to get on with their work and agendas.  Questions take time to answer – sometimes a lot of time – time that they’d rather spend on themselves and their agendas.  When someone wants to get out of line, it slows down the group dynamic and the leader feels they have to go to the extra work of rounding you up and getting you back in line.

But if no one steps out of line, then everyone is bound for the same destination.  A destination that may or may not be the best one.

The fact is, the people who really make a difference in this world do so because they choose to step out of line.  They ask questions.  They ask why something is done in a particular way and why it can’t be done another way. And thus empires are created, records are broken and occasionally, the world is improved.

Even if you don’t desire to be the next revolutionary, critical thinking still becomes paramount in your daily life.  You have to learn to ask questions and find answers in order to find the best life for yourself:

• Popular culture will tell you that you need to buy in to a culture of materialism and celebrity.  Why?  How does that benefit me?
• Financial institutions will tell you that everyone lives on credit and you must also.  Why?  Is it really good for me to be giving them thousands of dollars in interest just to acquire something I don’t really need?
• Fashion media will convince you that you need to look a particular way to fit in.  Why?  Is it really “my image” if I just copy everyone else?  Does the cost of my clothing say anything about the kind of person I am and what I’m capable of?
• Politicians will convince you that our policy is good, just and expedient.  Why?  Is it really necessary for us to be involved in a war?  Do we really need the level of bureaucracy we support, or are we just paying off the politician’s supporters? Isn’t a clean environment/higher minimum wage/local homelessness and hunger more important than yet another road or publicly funded art program?
• Religions will work to convince you that they have a unique line to God.  Why?  Is tradition necessarily right?  How can so many reverent people have such wildly varying approaches to God?  What if my holy book doesn’t make sense to me?
• You yourself will rationalize a lot of things to encourage an immediate desire.  Why?  Is this unhealthy food in front of me really what I want in the long run?  Am I staying in an unhealthy relationship for security that may not exist?  Am I doing something to impress someone I don’t really care about?

The process of critical thinking involves acquiring information and evaluating it to reach a well-justified conclusion or answer.  It’s about asking “why” and using the knowledge you find to come to the best conclusion.

Anything can and should be questioned.

 

Getting a good job, part 2

So you’re motivated to find a good job. Given that you now understand what makes a job good, you have to ask yourself what particular job fits your interests so you can start preparing for it.

Most kids head off for college with the vaguest ideas of what they want to study, change majors a few times and end up working in a job they didn’t prepare for. 99% of those people do so because they never took the time to think about what they wanted to do. They got thoughtful around their senior year and decided being a doctor sounded cool. Or their dad was a salesman and he seemed to do pretty well. Or they loved a teacher and thought they’d like to be a cool teacher like that. That’s the least effective thing you can do.

I’d like to challenge you to make a smart decision about your education by thinking ahead.

