Self-control: How to take control of your time and life?

Chapter 10 Concentrate and clear thinking (1)
In the face of change, we are often overwhelmed

Many people feel overwhelmed in the face of their own changes, resulting in impetuous mentality and confrontational emotions.Disordered thinking and attention-distraction disorder (ADHD) can develop under a normal "subliminal confrontation."

We conducted a large-scale sample survey in California, focusing on white-collar workers who work in offices, laboratories, schools, etc.The survey found that, on average, every 2 to 4 minutes, there will be a phone call, text message, email or other types of information to interrupt his (her) work at hand.In this environment, their state of mind can be severely affected, resulting in confusion and distraction.

Andrew McRae, a professor of psychology in the United States, also conducted research on this. In his report, it was shown that about 5% of Americans, that is, 900 million American adults, suffer from "confusion and distraction disorder".

Obviously, a person will be interrupted by an external message every few minutes. If they do not have a good mental model, they will have different degrees of difficulty concentrating, restlessness and even anxiety after a long time. reaction.

Therefore, once a change occurs and he needs to redesign a new action program, he often feels at a loss: "What should I do?" In matters, it degrades the quality of his work.

In modern society, everyone is surrounded by massive amounts of information.Information is not only complex and grand, but also always full of changes.Faced with such a situation, escape is unrealistic.It just makes you lose your time and your life and make things worse.We also have no way of making a panacea that just takes one pill and it will cure the disease.

If you have realized or strongly felt that you have difficulty concentrating and have no time to control yourself, you need to make some fundamental changes in the short term-after trying, if you find it effective, you will put It perseveres and refocuses itself.

1. Turn off your mobile phone When you need to concentrate, such as in the office (or other places with landlines), turn off your mobile phone immediately.If someone really needs you urgently, they will definitely call the landline in your room.When the work is finished, turn on the phone to check the missed calls, and there is still time.

If you are not working in marketing - they may need to keep the phone turned on 24 hours a day. When you get home, you can also turn off your mobile phone as soon as you enter the house. This will help you gather your scattered energy and concentrate on it. The most important thing right now comes up.

2. Processing emails at a fixed time and turning off the receipt reminder of the email box, why not?We don't need instant email reminders at all, we just need to insist on checking and processing emails every morning after work and before get off work in the afternoon.From my experience and extensive case studies, the vast majority of people can handle email just twice in the course of their day without delaying anything.

3. Organize social activities in an orderly manner. You must arrange your own parties, banquets or other social activities in an orderly manner, sorting them weekly according to their importance, instead of accepting invitations immediately.If you have to participate in 6-7 times of entertainment or even more in a week, then your attention must be scattered and weak, which deeply affects your life.You need to gradually reduce them, and finally control them to less than 2 times a week.

4. Strictly allocate your energy according to the twenty-eighth rule. At the beginning of each month, draw a list for yourself and sort out the most important things in life, work and study.These are things that take 80% of your energy to do well—they usually don’t exceed 10.In addition, you will also sort out dozens of unimportant things, even if they are sometimes urgent, you must put them in no more than 20% of your energy range.

5. Close the door behind you Whenever we finish a task, it is as if we have stepped from one room to another.You should close this door conveniently, and don't always look back at the original room.Otherwise, there will be a lot of regret and annoyance.These additional emotions are like viruses, which will involve our energy and affect the quality of life in the future.

brain has something to say
Brain: "I'm obese!" People often get caught up in the news that pops up, the phone call, or the new email, and then turn their attention to these things—and put aside what they were doing.Similar phenomena have frequently appeared in our lives, and the explanation of the brain is:
"Unfortunately, this is my obesity, master, you have made me pay attention to too much information! I have limited commands to deal with at the same time, so I have to make choices, and I am exhausted!"

According to survey data, nearly 80% of white-collar workers often forget their work and are busy paying attention to other people’s Twitter, the latest gossip in the office, or being attracted by the prompts of chat tools.Most of them use computers to work, and they spend up to 10 hours in front of the computer every day, and spend 2-3 hours on the computer even when they get home.In interviews, most people have told me that more than half of their time is spent on computers or the Internet, rather than on more important things.

In addition, in response to the main question in our survey: "When you are interrupted to concentrate on doing something, how long does it take to regain concentration?" Immediately after the event that happened, they were able to concentrate (there was still a lot of water, because many people answered reluctantly), and more than 32% of people said that once their concentration was interrupted, it took a while to recover. Become focused again.

Clearly, distraction has become a social epidemic.This is not only a lack of personal self-control, but a kind of "brain obesity" in public perception.To put it bluntly, if people do not pay attention to this problem, find out the root cause and solve it, it will unknowingly destroy the fruitful intellectual achievements of several generations.

