Strategies (What Works, What Doesn't) Flashcards
Forcing Functions
This is when you schedule something that forces you to do the work before a certain deadline.
Forcing functions are VERY effective at getting you doing/learning something! Look for opportunities to volunteer for a task or to teach people what something is/how to do it.
-Remember your CoP presentation?!
– WARNING: if you have too many at one time, you will end up with too much on your plate and your work will be low quality
Not having the forcing functions almost guarantees unproductive DSBs (dopamine seeking behaviors). Two ways around this:
1. Insist on having forcing functions (higher stress)
2. Tie dopamine activities to productive activities as incentives (lower stress)
3. Catch yourself in the act when it comes to DSBs
Accountability partners
This works great when you are co-working with someone. Like two people working on an assignment at the same time…
In general, keeking an accountability partner only works when that accountability is enforced by authority, your accountability partner probably won’t be reliable without structure and authority (based on my experiences with Jon and Jacqui)
Kicking off the day with learning/studying-based activities
These tasks that just seem to naturally get you in a state of flow. These tasks are entry points into a productive day:
- Outlining a book
- Note cards for principles in a book (transcribing… like you did for Wasson)
- Structured/organized Prompting chatGPT (can multitask with this one since it takes so long to get the results that you want/need)
The ‘NO’ chant
When you recognize that you need to stop what you’re doing and be productive, just repeat (out loud) the word ‘no’ until you reaume a productive activity. The best options for quickly switching to something engaging are:
- Outlining a book
- Note cards for principles in a book (transcribing… like you did for Wasson)
- Prompting chatGPT (can multitask with this one since it takes so long to get the results that you want/need)