• Is their a particular field that fits your interests? Is there anything you have a passion for? Do you love movies, or TV, or music, or sports? Do you like the idea of being a community pillar like a small town doctor or lawyer? Does a political position intrigue you? Do you like to teach?  Do you want to be seen as an intellectual?  Do you like the idea of working in entertainment?  Do you like the idea of helping people?  You’re just looking for a general category or two at this point.
• Once you’ve got a general category, start thinking about tasks you enjoy. Do you enjoy leading people, or trying to convince them to commit to something? Do you enjoy working by yourself? Did you like math in school, or science, or history? Did you enjoy working with a team? Make a list of the things you enjoyed doing during your high school years and summer jobs to refer back to.
• Now think about your capabilities. What do people tell you you have a talent for? Ask people where they think your talents lie – your parents, teachers, etc. Do you communicate well, study well? Are you a whiz with figures, or great with physical work? Are you a people person or a loner?  Do you enjoy travel? Again, make a list.
• Now start looking at your lists side by side and see if anything jumps out at you. If you were good at math, a loner and enjoyed sports, you might enjoy doing stats. If you were outgoing, a great leader and loved TV, you might think about sales within that field. If you don’t find anything immediately, don’t worry – but if you can you’ll be even better prepared.
• Spend some time researching the industry you like.  Look at trade publications or classified ads. What kind of jobs are out there in that field? Which are plentiful? Do they pay what you want them to? Do they have sufficient prestige? What kind of education and skills are demanded of this profession? Will you have to move away to get this kind of job and is that OK with you?
• Hopefully by this time you’ve got some ideas about what jobs you might like to fill. Now’s the time to experiment a little. Try out your potential profession. If you think you’d like to make movies, make a movie. Use a home videocam, recruit your friends and try to make the most professional looking movie you can. You’ll likely discover that it’s harder than it looks to make a great movie. You’ll also learn what about it you enjoyed and what you didn’t enjoy.
• After completing a test project, regroup and think about it. Maybe you discovered you didn’t like directing as much as doing special effects on a computer. Or maybe you enjoyed recruiting friends and selling them on the idea better than the actual movie making. Or maybe you realize you shot a horrible movie, but kept the best records of anyone you know. Try a couple of these little projects to test the waters.
• After your projects, re-evaluate what you think you might want to do. If you found you were great at recruiting teenage actors, you probably have a talent for sales. Try getting a more serious job in that field. If you can’t get hired, volunteer. Sell ads for the yearbook. Get a job in a department store selling clothes. Test it out a little more in a situation that’s closer to the real world. If you don’t like it, go back to your experience with your projects and start again on something else.
• When you’ve got an idea of your desired field and a general idea of the kind of job you might like, do some more research and understand the practical job path. If you want to be an NFL sportscaster, no one’s going to hand you that job straight out of school. But you might see how you could start covering local games, move on to college and then to the pros. If you want to be a big Hollywood director, you probably will need to find a day job that will build your skills (like with a local TV station or independent film company) while you work toward the creation that will put you on the map. Talk to guidance counselors, do research and understand what you’re going to have to do to get there. What kind of education do you need? What skills can you be learning from books and other independent study materials? What sort of jobs could you take as a student that would use similar skills?
• Once you have your path laid out, start working toward it. If you want to be a sportscaster, you can probably start learning by volunteering to do menial work in the booth at local football games. Or maybe you could convince your school to let you do a student broadcast on the internet as a project. If you want to sell, learn about your desired industry and sales techniques – there are plenty of resources for free right in your local library. Get started learning.
• If you decide in this process that you made a mistake about enjoying doing this, start over again. Go back as far in the process as you are confident and begin it again.

Be flexible when you’re looking.  For every interesting job you know about, there are other well paying jobs that are just as interesting behind the scenes.  Even if you determine you can’t be a football star, rock star, movie star or what have you, you can still be involved in these fields, often just as closely as the people in the limelight.

• Maybe you love movies, but see that there are only a few top name directors in the world at any time. Behind every movie director there are producers, specialty directors, cameramen, technicians, special effects guys, stunt men,  writers, managers, financial experts, engineers, etc.  Establishing yourself in one of these could lead to being a director yourself.  If you really enjoy directing, you might combine it with other interests and specialize in documentaries, or corporate films, or something similar.  You might like teaching others to direct. Or you might find a better fit for yourself that you didn’t even recognize..
• Behind every pro athelete are managers, coaches, trainers, financial experts, therapists, accountants, analysts, etc.
• Some jobs lend themselves to any industry.  Sales, accounting, computer work, management, leadership, etc. are always in demand and have the added benefit of being able to move those skills from field to field if your interests change.

You might notice that this process is going to take some time, and it does. Most people get a late start and have to re-educate themselves by going back to school and only finding their dream jobs later in life. So start early! It’s never too early. If you can have a good idea of where you’re going before you make college plans, you can put yourself strongly ahead of the pack. It’s the difference between being another face in the crowd and a standout prospect for the recruiter that visits your school.

You’re going to be working for most of the day, most of your life – so you might as well find something that’s a joy instead of a burden. And there’s no better time than the present to get started.

 

Getting a good job

All your life adults do their best to impress upon you the importance of getting a “good job”.  And I’m sure you don’t disagree – everyone wants to be successful, secure and motivated to get up and go to work in the mornings.  But you may be confused at any point in time as to exactly what a “good job” is for you.

I’d like to give you a little advice on what I see as a “good job”.

