It's weird how certain concepts simply stay out of your field of
'conceivability', so to speak, until they suddenly pop in and you feel silly for
not considering them earlier.
Setting up a schedule for myself has been such a concept. I have read about the
concept and its advantages several times before, but for some reason I have just
shrugged and never considered it seriously. And I don't really know why - that's
the paradox of gestalt shifts - once you have shifted, you're unable to see the
reasoning behind your old view (unless you have written it down, or something
like that).
I believe that perhaps part of the reason I have been reluctant to set up a
schedule is my slightly irregular sleeping habits. I have thought it more
important to be rested than to wake up at a certain time. And I still do -
working ten hours at sixty percent is worse than working eight at ninety. And my
brain is really sensitive to this. It's like sleeping badly puts some
kind of insulator between the synapses so they're unable to fire properly.
However, there are a couple of reasons I presently have for willing to try out a
schedule nonetheless:
If it turns out that I'm unable to function properly because I am determined to
wake up at a certain time, I could always wait with setting up the schedule
until morning the same day. That way, I know how much time I have for disposal.
However, I presently have another theory: That my irregular sleep is in part due
to my not having any obligations to get up in the morning. Currently, I have a
research position, which means I can pretty much come and go as I want. Could
this have a negative effect? Perhaps if I approach it more like I would a
regular job, my brain somehow would get more 'incentive' to sleep properly
during the night? You see, my problem isn't that I cannot fall asleep in the
evening - I usually do pretty quickly. Rather, the problem is that my sleep is
light and not 'restful' enough. Also, I usually wake up before time, and if I
get up at that time, I will be tired.
In other words, this is going to be an experiment. I will schedule the following
day the night before, including a time at which I wake up and a time at which I
go to bed, and everything in between. Naturally, it will be impossible to follow
such a schedule to the point - unexpected events do occur, of course, and there
are some tasks which are hard to approximate in terms of time needed for
completion. However, those things I believe will come with experience. The first
hurdle is actually following through with it.
Showing posts with label self improvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self improvement. Show all posts
Monday, June 24, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Exercising
As mentioned here, I exercise regularly.
"Regularly" in this context means thrice a week, and it also means that I always exercise in the morning, right after waking up and before breakfast. Sometimes I skip exercising, though I shouldn't. Usually that's because I've slept badly (subject for another post!) and don't need more exhaustion. Sometimes it's because I was up late the day before and don't have time to exercise. Sometimes it's a combination (I slept badly, so I woke up late). But these are exceptions.
I exercise for about an hour. I usually listen to two podcasts of my favorite radio show while exercising, and they last for half an hour each.
The exercise is pretty tiring. I start with three repetitions of the following:
After this, I do back and abdominal exercises for about twenty-five minutes, which i think is important when you sit as much during the day as I do. In between these, I do as many pull-ups as I can.
It is an important point for me to be able to exercise without too much hassle, because then I usually never get around to it. The less overhead time, the better. So I prefer to exercise at home using only body-weight. For those of us who are only reasonably fit, that's more than enough. If your goal is to stay fit, not build muscles, there really is no point in doing heavy weight-lifting, IMO. Body-weight exercise will only take you so far, though, so if you want to look really buff, then you should start lifting weights.
When I first started doing burpees, they totally killed me. They're one of the most exhaustive forms of exercise I know, as long as you do a proper jump up and a proper push up each time. So in the beginning, x in the above regime was about two-three. It's nice to see improvement. I am a bit unsure of doing this for a long time, though. Although it's probably better for your legs and back to do burpees than running (for a fixed amount of 'exercise'), it can still be a strain on the joints to do that many jump-ups. So far, though, so good, so I'll keep doing it until it starts hurting!
Anyway - the above regime works all major muscle groups in addition to being good cardio exercise. Combined with healthy eating, and remembering that being hungry for a little while isn't dangerous, you should notice an improvement in how you look and feel after a couple of weeks.
"Regularly" in this context means thrice a week, and it also means that I always exercise in the morning, right after waking up and before breakfast. Sometimes I skip exercising, though I shouldn't. Usually that's because I've slept badly (subject for another post!) and don't need more exhaustion. Sometimes it's because I was up late the day before and don't have time to exercise. Sometimes it's a combination (I slept badly, so I woke up late). But these are exceptions.
