keep on plodding

I've teased you guys enough with theory, so let's do something real.

Recall that productive sprinting is about revealing weakness thus encourageing growth. So, consider a task you know to be weak at, or wish to improve on. I have chosen "Do Assignment" for my task.

Now, find a timer of some kind. A stopwatch/egg timer will do, but ideally download a timer program that plays music. I'm using this one at the moment.

Next, if you chose the timer software, pick a song. A song that you love, and really gets you going. Something that makes you mad, something that makes you happy, whatever motivates you, ideally, YOUR FAVOURITE SONG.

Take note of the song's duration. Set the timer for about double that. I intentionally chose a 4 minute song so I could have an 8 minute timer.



Stop. Time for a bit of Endurance building theory. I was told long ago that to really build endurance, I should walk in intervals of one minute, jog a minute, then sprint for thirty seconds. These times aren't too important, but the ratios and the theory most definitely are. When we walk for that minute, we are resting, and totally care free. The way rest should be. This is Strolling. It's not Sitting, because a tiny bit of us is moving towards a goal. The less you think of the goal the better, but keep moving.

Minute's up. Time to start jogging. Recall that in Striding, energy expenditure is extremely low. Do not put energy into the jog, just make sure it's not a walk. We jog to prepare us for the sprint, which is where the growth is. When we jog like this, just about the only thing we're thinking of is that sprint in 60 seconds, but we're still moving slowly enough to say hi to passers by.

60 seconds up. BOLT. For a full 30 seconds, we are in hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell.

30 seconds over. Mind is clear, save for a trickle of thought on that 60 second timer. And so we repeat.



This is what you guys will be doing, metaphorically speaking. For my "Do Assignment" task, my cycles will be:

Stroll - Don't even think about studying. Go read about dinosaurs or get lost in wikipedia or something. Then set the timer.

Stride - Gather information. Open lecture notes, go over Introductions and Summaries, preparing myself for study and thinking a lot about it but not actually doing study. Build up huge anticipation. If this is not the first cycle, I'll review stuff I did in previous cycles.

Sprint - Timer dings. WRITE. Until the music ends.

And repeat.



Give it a try. Just one cycle at least. Just one.

Then more. make the cycles longer. And add more cycles. Watch how fast you grow.



ADDENDUM: I notice that this may not be so good for reading/study, which should generally be done in silence. That's fine, just use a short buzzer sound or none at all for the timer.