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No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass

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Re: No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass

#51

Post by taylonr »

I essentially did this throughout my college career. I don't think it was 5pm, though, more often 7pm. What set me off was getting so frustrated one night doing Calculus at 10pm. I tend to need 8+ hours of sleep per night, so by 10 I wasn't in the best mood for studying.

It got easier once I moved out of the dorms. I'd have most (if not all) of my work done by supper and finish up a little bit after. I studied Saturdays but not Sundays. That left my nights open for things like irc or setting Red Hat up on my machine.

I found I was a lot less stressed than my friends that played N64 all day and STARTED studying at 8pm.

Re: No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass

#52

Post by SatvikBeri »

kayoone wrote: post #31

My problem with this is this: "I tell myself that everything has to be done by 5pm" Thing is, i cant tell myself anything if its simply not true. I cant force myself to get everything done by 5pm because i simply dont have to, i can do it later and i know it even if that means stress and doing it in the last hours.

You can force it to be true by signing up for other commitments, e.g. a Martial Arts class or something.

Re: No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass

#53

Post by ballstothewalls »

chatmasta wrote: post #43

This is great, and honestly I've found the same. I'm actually taking this term off from school to work on my business while remaining on campus. I also need to follow a pretty rigorous exercise schedule as I'm on the varsity track team. I've found that achieving a consistent sleep and exercise schedule has been extremely difficult without any real commitments in the morning. I think one of the best things you can do…

Hang out with people who don't like weed and alcohol.

Re: No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass

#54

Post by stephengillie »

ballstothewalls wrote: post #53
chatmasta wrote: post #43

This is great, and honestly I've found the same. I'm actually taking this term off from school to work on my business while remaining on campus. I also need to follow a pretty rigorous exercise schedule as I'm on the varsity track team. I've found that achieving a consistent sleep and exercise schedule has been extremely difficult without any real commitments in the morning. I think one of the best things you can do…

Hang out with people who don't like weed and alcohol.

"Hang out with boring people" isn't good advice, because it's very difficult to follow.

Try finding something you'd rather be doing than drinking with people in the evenings. But that's also not very good advice. I'm not sure if there is good advice for this, but I was in a frat...

Re: No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass

#55

Post by ballstothewalls »

DrorY wrote: post #7

I'm sorry but I can't see how this is applicable for my situation. What kind of studies are you talking about? University (First degree)? Second degree ? High School? I've just started my first year of computer science and mathematics. I study all day long and still don't find time for anything else. Also, try adding a girlfriend or a spouse to the equation. With all the positive sides of it, it adds a lot of distrac…

I doubt you are being productive. You have to isolate yourself from distractions (on a college campus this is most likely people).

If you really are studying with perfect productivity, then you need to ask yourself if you are triaging your time properly. For instance, say you have three tests: one easy, one medium, and one hard. Do you study equal amounts for all of them? Probably not. If you have already spent seven hours studying for the hard test, how much will one more hour help you? Maybe an 85 to and 87? But then if you spent that hour on the medium subject maybe your grade would jump up from an 80 to a 90. Thus your time would better be allocated to the medium test.

There is an economic concept about this though I cannot remember its name. Marginal Returns and the Law of Diminishing Returns, I think.

Re: No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass

#56

Post by ballstothewalls »

stephengillie wrote: post #54
ballstothewalls wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hang out with people who don't like weed and alcohol.

"Hang out with boring people" isn't good advice, because it's very difficult to follow. Try finding something you'd rather be doing than drinking with people in the evenings. But that's also not very good advice. I'm not sure if there is good advice for this, but I was in a frat...

You are incredibly immature if you think the only way to not be "boring" is too smoke weed and drink alcohol.

Re: No Studying After 5pm: Using Parkinson’s Law to Kick Procrastination’s Ass

#57

Post by s_henry_paulson »

loceng wrote: post #36
boothead wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm halfway through the book "The power of habit" at the moment and here's two little titbits I've picked up so far: 1. Habits have a trigger and a reward and you'll get nowhere unless you work within this fact. Yesterday I had some success, I was trying to fix a dumb programming mistake and getting frustrated. Normally that would trigger my usual behaviour of running off to /r/funny or HN to get my little reward of…

Visualization, if you have the underlying motivation, is how to get started. Then after 5 minutes of focus can be right into it.. At the moment I've gone through my morning websites, consumed everything I need to, replied to emails I need to, and now this is my second visit to HN ... so it times to make my work environment a clean slate, eliminate all distractions, and focus for a little while... perhaps I'm not awak…

I think you'll enjoy this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PppCBDHeytg

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