• A “good job” is what you consider to be a good job. Adults may encourage you to be a doctor or lawyer or something of that nature – they do that because they assume you hold this positions in the same esteem that they do.  But even a prominent, well-paying job is not a good job for you if it doesn’t fit your particular needs.
• A “good job” is one doing something that you enjoy.  Certain jobs are always held in high esteem – doctors, lawyers, etc.  But if the idea of treating patients or working with the law is excruciatingly for you, it’s not a good fit.  In the end, this is going to be the #1 critical factor for job satisfaction.  Salary, benefits and hours will not seem nearly as essential if you really enjoy what you’re doing – because it doesn’t really feel like working.  If you can tell yourself “I’d do this job for free”, that’s a pretty good hint.  Happy is better than wealthy.
• A “good job” pays you enough to fund the lifestyle you intend to live. If you want the big house on the hill, luxury cars, vacation homes, etc., you’re going to need a job with the earning potential to get that. You are not going to fund a $250K/yr lifestyle with a $30K/yr. job.
• A “good job” has a payment model that matches your personality. Some people value the security of a salary over the earnings potential.  Some are motivated to work by commission or case, generating money for each sale/client they follow through on.   Some prefer self-employment where they are paid based on the overall performance of the business.  Salaries make it easy to budget and the money is generally there when you expect it, but you don’t really have a chance to move beyond those rewards.  Commissions/case work will have more fluctuating income, highs and lows you’ll need to plan for, but carry the opportunity of “making the big sale” and bringing home an unexpected windfall.  Self employment is the same, but usually more extreme.  You need to find the kind of payment model that motivates you to succeed.
• A “good job” gives you the opportunity to learn and grow.  No matter how fascinated you are with a job starting out, it’s going to get old eventually. If you don’t have a chance to take on new challenges and new responsibilities, you face a strong risk of burnout.  For example, doctors with a private practice will be challenged for the first few years, but burnout is easy to achieve when you see the same people, the same illnesses day after day.
• A “good job” has advancement potential. Because your need for challenges, income and growth are going to come, you need a job that will let you step up as well.  If you receive the challenge without the reward, you’ll feel devalued.  If you get the rewards without the challenges (unlikely), you won’t be motivated.
• A “good job” has an atmosphere that suits your tastes.  You may feed off competition and want a competitive environment.  You may be social and need a group of friendly, supportive co-workers. Or you may be an introvert that would prefer working in an office with a closed door most of the day. If you really hate meeting new people, you probably shouldn’t go into sales.  If you hate being alone for long periods of time, you probably shouldn’t be an astronaut.  If you hate authority figures, you should probably work for yourself and not for the military.

Remember nothing is permanent.  If you don’t have a “good job”, you can start trying to find one.  If you have one, there’s nothing to stop you from choosing another, even in another field.  But since it is a big step, you should at least do your best to make sure you’re stepping somewhere that will improve your situation.

What’s a “good job” to you?

 

The Adult Perspective

Around your teen years, you’re going to start having difficulty with the adult world. We’re going to seem very disconnected from you. We don’t care about the things you care about and vice versa. We spend all our time watching the news instead of entertainment programs. We do things like improvements around the house instead of playing games or hanging out. We don’t understand why your loud music is cool, or your outrageous clothes/hair are desirable. We worry too much about your grades, your friends, your future. We fixate on money and work and don’t understand how tough peer pressure is. As a matter of fact, you may think at times that we just don’t have anything valuable to contribute to your life at this point besides a meal ticket.

Well, it’s true, to a degree. We do worry about different things and focus on different things. We disapprove of some of the things you think are great.  Maybe it seems like we just have hopelessly incompatible ideas about life.

But it’s your job to understand us, not the other way around. As your Dad, I do everything I can to understand and support you and to help make things better for you, but in the end it’s your responsibility to understand me and the adult world as a whole.

“Why”, you say, bristling. “Why do I have to try to fit into your world instead of you fitting into mine?”

It’s very simple. Adults are in charge of the world. We own everything. We make all the rules and enforce them. We own the businesses, we run the government, we make the laws and enforce them and we decide at any given point exactly how much of the world you can enjoy and what you’re allowed to do.

Think about it for a minute. As teenagers, you “own” a tiny little subculture -basically some ways to dress, speak and behave – and you probably learned them from some adults marketing them to you – selling you on the idea that something is “yours” so you’ll give them some money. You don’t own anything. You’re in the minority and you have no real power. What little power you believe you hold over adults is just by benefit of our concern for you. If you all packed up and left we’d be missing the emotional connections, but functionally everything would keep going just fine.

Think about a baby. Basically, they know how to cry, poop and eat. They have no concept of friendship, community, sacrifice, pressure. They are completely self-centered and they have no idea how the world works. If you were to leave them unsupervised, they’d die. At age 16, you’ve got nearly 16 years of a head start on them. You’ve got 16 years worth of experience about how the world works, how to get things done, how to get ahead and what’s worth enjoying.

