Alkan

On the Relationship Between Planning and Action I've had my biggest change from the concept of taking action as a way of life. Now I'm realizing that sometimes I have too many things to do with too little time. But, because I've taken action, I've learned how to become more efficient with tasks. That action came first - now planning and journalling are tools to refine how I am taking action. The brain can only handle so much change at once. It really only can do so much at a time. Structuring my learning (intense practice) around getting things done is now what I am working on today. For instance, if I study for 20 minutes intensely, take a break but do something less mentally engaging in that break, I'll learn more and get something done in that time. And, I can instantly do things like go run errands at the end of a study/practice session. So, to say that I don't have time to study and run errands might be an optimization error. In fact, if I were to do three 20 minute chunks with 5 minutes in between each, I'd spend an hour and 10 minutes with three practice chunks, get a larger break to eat/go run errands, then come back after an hour and a half and study for another hour and ten minute section. So, in a space of four hours, I could chunk in a very efficient, effective practice session - and get a significant portion of errands/cleaning/cooking done. I wouldn't really have as solid of a grasp of this, nor would I be as likely to do it as I plan it if I hadn't first taken action on as a way of life. It's rather incredible - this is literally the biggest change I've had in the year I've spent improving myself.

Thank you all for your kind words. @Primmulla I've got a long ways to go before I'm on professional level. Thousands of hours. Professional is stuff like this: http://conceptartworld.com/ The practice gap between my work and that stuff is waaaay bigger than beginner stuff and my stuff. That level is what I am working to achieve at some point in my life. Part of this process of self improvement and quitting games is that I am equally as passionate about science and music as well. So, I literally have to take hard work on as a way of life if I want to live it in the way I want.

Exactly how I feel. There are some things I will only do privately. Other things work very well when you feel like you have an audience to discuss it with. And, your feedback makes what I wrote solidify in my mind in that deeper, emotional processing part of the brain sort of way. So, sharing it does help.

Today's thoughts: I didn't get quite as much of my homework done as I would have liked (it's some intense upper division mathematically intensive stuff). So, now I am holding myself to be strategic about completion. The process: Start as soon as possible.Work through as many problems as possible. When stuck, try hard for about 5 minutes, then move onto the next problem.Because your brain accesses your long term memory and processes information over time, go back to the problems you were stuck on and give them a harder try.Go to office hours to get help on all of those problems originally stuck on.That seems to be the way to achieve 100% completion on all of them, which in turn is the greatest possible studying for the tests. Also, by starting early, you give yourself more time to practice the material, which in turn makes your abilities more fluid. Another thought: journalling is a way of amplifying the learning process. It causes you to intuit the information that you type, by in some sense, socializing it. It also helps organize thoughts, taking them from inchoate blobs of information to clear, polished concepts that can be applied intuitively. You can also create stronger associations by journalling, allowing for a more rapid change in habit. By journalling this material, I my brain is now physically more likely to actually start the next homework set early. I am unusual - I don't tend to think that free will is a thing. Instead, I think we have a complex decision making process. Likewise, I take a strategic approach to my mind. Habits to change: 1. Going to sleep earlier 2. Getting focused on work more quickly after taking a break. 3. Manage time more effectively - instead of trying to plow entirely through one assignment, sometimes its better to do smaller sections of each assignment each day so that the unconscious processing is happening on all assignments faster. Every night when I go to sleep now I see math in my mind's eye. This is my brain intuiting that information, working it out, making me more effective at it. By actively working on multiple assignments during the day, I can put all of it into that intense sleep cycle processing. Hence, that's why it's more important to get more sleep. This sort of process is extremely effective in making learning more efficient for anything you'd like to improve at. By following these, I should make my work cycle much more efficient, and I should actually open up some free time to practice things like art and music.