I exercise for about an hour. I usually listen to two podcasts of my favorite radio show while exercising, and they last for half an hour each.
The exercise is pretty tiring. I start with three repetitions of the following:
- x burpees (the push up + jump up variant), where x is a function of my fitness (Currently x=13).
- Shadowboxing for y seconds, where I typically adjust y so that it takes as long as the burpees do. Currently, y=45 seconds, although the burpees don't take that long, so I have to adjust a little.
- Do one more of both the above points.
- Rest for a couple of minutes.
- The Plank for z seconds, where z=90 the first repetition, z=60 the second repetition, and z=45 the third repetition.
- Rest for a minute or so.
After this, I do back and abdominal exercises for about twenty-five minutes, which i think is important when you sit as much during the day as I do. In between these, I do as many pull-ups as I can.
It is an important point for me to be able to exercise without too much hassle, because then I usually never get around to it. The less overhead time, the better. So I prefer to exercise at home using only body-weight. For those of us who are only reasonably fit, that's more than enough. If your goal is to stay fit, not build muscles, there really is no point in doing heavy weight-lifting, IMO. Body-weight exercise will only take you so far, though, so if you want to look really buff, then you should start lifting weights.
 |
| Or you can start doing experiments with certain drugs. |
Anyway - the above regime works all major muscle groups in addition to being good cardio exercise. Combined with healthy eating, and remembering that being hungry for a little while isn't dangerous, you should notice an improvement in how you look and feel after a couple of weeks.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Interesting tasks as motivation
I used to play a lot of video games. I dread to count the hours spent doing this. Now, I don't play much anymore, though I have occasional bouts where I go on a
total gaming spree. Usually that leaves me pretty depressed afterwards.
I currently have a hope that this will not happen anymore, now that I view being able to learn programming as a fun 'hobby'. That is, when I'm working on science-related stuff now, and I lack motivation, I tell myself that "once you're done with this, you can learn more programming". And it seems to work.
At least for now. I have found that many of these motivational techniques are fleeting, so it remains to be seen whether this technique stands the test of time. However, I do believe that the key to being productive is to combine several techniques that work for you. So if I combine the "learn programming once you're done" technique with some kind of variation on the Pomodoro technique mentioned in an earlier post, maybe the combination will yield good results.
In the end, though, I think it's a matter of teaching your brain to operate differently - to eke out new neuron patterns so that the brain have less resistance in those directions I want it to go. The way there can be hard and painful, though!
I currently have a hope that this will not happen anymore, now that I view being able to learn programming as a fun 'hobby'. That is, when I'm working on science-related stuff now, and I lack motivation, I tell myself that "once you're done with this, you can learn more programming". And it seems to work.
At least for now. I have found that many of these motivational techniques are fleeting, so it remains to be seen whether this technique stands the test of time. However, I do believe that the key to being productive is to combine several techniques that work for you. So if I combine the "learn programming once you're done" technique with some kind of variation on the Pomodoro technique mentioned in an earlier post, maybe the combination will yield good results.
In the end, though, I think it's a matter of teaching your brain to operate differently - to eke out new neuron patterns so that the brain have less resistance in those directions I want it to go. The way there can be hard and painful, though!
Friday, May 31, 2013
Update on the usefulness of the blog
I've been writing this blog for three weeks now, and it's time to reflect a little on what the impact is so far.
First of all, so far it seems the blog does have a positive effect. I find it easier to be structured, among other things. However, this might be due to some other underlying fact. For instance, maybe the blog was conceived during a boost in motivation, which in turn also effected how I structured myself and so on. Hard to tell as of now.
Second of all, so far it's been not too hard to write one blog post per day. I ideally have no quality demands, and those posts which turn out to have a bit of quality to them, I label with the 'Quality' label anyway.
I do expect this to change, though. First of all, there will be holidays etc., during which it might be hard to actually publish something. Second of all, initially it's easy to find things to write about because you haven't written anything yet, so everything is up for grabs. I recently wrote about dancing, for instance. I don't have much more to say about that now, and might not for a while, so that source is tapped for the time being. If enough of these sources get tapped, it might get hard to find stuff to write about.