As a father, I’ve got 30+ years on you. And I haven’t been sitting dormant or getting stupider during that time. I’ve been doing exactly what you’re doing – learning how the world works and how to make it work for me. I don’t watch the news because I’m boring – I watch it because I know how those news stories affect me and what I might have to do because of some recent development. I’ve been learning about friendship and loyalty and culture and history and having real world experiences dealing with people. Most other adults have as well. And we use that knowledge and experience to set things up so the world works for all of us.

I’m not saying this to demean or demoralize you. I’m saying it to make a point.

As a teenager, it’s your responsibility to learn to be an adult. You don’t really get to dodge the process. Either time, experience or need is going to ensure that you become an adult. If you want to get anything done in life, you have to be an adult. Even the teenagers who get held up for starting businesses or saving the environment or getting recognized by the media got there by interacting with the adult world. The teenager who raises money for some noble cause does so by talking adults out of their money. Teen movie stars or pop stars didn’t get themselves there – their parents did. The money you earn for a job you earn by acting like an adult for an adult.

I’m not suggesting you give up your childhood. Enjoy every stage of life. Taste the unique flavor it offers. But the fact is, the sooner you learn to fit into the adult world, the better:

• The world just does not make sense to you until you start thinking like an adult, because adults own and operate everything. We make the rules the way we do because we’ve learned that this is what works. And the sooner you learn to think like an adult, the sooner the world will make sense to you.
• You can’t achieve your dreams without establishing them in the adult world. And the sooner you realize this, the sooner you can take advantage of it.
• Adults treat other adults with more respect and freedom because we’ve all been through the growing up process and recognize that another adult has a basic degree of knowledge and competency we can count on. So to get treated with that respect, you have to act like an adult so other adults know you’re capable of handling it.
• You’re headed that way anyway – you might as well start establishing yourself there so you can be a front runner.

Even if you don’t really care for our culture and methods at this time, that’s the best way of getting inside our systems to make things work for you.

• You may think your wild hair/clothes are cool, but you’re more likely to get hired for a job if you look like an adult, because the adult boss wants someone that he can count on acting like an adult.
• You may not care about finances, current events or other grown up topics, but when you learn about them you get a better idea of how these worlds work and how they affect you.
• You may not want to get a job, but the sooner you start interacting in the workplace with other adults, the better prepared you will be when you get serious about going to work.

You don’t have to give up what’s meaningful for you as a teenager. Just understand you have to function on adult terms to get things done in the adult world. And everything you learn in the process is 100% applicable to the next stage of development you’ll be taking, so it’s worth the effort.

There’s a time to grow up.

 

Lifelong Learning

I can’t tell you how many times you’ve asked me “How much longer do I have to go to school” in your childhood. I’ll admit that I wasn’t a fan of school either when I was in it. But I can tell you about an experience that changed my mind about it.

In my senior year I was taking the only computer science course my high school offered. For the most part, it was a boring exercise into things I already knew pretty well. Until the day that our teacher showed us a silly little character animation she got from somewhere. It was so laughably out of date that a couple of my friends and I just felt like it was ripe grounds for a prank. So we got the source code when the teacher was out of the room and started studying it. And the next time the teacher pulled it out, it had been edited creatively into a little joke about some of the people in the class and the teacher. Yes, it was juvenile and probably something I shouldn’t have done. But it left an mark on me that continues to this day – learning with a purpose can be really fun.

Quite a few people let their school experience kill their enthusiasm for education. Mine was just the opposite. My study habits occasionally went by the wayside while I pursued other interests, but I’ve become a voracious learner, absorbing everything of interest I can put my hands on. I read between 10 and 20 books a year and many more magazine and news articles. I see something interesting and make a hobby of learning how to do it. I see complex systems and want to know how they work – how to take them apart and repurpose them and make them do new things.

The fact is, the world keeps moving forward. If your education ended with school, you can count yourself behind and getting farther behind every day. You have to do a certain amount of learning just to keep up. And a certain amount beyond that to pull ahead.

Don’t lose the enthusiasm for learning. Examine your goals and determine what skills will get you there sooner and find a way to build your knowledge. Pursue items of interest – know that “you CAN do that” and learn how. Go below the surface of required knowledge and find the gems underneath.  Learn to love ideas and experiment with them.  The impossible is only impossible until someone finds out how to do it.  Ask, learn and love it.