So, art is kind of a big part of my life - quitting gaming and taking action is one thing that will allow me to take it to the next level with much more practice. Local Motors Competition Study of Crocodile Eye: This was done with pencil, but then I used the burn tool in Photoshop to bring out the contrast since it was very faint before. For a conceptart.org competition: Study of Frans Hals self-portrait after 3 hours: Several other portrait studies, each timed at exactly 1 hour, in order of completion: ----- This is a fantasy/sci-fi humanoid species that's been in my mind's eye for like 8 years: Mountain with a sort of fortress-like structure carved out of it (done after a few studies of mountains): Oni (Conceptart.org competition): Vulture skull study:

Aim high. My god, aim high. If I knew what I knew now about just sitting down to do something towards developing some skill at 13, I would be rich and/or famous by now. I'd have put a good 15,000 hours into assorted skills. I want you to imagine this - you could start by learning how to be productive during the day, and learning to make it an enjoyable process. I want you to imagine what you could do if you had 10,000 hours of practice on something, by age 20. That's about 27 hours per week. You'd be at a world-class level at some skill by spending time developing yourself. And, you're at an age where your brain works differently - to your advantage. You'll learn faster, and what you learn will be crystallized. Mastery, by Robert Greene is quite good for this. So, basically, what do you get by quitting gaming? The time to become basically superhuman. Don't let people fool you into thinking that there's some mediocre limit. As you change your habits, they will crystallize into behavior. Your gradual steps will accumulate over time, and the next thing you know, you'll be at the top of a mountain while your peers are still finding the first steps. http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/05/19/10-overlooked-truths-about-taking-action/ http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/you-can-increase-your-intelligence-5-ways-to-maximize-your-cognitive-potential/

I would think of it more as the art of patience. Games make us impatient by screwing with our reward systems. So, we don't just focus on doing the activities that eventually grow into powerful skills and accomplishments - those processes stop being enjoyable when you're some powerful being. This slowing down of activity is what makes reducing input so nice. It's fricking incredible enjoying just sitting down and doing interesting homework assignments, then spending some time actually practicing at the piano (something I haven't done in months) or practicing my artwork. I'm glad to see that you're experiencing this same slowing down that allows for greater focus.

Quite a bit better.

Today has been ultra productive. I'm keeping this entry about as short as that because it needs to remain productive because of a deadline. I've been in motion since 7:30 this morning, and it's 8:13 pm as of writing this. I caught myself after that last entry and got some stuff done the night before, which was part of my needing to be productive today.

Apparently I keep forgetting how powerful fresh, high quality coffee beans coming through a Chemex is extremely potent stuff. I had basically 2 cups and I was so wired today that I still feel the racing thoughts feeling from it. One cup... Tops. I wrote that here earlier, but thought "eh, it's sunday, I need an extra boost." I totally forgot about the distractibility part of being over-caffeinated. So, today kinda sucked. I biked to get some of the caffeine out, but unfortunately a bit of drama unfolded with my and my roommate (which thankfully we resolved quickly - no doubt in large part because of all the work I've been putting in on myself) but that took me out for the other portion of the day. So, here I am, still having to stay up late to get things done. Nothing is due tomorrow, but the nature of this stuff is that I have to keep plugging away.

I'll have to check that out. Phrase of the day: Gradus ad Parnassum It's meaning is sinking in as I resume learning new pieces on the piano for the first time in years, noticing how I become better with each session, but it takes a lot of sessions to make major progress. It is a lot like climbing a looming mountain - it appears very large - and you have to keep moving for a long time to overcome it. Gradual steps are the only steps you can take - and the progress you make will be the sum of them over time. So, to make progress, one focuses on making as many steps as possible during the day. Understanding this conceptually and experientially are two completely different things. I'm rather blown away by the difference in the two, in fact. Social: I'm realizing that I don't push social interactions further because I've had negative psychological feedback from a time before I understood less. These days I'm actually quite good with non-verbals, pacing, and being likable. I am still going to screw up, but I need to be making more approaches. It actually gives you some power to be the one who made the first approach In keeping with the phrase - (perhaps not phrase of the day, but the phrase of life), I'm going to focus on increasing my number of social interactions by focusing trial and error as a part of the process - finding the motivation in finding it intrinsically rewarding (as well as necessary) to do so. A feeling of necessity motivates - the understanding that your dreams will not be realized without the long time spent with baby steps each day gives that added dopamine reward. It brings up another important point: we're always looking for quick solutions to problems. The Free Lunch. The thing is - it's an illusion. Lottery winners have their own problems. Rarely do people just randomly "fall in love" without dating several people first and understanding how to actually be a decent human being. Nothing is truly free, and the things that seem free are rarely worth having, usually involving hidden obligations or problems.