I also find that it does take a non-negligible amount of time to write a blog post, even with no quality standards. As of now, I spend at least half an hour per blog post (that doesn't just contain an update on how the blog is structured). Maybe it will turn out that half an hour each day is too much.
Third of all, I am generally not very satisfied with how I write on this blog. I know I can write much better, but I find myself just typing the words I need to state my point and not much more because I have work to do. Hopefully this will improve, but probably not unless I cut back on other work or update less often.
However, I know I need a regular schedule for this blog. I am thinking of at least only update during weekdays, taking breaks during the weekends. This would enable me to write posts during the weekend or at least edit posts that I made earlier if I have spare time. Which I probably don't.
I am excited to see how useful this blog will be for self improvement in the long term. At the very least, it should function as a kind of technical diary where I can write down what I have learned that day. However, if I don't have enough time to formulate what I have learned in a good way, I'm unsure of the utility of the blog.
We shall see. As of now, I will cut back to updating only on weekdays.
First of all, so far it seems the blog does have a positive effect. I find it easier to be structured, among other things. However, this might be due to some other underlying fact. For instance, maybe the blog was conceived during a boost in motivation, which in turn also effected how I structured myself and so on. Hard to tell as of now.
Second of all, so far it's been not too hard to write one blog post per day. I ideally have no quality demands, and those posts which turn out to have a bit of quality to them, I label with the 'Quality' label anyway.
I do expect this to change, though. First of all, there will be holidays etc., during which it might be hard to actually publish something. Second of all, initially it's easy to find things to write about because you haven't written anything yet, so everything is up for grabs. I recently wrote about dancing, for instance. I don't have much more to say about that now, and might not for a while, so that source is tapped for the time being. If enough of these sources get tapped, it might get hard to find stuff to write about.
I also find that it does take a non-negligible amount of time to write a blog post, even with no quality standards. As of now, I spend at least half an hour per blog post (that doesn't just contain an update on how the blog is structured). Maybe it will turn out that half an hour each day is too much.
Third of all, I am generally not very satisfied with how I write on this blog. I know I can write much better, but I find myself just typing the words I need to state my point and not much more because I have work to do. Hopefully this will improve, but probably not unless I cut back on other work or update less often.
However, I know I need a regular schedule for this blog. I am thinking of at least only update during weekdays, taking breaks during the weekends. This would enable me to write posts during the weekend or at least edit posts that I made earlier if I have spare time. Which I probably don't.
I am excited to see how useful this blog will be for self improvement in the long term. At the very least, it should function as a kind of technical diary where I can write down what I have learned that day. However, if I don't have enough time to formulate what I have learned in a good way, I'm unsure of the utility of the blog.
We shall see. As of now, I will cut back to updating only on weekdays.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Healthy eating
Staying in shape can be tough when you're a desk-worker like me. I try to regularly exercise three times a week, and since anecdotal evidence suggests that you can't outrun your fork , I also try to eat healthy.
I have no zen tips for accomplishing that. But once you start to actually see the contours of those abdominal muscles you thought were dissolved in fatty acids,
you start to understand what Kate Moss meant when she said "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels". Not trying to condone anorexia here, obviously. I am currently in no danger of having that condition.
Another thing that has been important for me to keep in mind is that being hungry for an evening isn't dangerous. Going to sleep hungry isn't going to kill you. And usually you're not really hungry either, it's mostly just being half-full and/or bored.
A third important thing for me is not to fail miserably once I fail. As Jillian Michaels said: "Think of your weight loss journey as a car. If you were driving along and got a flat tire, would you slash the other 3 tires and call it a complete loss? No. You would fix that one tire and keep going."
There is one way of thinking within the fitness world that I simply find to be impractical, and that is the thought that you should eat often and eat small meals. The reason I have a problem with this is that it's thinking about food that makes me want to eat. The less I have to think about food during one day, the less I feel the need to eat. Thus, I limit my meals to three a day, and once I have finished one of them, I know that I won't be eating again for a while. And usually my stomach then tells me when it's time again.
Motivational quotes get a lot of heat from the irony generation. But I find them to be useful - they're like someone jerking your shoulder when you're about to fall asleep. Maybe I'll do a compilation of my favorites one day, for the pleasure of all my imaginary readers.
 |
| Which means I won't be able to do this anymore. |
Another thing that has been important for me to keep in mind is that being hungry for an evening isn't dangerous. Going to sleep hungry isn't going to kill you. And usually you're not really hungry either, it's mostly just being half-full and/or bored.