"What's going on in our brains, you know?" When I ask this question in my classes, almost no one can answer it.A brutal fact: the human brain is degenerating.We don't care about the future of the brain, we only want to overdraw and use it unlimitedly!
A Stanford University study found that every hour spent in front of a computer cuts the time spent interacting with others face-to-face in traditional ways by nearly 1 minutes.People's social skills become clumsy as a result, leading to a degeneration of the brain, which often misinterprets or even ignores subtle nonverbal messages.

People's brains are developing new neural wiring for high-speed web search and social networking.The brain is turned on for a functional area dedicated to entertainment technology, and other human abilities are frozen.Therefore, modern people can have 6 conversations using 34 different media at the same time.But at the same time, the empathy and complex reasoning functions of their brains are degenerating.It is manifested in concrete life that many people become "fools" who are unresponsive and in a trance!
Brain: "I'm short on attention!" Attention is our mental money, and it's a finite resource.How you choose to use that attention largely determines your mental state, productivity, and career prospects.Professor James of the training center provided a game for the students. He drew a point on a piece of white paper, and then asked the students to stare at it as long as possible to test the students' attention.James said: "This is because our brain cannot focus on a point, or any immobile object, for a long time, even for a few seconds. Because it is so eager for change, surprise, and exploration of unknown territory. It will constantly look for new angles to focus on this point: the difference in shape, the relationship with paper, the metaphorical imagination..."

This is an era of information explosion, and people suffer from some degree of attention deficit disorder.So when you find yourself having a concentration problem, don't panic, it's not a big deal.As long as we're sitting in front of a computer, it's easy to forget what we're supposed to be doing—working on an important document, or revising next week's financial plans?There will always be something more exciting and interesting than the job at hand.

So, your brain will tell you: "Hey, let me play for a while, and I will talk about other important things later." Then within 2 minutes, you can no longer remember what you are going to do.

The constant distraction has several consequences, the most immediate of which is that our brains are constantly on high alert, constantly busy, keeping track of everything, and it distracts itself from everything and everywhere (because The brain has too many plans for this).Under the command of the master, the brain must constantly scan the surrounding environment, and be alert to the slightest exciting news of new contact: "Ah, what is this? I really want to know!" This is a typical feature of the entertainment brain .

Some people even send text messages while driving, and once they turn off these machines, he becomes restless and unable to control himself... For these people, it is becoming more and more unrealistic for him to spend an hour doing only one thing.

Ultimately, how to lose weight for your brain?In the self-control course, I proposed the concept of "brain diet", instilling the command of "controlling cravings" in students.I said, "It's like losing weight. You have to control the brain's craving for new stimuli. It sounds difficult to do, but it can be achieved with strict self-management and control."

1. As long as we focus on something and enjoy the process of doing it, it can bring us a sense of pleasure-use this "pleasure" as the motivation for the brain to go on a diet.

2. There is another easy way: Meditation.A large number of course cases have proved that meditation training has the ability to improve the synchronous signal of neurons in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and its strength is 30 times higher than that of ordinary people.In addition, choosing to take a nap for 20-30 minutes when you are tired can also refresh your brain and greatly improve your concentration state.

3. Wear earplugs in a noisy environment.It's hard for our brains not to notice sounds, especially sounds that feel new and exciting to us.

Therefore, when you cannot change the environment, such as when you are in a noisy subway, you can wear an earplug for yourself, so that you can build your own "stimulus shelter" to avoid useless information from the outside world to stimulate the brain, let it Enter a state of rest.

4. Establish a strict time management system.

Spend 90 minutes each day focusing on your most important tasks.When your mind needs a break, tackle an email, make a phone call, grab a cup of coffee, and then focus on something else.This system must be fixed, and cannot be easily shaken by any accident.You can also arrange some "immunity days" for yourself, such as "Monday No Email Day", "Tuesday No Computer Day", "Wednesday No SMS Day", etc. The saved attention can improve your work efficiency and improve your health. interpersonal relationship.

what makes you lazy to think

"Let's count how many people have abandoned their brains." Facing the confused expressions of the students, I took out a form, "Answer each question above honestly, and then we wait for the result together."

This form has 5 questions, all of which are simple and easy to answer:

1. If you feel unwell, what will you do immediately?
A. Tell the family B. Go to the hospital

C. Check medical books and diagnose by yourself D. Search the Internet for answers

2. When you encounter doubts about common sense in life, what will you do?

A. Consult family members B. Think on your own and sum up experience
C. Call and ask a friend D. Search online
3. Lost your way outside, would you?
A. Call a friend B. Ask a passer-by

C. Look at road signs D. Search online
4. Going to the bookstore to buy books, how do you prepare your own book list?
A. I buy whatever books others read
(End of this chapter)