What I've learned from the mindset of taking action so far: 1. I have less time than I realized. 2. I can change more things about myself more quickly than I ever realized. 3. Taking action on something teaches you a lot - a lot of real information - not just your internal conjecture. 4. Taking action as its own mental habitual reward gives you more "willpower." More accurately, it reduces the amount of willpower you need to consume to actually get things done because it makes the task itself more rewarding, understanding just how essential it is to achieving the things that you want. 5. Action comes before you even start worrying about "grit." Procrastination isn't a matter of grit - it's a matter of a lot of different thinking problems - problems that usually need to be isolated, but, a lot of the time, you can pave over them by simply being motivated by the mere satisfaction in the act of doing. 6. Perhaps the most important one... It's the only way to live life, as opposed to merely existing.

If you take on the mental habit of taking action as a way of life, it can be a lot more than just one thing. I'm learning that fairly quickly.

This topic is too hard to find! Anyways, I'm in the Southwest, but I cannot make it to California at that point in time. Networking with people on this site IRL would be pretty awesome.

Drop the "shitty person" thing. You just have to refuse that concept and feeling in its entirety. Imagine that thought as if it's a 5 inch bug that's ripping your insides out. Literally, imagine that physically and associate it with the thought. Dissociate that thought from you sense of identity, and make the association disgusting or painful. There is a sense of pleasure associated with slipping into depression - kind of a relief into a low-energy state. It might sound silly to hear it that way, but if you pay close enough attention, it's definitely there. That's why you need to recondition your thoughts - and why you need to keep meditating so that those little subtle feelings that you're unaware of become more pronounced. The brain becomes a bit addicted to that low energy, sorrowful state. A bit less than that is the point where it becomes physically painful, then it's just terrible. Even that can be punctuated by things like an actual sense of validation. Much like video games, you have a conditioned response around your schoolwork - one that I used to have, and still have to a mild degree. It's an association with that and feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, being behind or "not measuring up." It makes schoolwork in general stressful, the moment you see it. So, that's what makes you procrastinate. So, I think what you want to do, which is why that article was so effective for me, is continue focusing just on the systems, not the goals or outcomes. Just get started ASAP and push through them. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a technique used to reframe thoughts so that you stop having the conditioned responses that lead you down the depressive downward spiral. It's also used to recondition yourself to achieve behavior that you intend to do. This is the mindfulness video that I happen to start with before moving onto doing it myself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdi1AQyyjNA This one is pretty good at making you aware of what's going on inside. I now routinely enter that state of observing all of consciousness, and can actually get to a partial state of it almost instantaneously that allows me to catch myself in the midst of behaviors that I would like to actually change. From all of this, though, I'd like to reemphasize action over thought. Action actually makes change, action is rewarding in and of itself - that reward of actually doing is what you need to focus on and condition in yourself. Recognize that life actually changes when you take action, and that things only get worse as you're sitting there.

Ah. I can totally relate. That's where you have to get the courage. I'm talking about simple things that aren't that scary though, like just sitting down to study, or draw, or whatever. I think what you don't realize is that your brain doesn't turn off when you start doing something. You get engaged with it, and suddenly it seems easier to spend some solid period of time doing whatever it was you set out to do. Get rid of the prep period too when it comes to daily tasks or projects. If it's mustering up courage for something scary, that's a little different.

Yes, that is quite what I'm saying. Not doing something because of a disorder is like not going out biking because it's raining. The internal state that you cannot control might as well be an external state, you might as well face it with the same ferocity that you face "not going to a party because I'm an introvert, or _______ will be there." Saying "screw it" isn't there yet. It's more like "screw all of this BS that is supposedly in my way, what happens if I just got up in this instant and started doing?" I feel a strong need to get this out to more people, in a way, because I've been more productive than I've ever been without any pressure, to a point at which it's actually trippy.

