A lot of this is consonant with Tony Schwartz's "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time" -
http://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time/ar/1 (paywalled, unfortunately)
If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
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Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#52A lot of this is consonant with Tony Schwartz's "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time" - http://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time/ar/1 (paywalled, unfortunately)
I second this. "The Power of Full Engagement" is a rather good book on how to manage your energy. I like Cal Newport's blog, but what I think often goes unmentioned is the energy required to sustain this regime. It's not going to happen over night.
Schwartz and Loehr worked with some of the best tennis players of all time. From there they built a system of how to build up your energy (energy is the term they use.) Some might find their work to be a bit hokey, but I got the book used for $.01 (+ s&H) on Amazon so it's worth a shot.
The deliberative practice literature is pretty consistent on what people do to become better performers. What much of the literature (or at least what I have read) lacks is the recognition that getting to the point of being able to practice deliberately in a consistent manner takes building up endurance over time.
Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being in similar situation myself, I think it's not self-discipline. It's just that deep inside you don't see the point. Although sometimes extrinsic motivation becomes strong enough that you hammer things out, you're not generally interested in doing these. What is needed here IMO is somewhat opposite of self-discipline. You don't make something important or interesting by thinking that it's important. It must natur…
Leo Babauta has an interesting claim on this that discipline therefor is a myth: http://zenhabits.net/discipline/ . In the light of the article: those kids must at least get the organization and scheduling part of their lives from their parents.
Thanks for the link. "Build habits for consistency" is exactly they way I view. I believed strongly in "discipline" for a long time, but never built any strong habits to reinforce what end goal or lifestyle I was trying to attain. Inevitably I would build this heavy daily schedule, work incredibly hard for a period of time, and then just completely break down from exhaustion. Afterwards I would feel guilty about not being able to accomplish even small portions of my daily schedule and then eventually give up all together.
Working hard is admirable; but, when you don't have the capacity to do so, you have to build that capacity first.
Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#54And sometimes practice doesn't matter much at all. Some people are just great at what they do.
Charles Barkley (well-known NBA future Hall of Famer) was well known for being a slacker at practice. He hated it.
Randy Moss (well-known NFL future Hall of Famer) was also one of the laziest players, poor team player, and hated practice.
Mark Spitz (7-time gold medal winning swimmer) apparently was particularly uninterested in practice, put in the bare minimum yet reaped huge rewards.
Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#55What a poorly titled article. The study itself isn't invalid, but the conclusions are.
It's easy to read the evidence -- put in more effective practice/studying, and your rates of success and capabilities will be higher than any marathon/cramming will ever do for you.
A fine sentiment, until its applied to the general world. And in the real world, there is plenty of hard-to-do work that needs to be handled. I guess all my hard-to-do work that I'm responsible for as an employee, friend, father, volunteer, etc. is simply a "busyness" choice that's preventing me from reaching the stars in some focused endeavor.
It's completely anecdotal, but I know several people who follow the focused-drive-limited-busyness approach. I find two common traits about them: 1) they are highly competent in their chosen field, and 2) they are stunningly boring.
The world needs experts, but life needs well-rounded people. I respect the experts, but I much prefer the well-rounded folks.
Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#56And sometimes practice doesn't matter much at all. Some people are just great at what they do. Charles Barkley (well-known NBA future Hall of Famer) was well known for being a slacker at practice. He hated it. Randy Moss (well-known NFL future Hall of Famer) was also one of the laziest players, poor team player, and hated practice. Mark Spitz (7-time gold medal winning swimmer) apparently was particularly unintereste…
these examples show just what the research concluded though -
dont do too much training all day long but rather do effective short period intensive trainings couple of times a day
Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#57I like the hypothesis the article presents: focusing on working intently hard, followed by relaxation and you will perform better. It's something I would want to beleive. But, I find his analysis a little suspect. It appears to confuse corellation and causation. It notices a difference in behavior between the "great" and the "average" and assumes those differences to cause the difference in ability. It completely ign…
Keep in mind the context-this isn't the first, second, or even tenth study that Cal has posted arguing that intensely focused periods of work are more beneficial than working the same number of hours but spread throughout the day.
For Cal's readers, this article isn't presenting a new argument. It's one more example in a long line supporting his overall thesis.
Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#58I like the hypothesis the article presents: focusing on working intently hard, followed by relaxation and you will perform better. It's something I would want to beleive. But, I find his analysis a little suspect. It appears to confuse corellation and causation. It notices a difference in behavior between the "great" and the "average" and assumes those differences to cause the difference in ability. It completely ign…
"It completely ignores the possibility that the behavioral difference might be caused by a difference in ability, rather than the behavior changing the ability." Exactly why I clicked the comment link. The differences in behavior could also be caused by a difference in psychology between students. e.g. the elite group love what they do and the other group don't. Which could indicate why the other group spread their p…
My thinking was also along the lines of procrastination vs. discipline, though love of the activity may or may not be correlated strongly.
What it may come down to is simply strength of self-discipline. What separates the achievers from the middle-of-the-roaders is self-control. The classic "marshmallow experiment"[1] would seem to bear this out.
[1]A famous longitudinal, social-psychology experiment in which children were offered a marshmallow (or a cookie, depending on which study), and told that if they didn't eat it, they could receive a second marshmallow in five minutes. Then they were left alone for five minutes. Most children ate the marshmallow. The ones who didn't -- who waited it out and resisted temptation -- were also the ones who grew up to be more successful, earn higher incomes, and perform higher on tests of intelligence.
Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#59This article complete ignores the simple fact that if you're talented, you don't need to work hard.
Re: If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being in similar situation myself, I think it's not self-discipline. It's just that deep inside you don't see the point. Although sometimes extrinsic motivation becomes strong enough that you hammer things out, you're not generally interested in doing these. What is needed here IMO is somewhat opposite of self-discipline. You don't make something important or interesting by thinking that it's important. It must natur…
You raise an interesting point, and I agree that motivation is largely about what's important to me. This is likely an overgeneralization on my part, but I see life as full of things that I will have to do which don't really have a point. At least all the way through college it's been that way, always the hope that there's less bullshit at the next level and always the disappointment.
If you think about it long enough, it inevitably turns out that nothing really matters.
The bad part is that it's technically correct[0]. The good part is that once you know it, you have the advantage. Things stop being divided into things that have a point and those that don't. Hence your life stops being full of unimportant things, as ultimately they're all equally significant (or insignificant).
After that, my thinking usually goes the following order: 1) Why do anything at all in such circumstances, life has no point, etc. 2) Wait, I still might as well enjoy the process.
For some reason, the latter normally looks superior (if I'm in good shape), so I'm trying to learn to enjoy the process. Turns out it's not as simple as doing what is pleasant. For me, it's pleasant to drink beer and eat junk food, but it hurts the enjoyment part in the long run. The trick is more about ‘loving what you do’. I'm not really there yet.
I'm a dropout. I guess if I had come to above reasoning back then, I would probably finish.
[0] http://twitter.com/#!/codinghorror/status/27857264505257985