A third important thing for me is not to fail miserably once I fail. As Jillian Michaels said: "Think of your weight loss journey as a car. If you were driving along and got a flat tire, would you slash the other 3 tires and call it a complete loss? No. You would fix that one tire and keep going."
There is one way of thinking within the fitness world that I simply find to be impractical, and that is the thought that you should eat often and eat small meals. The reason I have a problem with this is that it's thinking about food that makes me want to eat. The less I have to think about food during one day, the less I feel the need to eat. Thus, I limit my meals to three a day, and once I have finished one of them, I know that I won't be eating again for a while. And usually my stomach then tells me when it's time again.
Motivational quotes get a lot of heat from the irony generation. But I find them to be useful - they're like someone jerking your shoulder when you're about to fall asleep. Maybe I'll do a compilation of my favorites one day, for the pleasure of all my imaginary readers.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Grading as concentration practice
Grading exams is, as I have mentioned before, a mind-numbingly boring task. I am of the belief, though, that doing boring stuff can be good for you from time to time, especially if you use it for the right purposes.
I, for instance, have a slight problem concentrating on the task at hand. I'm surely not alone in this, even if I sometimes get the feeling that everyone else is much better at focusing than I am. My brain offers virtually zero resistance when being hijacked by the urge to check some social medium for updates. I need to teach my brain self-defense.
So far I haven't been very structured about it. I just learned about the Pomodoro technique, which I might try if I'm unable to hack this on my own.
But as of now, I am trying to hack this problem on my own - so I decided to use the grading process, in which I was stuck anyway, as a means to this end.
The first couple of days grading I didn't do this, and it basically degenerated to the point where after each exam I graded I would watch a YouTube video. Since every exam took about ten minutes to grade once I got up to speed, this made for a very attention-decifit-enhancing technique.
After that, though, I started setting limits, as in "no YouTube or social media before lunchtime, and do constant grading until then". Yes, I told myself to grade for two-three hours straight with no breaks. I think for a task which requires no creative input such as this, this is defensible (you don't need a break to mull over what you're currently doing) and it promotes concentration for extended periods of time, which currently is my major weak spot when it comes to productivity. And another thing - many programmers talk about being in "the zone". I cannot understand how you can get in the zone with only 25 minutes (as per the Pomodoro technique) available at a time?
So how did the concentration practice go? I would very often slip, though I did notice an increased resistance from my brain when the impulse to check on social media came. However, the slips lasted shorter than usual, and I did find myself forcing my brain to accept that there would be no break after this exam, just another exam to grade. I was basically telling my brain to shut up and suck it up, because it would get no external stimuli, no rewards until the time was up.
All in all, I found it a good exercise. I imagine now that I am better at focusing. I have taken no breaks, for example, during the writing of this blog post. I found the method of mentally allocating time for a task a good thing, and I will try to combine this with another zen-like technique which I'll write about later.
Hopefully, this has been an important step in making my brain less addicted to outer stimuli, which I think is the basic problem I have. God willing, I'll be able to keep this up!
I, for instance, have a slight problem concentrating on the task at hand. I'm surely not alone in this, even if I sometimes get the feeling that everyone else is much better at focusing than I am. My brain offers virtually zero resistance when being hijacked by the urge to check some social medium for updates. I need to teach my brain self-defense.
So far I haven't been very structured about it. I just learned about the Pomodoro technique, which I might try if I'm unable to hack this on my own.
But as of now, I am trying to hack this problem on my own - so I decided to use the grading process, in which I was stuck anyway, as a means to this end.
The first couple of days grading I didn't do this, and it basically degenerated to the point where after each exam I graded I would watch a YouTube video. Since every exam took about ten minutes to grade once I got up to speed, this made for a very attention-decifit-enhancing technique.
After that, though, I started setting limits, as in "no YouTube or social media before lunchtime, and do constant grading until then". Yes, I told myself to grade for two-three hours straight with no breaks. I think for a task which requires no creative input such as this, this is defensible (you don't need a break to mull over what you're currently doing) and it promotes concentration for extended periods of time, which currently is my major weak spot when it comes to productivity. And another thing - many programmers talk about being in "the zone". I cannot understand how you can get in the zone with only 25 minutes (as per the Pomodoro technique) available at a time?