- - Oh, I'm not saying medication is bad. I'm talking about using a disorder, real or perceived as way to allow yourself not to work. I.e. if I'm not actually in a depressive phase, but might feel a bit down, I might have blamed that on depression before, instead of just taking action without really giving it much more thought than "I am doing this, now." And that's a thought-to-behavior problem. Granted, mood and thought go rather hand in hand, but I never used to really comprehend what it actually means to control thoughts, and to some extent, emotions. One thing I've noticed is that as I meditate, I notice how certain thoughts more or less seem to take control without me really even noticing. And, thoughts also seem to arise out of mood, as if the thoughts come from a different location in my mental space. It's also like I've gotten a weird sense of control over the thoughts and emotions - very hard to describe. If you ever have had food stuck right at the place where the stomach connects to the esophagus, and you have to try to kind of move around and hold still to not activate the reflex, while making it pass - it feels like that with controlling thoughts and moods. Did you read the article in the link yet? It really helped me a lot already.

The guy who made The Art of Manliness website said that he wishes he and his wife could do something similar for women. I do wish that the philosophy of "manliness" would be reinterpreted into maturity. It's about being a man or a woman, as opposed to being a mere boy or a girl. As for that particular site, it's one of my favorites. I can't think of any men's specific sites that would actually do you any good that The Art of Manliness couldn't, not that they aren't out there. I think another thing - one thing that I noticed in you that just hit home with me - is that I constantly pathologize my procrastination as some undiagnosed disorder, or some basic problem of my brain, when in fact, so much of it is just learned, unconscious behavior. I have to stop viewing it as some intrinsic problem, but as something that is solved on a daily basis by making things happen. Pathologizing also makes it worse because you then start to think that you have a problem that can only be solved by some special intervention or solution. And, how horribly demotivating is that?! It fools you into being dependent on a drug or treatment that doesn't even exist! It's on us, every day, to keep to our systems, and recognize that they're what give us life, truly.

Well, this is kind of ridiculous. In a really awesome way. I was very productive today, with no pressing deadline. I was getting angry at procrastination, and since have made it my project. I happened to stumble across an article, which I discuss in this thread: http://forum.gamequitters.com/topic/689-procrastination/ The key is making taking action the center of your life, instead of thinking about action (i.e. planning, setting some arbitrary number of goals, etc.). When I couldn't sleep last night, I wrote in a thin art marker on a sheet of paper, working this stuff out mentally. I wrote out "the problems of goals." 1. You don't actually know if a goal is reasonable without taking action first. You basically are standing on one side of a hill that you have to climb over, and you're basically saying what you should be able to do without even knowing what's on the other side of the hill. It's bad both ways, because if you project that your projection is too easy, you'll be disappointed to find when it's hard. And, if your projection is harder than the actual accomplishment, you'll be far less motivated when you actually hit that goal, and you'll stop using your time as productively. 2. Creating goals basically puts you in the thinking trap - a state of daydreaming about what you want to accomplish, where you don't notice that you're not actually accomplishing something. If you're not careful, goals will give you a reward - for doing nothing. You'll self-identify with the accomplishment of your goals without actually achieving them. Real goals emerge after you take action. I.e. I'd notice that I'm biking up ______ hill in two minutes, so maybe I'll just try to beat that time in a couple weeks. I'm going to do a lot more exploring in terms of how and when to implement goals and planning. My life will no longer revolve around goals, but it will revolve around effort and vision.

To update, my day after this has been almost wholly productive. I couldn't sleep last night, so I slept in a bit. So, around 11 I got going. Did my laundry, morning routine and did about 4 hours of studying today for the semester to come. Yes, my semester hasn't started and I actually studied for 4 hours today. I also managed to squeeze a short workout session in. I truly just focused on working, instead of thinking about what the results of the work should actually be. I even ate well.

