Super self-control: not being a slave to habit

Chapter 21

Through the repeated training of willpower, our attention is perfected and our intellect is thus developed.As long as we do it carefully at the beginning, even down to every detail, then we will continue to repeat this exercise.Because he has obtained unimaginable fun and satisfaction in this process, these actions do not need to be forced by himself, and he will complete them very well.

Self-control expert hot comment
It is through this seemingly pointless repetition of willpower exercises that our ability to focus is exercised and improved.And in the process of this repeated practice, our concentration has been improved, which will also play a great role in further cultivating willpower.

Take 10 minutes to practice every day, and your life will change magically.

don't let your attention jump around
Concentration has limits like a muscle. When you have a lot of to-do items on hand at the same time, you will almost inevitably feel anxious, thinking about another thing while doing this thing, and even talking with Friends are worried when they go shopping.Piling up too many things on hand can also make you depressed, depressed, and feel powerless.This is one of the causes of low work efficiency.

The key to improving efficiency is to block the interference of redundant information. "We have to be selective about the information and decide what to do and what not to do." If there are 10 things in a day that you want to do, you only really have the energy to take care of half of them.Then just "turn a blind eye" to the rest.Don't think about regrets that you can't do, but only think about what you must do is more important to you.

Schwartz is the CEO of a company.The company uses scientific high-performance methods to help individuals and organizations improve their work enthusiasm and efficiency.According to Schwartz, human beings are fundamentally energetic organisms.Human energy includes four basic levels - body, emotion, mind and spirit.He suggested that people manage their energy reasonably, and after a period of high concentration, they should take proper rest to achieve energy balance.In his view, work should be a short "sprint" rather than a "long-distance run" like a marathon.People have a circadian rhythm. The heart will open and contract, and the muscles will tighten and relax. Only by consuming and replenishing energy regularly can we maintain the best state.Schwartz encourages people to take short breaks to restore energy after a strenuous 90 minutes of work, and recommends eating smaller, more frequent meals.He also pointed to the energy of employees as a big factor in whether a business will prosper over the next 10 or 20 years.

Schwartz is a disciplined individual who emphasizes establishing a positive program for consciously modifying one's behavior.For example, he will do the most important work early in the morning, because at this time people have the most rest and the most concentrated attention.And 90% of people check their e-mails as soon as they go to work, which is equivalent to handing over the initiative of work arrangements to others.Schwartz believes that the reason why people become addicted to checking email is that it is effortless, and answering emails feels like a lot has been done in a short period of time.Also, it feels good to get an email saying someone needs you, and to be needed.When it comes to getting distracted by new emails, Allen believes that people get this way because they can't be sure they empty their mailboxes every 24 hours.Most people never organize their mailboxes, so they worry about unprocessed emails and allow them to disturb them.That's why it's important to empty your mailbox regularly.

One of the most important reasons why some people are too inefficient is lack of concentration.Lack of concentration leads to poor time control ability and naturally low work efficiency.

Different task skills activate different brain regions.Just as a computer's task switching takes extra runtime, the human brain wastes extra energy switching between tasks.When you read the material after chatting on QQ for a while, you won't be able to see it right away.It takes a few minutes for the brain to fully activate the areas of the brain that process word analysis before it can begin to understand the material it is looking at.If your attention is constantly jumping between different things, it is difficult for your brain to work at its best.

A series of studies have shown that fragmented thinking and distraction waste time and money.An information technology research company in New York surveyed 1000 people and found that their time wasted by interruptions accounted for 28% of all working hours.

The researchers ranked the distracting factors in order, and the top five were: co-workers stopping by, being called away from the desk (or leaving voluntarily), new emails, switching to another task on the computer, and phone calls.They also tracked 5 employees in detail, recording how they spent every minute.

The researchers found that, without any interruptions, these employees spent an average of 11 minutes sending emails.Yet the phone rings and someone walks up to distract you.Once they are interrupted, it takes an average of 25 minutes to resume their work.

In the end, the company published a report entitled "The Cost of Inattentiveness": Based on the average hourly salary of knowledge workers of $21, the entire United States will consume $588 billion a year.

"If we want to successfully control work and life, we need to have enough concentration." Professor Treisman, a famous American psychologist, pointed out: "When not focusing, people can only perform preliminary processing on individual characteristics of things; With concentration, we can refine it and integrate it into a whole. That is, only with concentration can we successfully complete the task at hand."

This habit of poor focus leads to a lot of wasted time.One is that it takes time to stop, and the other is that when you start working again, you need to spend time adjusting your emotions, thoughts, and state before you can continue where you left off.In this way, you actually need multiple fragmented time periods to complete a task + multiple time wasted to refocus + multiple time to repeat because of forgetting.These wasted time can be saved by improving concentration.This requires you to develop good self-control in your work, to be dedicated, to start and finish.

Self-control expert hot comment
Everyone's energy and resources are limited, so we all need a system of mental power control to help us arrange work tasks wisely.

[-]. Don't let sudden thoughts and ideas affect the work at hand. You should record them and consider them at a convenient time.

[-]. Try to complete one task before starting another, and avoid having a beginning and an end.

[-]. For important projects that take a long time, a large and complete time should be arranged to avoid intermittent working methods.

Do one thing at a time that requires willpower
People who are used to multitasking can easily lose focus and fall into inextricable anxiety.In the past 10 years, the number of people with such problems has increased tenfold.

In the information society, we have to face the pressure of massive information processing every day. Attention deficits arise when we are overwhelmed with information and unable to prioritize, reports Harvard Business Review.Not only can we not concentrate, but we will be impulsive and anxious, and we will also feel guilty and feel that we are not good enough.At this point, people tend to think they should sleep less, work harder, stay in the office later, and then the brain will only worsen.

Some of the most creative and productive people in the world refuse to overload their brains with information.Susha Omar, the most famous financial consultant in the United States, said: "I only do one thing at a time. After I do it well, I will do other things."

Daniel Kahneman wrote in Thinking, Fast and Slow:

In Berkeley, my greatest pleasure is to walk 4 miles on the mountain trails every day and enjoy the scenery of San Francisco Bay.I found myself walking a mile in about 17 minutes.Walking at this pace, I can still think while walking.

Speeding up my walking pace completely changed my walking experience, as my ability to think coherently declined significantly at a faster pace.As soon as I speed up, I have to pay attention to gradually increase the walking speed, deliberately maintain a faster speed, and the ability to summarize a series of thoughts is correspondingly reduced.The fastest I can keep walking up hills is a mile every 14 minutes, but then I can't think about anything.Walking fast along a trail requires not only physical exertion, but also brain self-control to keep yourself from slowing down.Self-control and careful thought are clearly robbing efforts of the finite budget.

(End of this chapter)