It will make you the person you can be.

 

College: Entrepeneurial Testbed

This is a piece of advice I wish I had taken myself when I was in college.

College is your last handheld step before hitting the working world. It’s also one of the greatest times in the world to figure out whether you’re the kind of person who wants to own their own business. In your last years of college, you’ve holding all the cards. You’ve likely got an abundance of extra time, minimal responsibilities, and a strong network of friends that you know very well. You’ve got firsthand experience of the services or products that would be in demand in your little world. You’ve got some academic knowledge that your professors want to see you apply to a more pragmatic solution. And you’ve got an undimmed optimism that can enable you to go as far as you want.

So consider starting a business while you’re in college. Look around and see what people need at the moment, what they value. Maybe you can provide a service copying material for others for a fee. If you’re a top student, maybe you can create study guides to sell. Maybe as an experienced student you can create “welcome to college” guides for incoming freshmen. Maybe you can run courier services for grad students, or pickup takeout food from places that don’t deliver. Get your friends involved in it to make things a bit more fun. It doesn’t have to be your future career; you just want to get your feet wet, learn a little more about yourself and make some extra money.

Most importantly, learn from the experience. Can you deal with the uncertainty? Do you plan well? Lead others well? Manage other workers well? Do you see unlimited potential, or do you figure it’s a failure before you ever get started? Learning these answers are going to go a long way toward understanding where you want to go after school.

And you never know – a lot of successful businesses started during college. You might execute the idea that changes the world.

 

Beating School, part 9

I’ll immediately follow up the last suggestion with yet another contradiction.

Although it works best to tackle projects in one shot, there’s one significant exception – memorization. Lots of tests you have to take will require a lot of rote memorization, and that’s the one situation when it actually hurts to try to do your task in one shot.

Because of the way the brain is constructed, we need idle time in order to build memories. If you attempt to do a lot of memorization in one shot, without taking time out from your studies to let your brain do its thing, it will have an incredibly difficult time holding on to short term material. You’ve got to build in the rest times in order to let your brain make the memories of the studied material in order to hold on to it.

What worked really well for me in memorizing facts was to break often. I’d study a list of 10 things I’d need to repeat for 5 minutes or so, then lie down and close my eyes for a minute. Then repeat.

There’s usually an exception to any rule, and this one certainly qualifies. Give your brain a chance to digest the material if you want to hold on to it.

 

Beating School, part 8

If you’ve got an assignment, the easiest and fastest way to get it done is to do it in one pass.

A lot of times we can fool ourselves into thinking we’re more efficient by splitting a project up in little parts and chipping away at them as we have time to do so. When you have a research paper, you’re probably tempted to get together your sources one day, then outline another, then make notes another and write in a couple of passes.

The problem is reloading. Every time you take a break and clear your mind of the material, you have to reload it in order to get back into the game. That means about 15-20 minutes of every session is basically wasted getting back into the mental state you need to be in. The first time you head for the library for that research paper, you’ll find it really easy – you’ll probably finish sooner than you intended and take advantage of the free time. When you come back to outlining, you’ll probably need to get back into the frame of mind where you constructed your thesis, and you’ll likely find some holes in your outline that you’ll need to go back to find more sources for. The next session you’ll start taking notes and it will take some time to remember exactly why you put part of the outline together, and you’ll wonder about what you were thinking of when you thought you needed a particular source. When you start writing, you’ll spend some time deciphering your own notes, probably re-arranging the outline or looking for some examples or illustrations that will send you back for more sources. When you take a break from writing, you’ll need time to get back into the flow of thoughts, and you might go back and change your original statements to better support the latter ones. All in all, you’ll probably spend 5 hours writing the paper and 3 just getting caught up – whereas you could have given it 5 hours in a row and been finished with it.

You may notice that your parents do a good bit of this multi-tasking. And it’s a good process, when you’ve got material that doesn’t really require your mind that much. It doesn’t take reloading time to pay some bills, run an errand, take care of a simple communication. You’ll get lots of “busy work”, and multi-tasking is a great way to get those things accomplished without a big effort.

But when you get down to a task that requires you to really use your brain, the longer you can stay in that “zone”, the better. At least, that’s the way it worked best for me.