My advice- do the thing you dont want to do as the first thing in the morning. You will end up having a great day
The Art of Not Thinking
131–140 of 168 posts
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#132My advice- do the thing you dont want to do as the first thing in the morning. You will end up having a great day
Eating the frog is what it's called.
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#133Another great trick is when you don't have the energy to do something, do miscellaneous things only to get ready to do the thing at another time. Once you have the idea that you're explicitly not doing something the prep part is incremental, trivial/negligible units of effort. Often I find once all the prep is done, I'm actually psyched to start and will start on the spot or at the very next opportunity.
Mise en place - "Everything in its place," a french phrase for food preparation where you ensure everything is ready before even starting the act of cooking.
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#134Similarly I tried to get myself to exercise for years and years. I must have discovered the same approach as this author. I stopped any kind of thinking about it and focused on observing myself drive to the gym, get in the pool, do the strokes, etc. If my verbal ("thinking") centers of my brain needed to say something I would only let them describe what I was doing ("You are driving to the gym", "you are putting your…
For years I would get up at anywhere from 4:00am to 5:30am depending on the season and go climb a mountain. I'm naturally pretty lazy and a professional procrastinator. What worked was just throwing myself out of bed without thinking. By the time I started to think about what I was doing and started to come up with excuses, I was half way out the door.
If you give yourself a chance to think about it, you probably won't do it.
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#135If you are in a similar boat, it's likely that when you consider an upcoming dreaded task, there is at least a small part of you that admits the possibility that you will not do the task . And because there is, and because your brain realizes it, it expends mental energy trying to convince you not to do it. Once you are actually doing the task, or it's done, or you realize that you must start doing it immediately, yo…
Instead of lying I'd use the make it fun. Find any reason to make that task enjoyable, flip it around, organize it differently. At work (temporary gig): - manual labour == free workout. Whenever I have to crouch for a file.. I do it in a slow and perfect squat. I grab the file and stay down to strecth, then I go up swift .. I'm happy to have that file because I gained something. Other task like archive defragmenting…
> For tasks that I really don't like to do.. I gained a mental compartment to remember not to ever trigger that task again. I do it as a debt to my mistake and get done with it.
I like it. Here's to not ever making the mistake of doing my taxes again! raises glass
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#136My trick I perfected in college is to set my alarm for a couple hours earlier than I would normally wake up and start doing the task right when I wake. My mind isn’t awake enough to come up with any resistance so I start the day with momentum. This worked for studying or projects. It continues on in the work world where if I have tasks I’m low-key avoiding, I’ll set it for first thing in the morning. The more I’m avoiding it, the earlier I have to start in the morning to make sure I tackle it.
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#137If you are in a similar boat, it's likely that when you consider an upcoming dreaded task, there is at least a small part of you that admits the possibility that you will not do the task . And because there is, and because your brain realizes it, it expends mental energy trying to convince you not to do it. Once you are actually doing the task, or it's done, or you realize that you must start doing it immediately, yo…
>> A trick I've learned is to lie to yourself. Say you're excited to do it, that you can't wait, and that you enjoy it. Your brain is easily convinced if you're willing to let it be.
I think this is what most of hypnosis or meditation techniques do. They try to bring mind in a more suggestive state and then suggests that you like(or hate) the good(or bad) activity.
I have a friend who was a 6 cigarettes a day guy actually quit smoking after few sessions of hypnotherapy. He said his hypnotherapist suggested in sessions that you hate the smell of the smoke, and he started hating it. I had hard time believing it and I remember researching about it.
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#138If you are in a similar boat, it's likely that when you consider an upcoming dreaded task, there is at least a small part of you that admits the possibility that you will not do the task . And because there is, and because your brain realizes it, it expends mental energy trying to convince you not to do it. Once you are actually doing the task, or it's done, or you realize that you must start doing it immediately, yo…
Some psychologists seem to be okay with the idea of self-bribery to get through difficult tasks. I think culturally some of us are taught that this is a form of weakness, but it just results in things not being done. I don't agree with a lot of Alcoholics Anonymous' philosophy, but the concept of 'white-knuckling' is quite a powerful metaphor for the trap we get into of trying to force ourselves through a difficult a…
> culturally some of us are taught that this is a form of weakness
It reminds me of in David Copperfield, where Mr. Murdstone asked his wife to be "firm" all the time.
I think the fact that qualities that are classified as weak or strong, is ultimately a type of bullying. Sometimes, it's a person bullying another. Sometimes, it's the culture bullying individuals, giving extra punishment to people already in distress.
Action by self-bribery is better than strong idleness, and there ought not to be no shame in self-bribery if that helps people to live a better life.
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#139Anything you do consistently for a long time will have to become part of "who you are" not just "what you do". If you can't find a way to make it mesh together with your self conceptualization it won't last.
You have to come up with a background, a connection to your past and your being, a story that makes sense why this is who you are.
How this looks can be entirely personal. It may be a rugged individualistic stubbornness story to learn to face adversity, a story of family, about health and treating your body as a temple, or whatever else.
If you have a stronger competing story for your identity (eg my kind of person doest jog, that's some silly Instagrammer avocado soyboy thing, my kind of person drinks beer and watches TV) then you'll not keep doing it even if you successfully force it for some days or weeks.
Stories carry and propel us through life to a large extent.
Re: The Art of Not Thinking
#140AN Whitehead, on separating data and control planes:
"Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle — they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments."
To understand this, one must realise that a horse can only go full out ([1] There is a nice anecdote about von Seydlitz and Frederick the Great. Von Seydlitz is waiting with his cavalry squadrons for opportunity to ripen. Frederick sends a messenger to him to attack. Von Seydlitz responds, "later." A new messenger comes, "you are ordered to attack." Von Seydlitz responds, "in due course." Finally a messenger arrives, "the king says if you do not attack instantly you will be beheaded." Von Seydlitz responds, "please inform his Excellency that my head will be at his disposal after the battle, but during the battle I still need to use it in his service."