So how did the concentration practice go? I would very often slip, though I did notice an increased resistance from my brain when the impulse to check on social media came. However, the slips lasted shorter than usual, and I did find myself forcing my brain to accept that there would be no break after this exam, just another exam to grade. I was basically telling my brain to shut up and suck it up, because it would get no external stimuli, no rewards until the time was up.
 |
| You little scumbag! I got your name! I got your ass! You will not laugh! You will not cry! |
Hopefully, this has been an important step in making my brain less addicted to outer stimuli, which I think is the basic problem I have. God willing, I'll be able to keep this up!
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Being productive
In my last post, I used the word "productive" as if it's a good thing to be exactly that.
Before I continue, I should clarify what exactly I mean by productive. I think my definition is slightly broader than your average Wall Streeter, but narrower than your average hippie. I mean it not simply as "Earning money", "Creating value", etc., but not simply as "Expanding your mind", neither. Actually, I am going to use those examples as my definition: It's neither of those, but somewhere in the middle. Something like "Working towards one's life goals". Or something.
Anyway. I think it's a Good Thing to be productive. Others, especially in the particular area of the world in which I happen to live, are not so sure. Here, the importance of relaxing and not overworking yourself is stressed. "Noone who is about to die looks back at their lives and wish they had worked more", it is said.
Well, no, probably not. But why on earth should that be the reference point? The time you spend in being in "About to die" mode is probably very small compared to most other modes you're going through. Of course when you're about to die you don't wish you had worked more. You're a sentimental being at that point . You fail to recognize how important working was at earlier stages. How it was working that put food on your table. How working hard earlier in life made you m ore qualified for better and higher life-quality jobs. How working hard at anything makes you a more complete human being. Let me rephrase that idiotic saying: "Noone who is about to enter the job market looks back at their lives and wish they had worked less". And that is a way more important reference point in your life. It basically determines how the rest of your life is going to be.
The issue I have with the anti-productivity-notion that we have in some parts of the world (which I imagine to be the parts where it's not really necessary to work hard in order to survive) is that those of us who don't agree tend to be a bit stigmatized. A "Workaholic" can indeed be a legitimate term, but when someone uses the word "workaholic" to mean someone who works ten hours a day instead of eight... I get slightly aggravated. Especially if some of that work is at home
with loved ones.
Personally, I work a lot because I enjoy it. I enjoy learning and I enjoy developing as a human being. Whenever I just watch random TV shows, I feel like Franklin and Edison are looking down at me with disdain. I can appreciate that many people feel like their spouse/friend/family member's work takes focus away from them, which I under certain circumstances can agree is not a Good Thing. However, if you complain that your partner won't rot his/her brain away watching TV with you every night, then I don't think I agree. Read a book together. Learn to dance. Anything other than being UNproductive. It's what I fear most.
Before I continue, I should clarify what exactly I mean by productive. I think my definition is slightly broader than your average Wall Streeter, but narrower than your average hippie. I mean it not simply as "Earning money", "Creating value", etc., but not simply as "Expanding your mind", neither. Actually, I am going to use those examples as my definition: It's neither of those, but somewhere in the middle. Something like "Working towards one's life goals". Or something.
Anyway. I think it's a Good Thing to be productive. Others, especially in the particular area of the world in which I happen to live, are not so sure. Here, the importance of relaxing and not overworking yourself is stressed. "Noone who is about to die looks back at their lives and wish they had worked more", it is said.