I hate procrastination. I loathe it with a fiery passion. Yet, it manages to overtake me on a daily basis. It is one of the antitheses of happiness, success, and enjoyment of life. This article really drove in what needs to change mentally: you must put yourself in a state of taking action, instead of planning, perfecting, trying to make whatever you set out to do perfect. Action should come before planning, though planning is important. You should take action on something before you delve deeper into it with a plan. This article had some serious insights for me. Systems over goals really drove it in (system being running, goal being running at ____ minutes per mile by _______). You cannot depend on your goals coming true - only a combination of fortune and effort really make that happen - but you can rely on yourself to start a system. It also reminds me of something that Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wallstreet guy, mentioned about having a vision more than goals. I'm re-interpreting what I heard, and now I think I actually understand what he meant. A vision is far off, and it's not clear whether or not you're going to attain that vision - but its attainability doesn't really matter that much. You put your systems in place because of your vision, but you just focus on the systems, with the vision in the back of your mind. Here's an example: I want to be an lean, fit, strong cyclist. That's the vision - it's vague, the dream that drives me. The little stupid goals I set are things like "23 MPH avg. on this course" or "go up this mountain at whatever speed." These goals start to create stress, and create easy room for disappointment that can't really be avoided if you care too much about your little goals. But you can depend on yourself to actually go out and start working at something. It's at that point that you'll know how it feels to actually be DOING what you want to do. It feels great to just do your system every day - and not really know exactly how far it's gotten you. Games are the antithesis of this - they tell you exactly how far you've gotten, and exactly how much you have to do. I think goals can come back in after you've gotten a solid idea and solid routine on whatever you set out to do. But, we don't really control as much as we'd like to in life. The amount of time I spend dreaming about what I'm going to do, what I want for myself is insane. In f---ing la la land. Action is the antithesis of procrastination - or so I hope. I spend so much time trying to make my day perfect, that I don't just start doing things. You're better off letting dice plan the order of your day in 10 seconds and you get to work immediately instead of thinking about it for an hour. I'm determined - I'm going to beat this beast that is called procrastination. I'm going to minimize the time that's not spent doing so that I'm putting in a solid effort each and every day.

I've only dreamt of games when I was playing them for way too many hours during the day. Otherwise, no. I would focus on the benefits you're slowly accruing without the games. If they pop into your head, I would train yourself to redirect it back onto what you've gained as a result of not having them. And then, focus on how you feel when you've spent 10 hours on a game, it's getting stale, and yet you can't extricate yourself. And, think of all the things you don't get to accomplish. I know that makes it feel disgusting to me, and makes me yearn for a more productive, satisfying life.

Impacted my grades substantially. I have a hard time focusing under pressure, sadly. I go into full on freeze-up panic mode. So, when I have something that causes me to procrastinate, my grades plummet. My best performances were when I wasn't playing games or addicted to the internet. I too can relate to feeling frazzled, like my brain doesn't work properly because I played so many damn games. I'm quit for good. No more.

I Finally Realize Procrastination has been my biggest challenge in life, I'm starting to realize. Putting things off, and not sticking to them when I start has been the thing that's held me back the most. Games and the internet allowed me to bury my feelings of inadequacy, failure and anything else. It allowed me to not seek answers to my problems. It allowed me to numb my mind with something entertaining and addictive. I know why I quit games - because I have difficulty extricating myself from them when I have them on my mind. Just the feeling of that pull when I have something stressful to do puts it in perspective for me. Knowing the problem, realizing that I have it and accepting it is the start. But the solution is going to take time. I do have a tendency to stop working on things altogether if I feel that I am not going to achieve enough during the day. And, I habitually say that certain times of day aren't for working and allow myself to get off the hook for not working (the evening, particularly). One of my biggest problems is just accepting that I'm not always going to want to do something. It's going to be uncomfortable. My biggest fear is that my prefrontal cortex activity isn't high enough to get the levels of productivity that I so greatly desire. That's why I've made such a large deal about meditating, because my behavior reflects that of someone with low activity in the prefrontal cortex. However, there is a bit of nonsense in that fear. I have indeed produced before - spectacularly, in fact, and that wasn't even at full function with a conscious awareness of what was going on internally. (And this folks, is why you journal - I just pulled an subconscious thought out of my mind am consciously was able to refute it). Beyond that, I can train my brain in a way to think about things properly. Again, this is why to meditate - to catch your thoughts on a more habitual basis. So, my most basic project is to overcome procrastination.