Week 3 Flashcards
How is procrastination similar to addiction?
Procrastination shares features with addiction, because it offers temporary excitement and relief from a sometimes boring reality.
Procrastination is called a keystone bad habit, what does it mean?
Procrastination can be a single monumentally important keystone bad habit, a habit that influences
many important areas of your life.
If your keystone habit falls, other bad habits might follow it down.
Describe the four parts of a habit
- Cue – The trigger that lauches you into the habit behavior
- Routine – The habitual response your brain is used to falling into when it receives the cue.
- Reward – Every habit develops and continues because
it rewards us. It gives us an immediate little feeling of pleasure. - Habits have power because of your belief in them.
Name the four categories for cues, that can triggera habit
Cues usually fall into one of the four
following categories.
- Location
- Time
- How you feel
- Reactions.
What is the key to rewire a habit routine?
The key is to have a plan and either remove the cue or change the routine
Why are rewards important?
Habits are powerful because they create neurological cravings. It helps to add a new reward if you want to overcome your previous cravings.
Only once your brain starts expecting that reward, the important rewiring will take place that allows you to create new habits.
Belief is the most important part of changing your habits of procrastination, why?
You may find that when the going gets stressful, you long to fall back into old, more comfortable, habits.
Belief that your new system works is what can get you through.
How can you help yourself to keep the belief in your new habits?
Developing an encouraging culture with like-minded people can help us remember the values that we tend to forget in moments of weakness.
What is the term Zombie mode used to refer to when talking about procrastination?
“Zombie mode” refers to the relaxed state your mind enters when you are performing common and habitual tasks.
Examples of zombie states and habitual behavior include
- Riding a bike
- Getting dressed in the morning
- Being able to back your car out of a driveway (if you are familiar and comfortable with driving).
Describe the difference between product and process when tackling procrastination
Product refers to the outcome of a task. For example finishing a homework set or complete the writing of a report.
Process means the flow of time and the habits and actions associated with that flow of time
What can happen if we focus to much on the product instead of the process?
To much focus on the product is what triggers the pain that causes you to procrastinate.
It is perfectly normal to start with a few negative feelings about beginning a learning session — even when it’s a subject you ordinarily like. It’s how you handle those feelings that matters.
How can we prevent procrastination by focusing on the process instead of the product?
To prevent procrastination, you want to avoid concentrating on product.
Instead, your attention should be on building processes.
Processes relate to simple habits — habits that coincidentally allow you to do the unpleasant tasks that need to be done.
Why is it good to plan your day “the day before”?
Research has shown that this helps your subconscious to grapple with the tasks on the list so you can figure out how to accomplish them.
If you don’t write your task down on a list, they occupy slots of your working memory, taking up valuable mental space.
Which are the seven points for beating procrastination?
- Keep a planner journal
- Commit yourself to certain routines and tasks each day
- Delay rewards until you finish the task
- Watch for procrastination cues
- Gain trust in your new system
- Have backup plans for when you still procrastinate
- Eat your frogs first
Why is it easier to remember visual cues than abstract concepts?
Humans have outstanding visual and spacial memory systems that helps to form our long-term memory.
Our ancestors never needed a vast memory for names or numbers but they did need a memory for how to get back home from the hunt or the location of nourishing food.