Well, no, probably not. But why on earth should that be the reference point? The time you spend in being in "About to die" mode is probably very small compared to most other modes you're going through. Of course when you're about to die you don't wish you had worked more. You're a sentimental being at that point . You fail to recognize how important working was at earlier stages. How it was working that put food on your table. How working hard earlier in life made you m ore qualified for better and higher life-quality jobs. How working hard at anything makes you a more complete human being. Let me rephrase that idiotic saying: "Noone who is about to enter the job market looks back at their lives and wish they had worked less". And that is a way more important reference point in your life. It basically determines how the rest of your life is going to be.
 |
| An early case of workaholism. |
Personally, I work a lot because I enjoy it. I enjoy learning and I enjoy developing as a human being. Whenever I just watch random TV shows, I feel like Franklin and Edison are looking down at me with disdain. I can appreciate that many people feel like their spouse/friend/family member's work takes focus away from them, which I under certain circumstances can agree is not a Good Thing. However, if you complain that your partner won't rot his/her brain away watching TV with you every night, then I don't think I agree. Read a book together. Learn to dance. Anything other than being UNproductive. It's what I fear most.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Degrees of procrastination
The other day, I was supposed to start grading papers but ended up spending the whole evening watching YouTube videos from some TV show.
Procrastination is familiar to everyone, so I'm not going to talk much about what it is and to what degree that particular phenomenon is annoying me personally. I am more interested in combatting it.
That is, if it is possible to combat it. Is it possible to avoid procrastinating when you have a dreary task you have to do before you can do something you really want?
If it is possible, I think doing so is going to require a mix of several techniques. One technique that I think could be handy, but haven't really tried yet, is procrastinating
to a lesser degree.
For instance - as mentioned above, I was supposed to be grading papers but got stuck watching all the videos I could find from the particular TV show I found interesting that afternoon. Whether I found the TV show interesting in itself or whether it got more interesting because of the drearyness of the task that I was supposed to do, I don't know.
But what I realized was that there were so many things I could rather have been doing in that time - things that were less dreary than what I was really supposed to be doing, while still way more productive than watching YouTube videos. For instance, I could have done some Scheme programming to learn that better, or I could have written blog posts, or working on that music playlist manager I have been thinking about, etc. That would have been a good compromise between my desire to procrastinate the exam grading and my need/desire to develop as a human being.
So why didn't I? Because of the nature of procrastinating. I didn't set out with the goal of watching YouTube all afternoon. In the beginning, I just felt like watching a couple of videos. After watching a couple of videos, I just wanted to finish watching the videos from that particular show. Of course I didn't research whether that was actually feasible to do within a reasonable amount of time, which it of course wasn't. I ended up watching videos until bedtime.
The point of the above: I don't know until after it has happened that I have been procrastinating. So it's all well and good in retrospect to say that I could have done something else that would have been more productive, but I was already going to do something else - I was going to do the actual task at hand. It just... didn't happen.
Which leads to the conclusion that procrastination can't be fought. At least with this technique. At least with this technique alone. But maybe, by combining this 'lesser evils' concept with other methods, it actually can be possible to do something about it? This is something I will try to explore, and I also think this blog will make it easier to do so.
In retrospect, this post... I don't know. It's bad. Everything above has been sa id already, my someone, somewhere. Probably by a lot of people, a lot of places. But that's to be expected with this sort of blog, I guess. I just hope my posts improve.
Procrastination is familiar to everyone, so I'm not going to talk much about what it is and to what degree that particular phenomenon is annoying me personally. I am more interested in combatting it.
That is, if it is possible to combat it. Is it possible to avoid procrastinating when you have a dreary task you have to do before you can do something you really want?
If it is possible, I think doing so is going to require a mix of several techniques. One technique that I think could be handy, but haven't really tried yet, is procrastinating
to a lesser degree.
For instance - as mentioned above, I was supposed to be grading papers but got stuck watching all the videos I could find from the particular TV show I found interesting that afternoon. Whether I found the TV show interesting in itself or whether it got more interesting because of the drearyness of the task that I was supposed to do, I don't know.
 |
| Big on inventing - not so big on procrastinating. |
So why didn't I? Because of the nature of procrastinating. I didn't set out with the goal of watching YouTube all afternoon. In the beginning, I just felt like watching a couple of videos. After watching a couple of videos, I just wanted to finish watching the videos from that particular show. Of course I didn't research whether that was actually feasible to do within a reasonable amount of time, which it of course wasn't. I ended up watching videos until bedtime.
The point of the above: I don't know until after it has happened that I have been procrastinating. So it's all well and good in retrospect to say that I could have done something else that would have been more productive, but I was already going to do something else - I was going to do the actual task at hand. It just... didn't happen.
Which leads to the conclusion that procrastination can't be fought. At least with this technique. At least with this technique alone. But maybe, by combining this 'lesser evils' concept with other methods, it actually can be possible to do something about it? This is something I will try to explore, and I also think this blog will make it easier to do so.
In retrospect, this post... I don't know. It's bad. Everything above has been sa id already, my someone, somewhere. Probably by a lot of people, a lot of places. But that's to be expected with this sort of blog, I guess. I just hope my posts improve.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Music makes me less productive and does not stimulate creativity
I enjoy music (wow, REALLY?? How profound and unique!) (Shut up.), and I am
divided temporally over whether it's a good idea to listen to music a lot.
One the one hand, it's supposed to have all these nice effects on your brain (although while I'm writing this and researching my statements, they're not as well documented as I thought).
On the other hand, I find that when I listen to music, it becomes harder to get anything else done. I have a certain number of "Programming" tracks on my computer that I believe will have minimal disruptive effect on my work flow (being mostly instrumental tracks), but even listening to only such tracks I believe makes me less effective than I would without music.
This is related to a problem that I really want to get rid of - not being able to focus properly on the task at hand. This issue deserves a blog post on its own, but in short, I really need to build better focus discipline. And I don't think listening to music is helping with that. Rather, it is making me addicted to constantly needing stimuli that is stronger than what the task at hand is able to provide. Right now, for instance, as I wrote the last sentence, I took a break to check on some social medium. It's a terrible situation, and I must get out of it.
And it's not only while working - whenever I'm travelling, for instance, I have had the habit of bringing my music player so as to avoid the drearyness of doing nothing. I am actually slightly afraid of not having anything to do (other than entertain myself).
I think it's vital for me to accustom my brain to the notion of not getting stimuli at all times, and that if it wants stimuli, it had better make it up by itself.
Doing this to your brain, however, is hard work. It yearns for input. Withdrawal happens. And somehow, it eventually manages to come up with some reason why listening to music at every idle moment actually is good for you, after all.
However, this time I must try to fight it. This blog post shall be a testament to my determination. I will try to stimulate brain activity by not listening to music, instead letting the mind wander to wherever it wants and explore that realm.
This is not to say I won't ever listen to music. I probably still will on a daily basis. But I will try not to fool myself into believing that the best way to stimulate my brain is to listen to music, and I will try to avoid music whenever I need to focus, to work, or whenever I have time wherein the only possible activity is to think. Thinking is a good thing!
One the one hand, it's supposed to have all these nice effects on your brain (although while I'm writing this and researching my statements, they're not as well documented as I thought).
On the other hand, I find that when I listen to music, it becomes harder to get anything else done. I have a certain number of "Programming" tracks on my computer that I believe will have minimal disruptive effect on my work flow (being mostly instrumental tracks), but even listening to only such tracks I believe makes me less effective than I would without music.
This is related to a problem that I really want to get rid of - not being able to focus properly on the task at hand. This issue deserves a blog post on its own, but in short, I really need to build better focus discipline. And I don't think listening to music is helping with that. Rather, it is making me addicted to constantly needing stimuli that is stronger than what the task at hand is able to provide. Right now, for instance, as I wrote the last sentence, I took a break to check on some social medium. It's a terrible situation, and I must get out of it.
And it's not only while working - whenever I'm travelling, for instance, I have had the habit of bringing my music player so as to avoid the drearyness of doing nothing. I am actually slightly afraid of not having anything to do (other than entertain myself).
I think it's vital for me to accustom my brain to the notion of not getting stimuli at all times, and that if it wants stimuli, it had better make it up by itself.
 |
| Beethoven - did not constantly listen to music on his MP3 player |
Doing this to your brain, however, is hard work. It yearns for input. Withdrawal happens. And somehow, it eventually manages to come up with some reason why listening to music at every idle moment actually is good for you, after all.
However, this time I must try to fight it. This blog post shall be a testament to my determination. I will try to stimulate brain activity by not listening to music, instead letting the mind wander to wherever it wants and explore that realm.
This is not to say I won't ever listen to music. I probably still will on a daily basis. But I will try not to fool myself into believing that the best way to stimulate my brain is to listen to music, and I will try to avoid music whenever I need to focus, to work, or whenever I have time wherein the only possible activity is to think. Thinking is a good thing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)