Page 120 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

simply counted the number of pimples he had on his face with varying doses of

tetracycline. The result? The tetracycline made no difference on the number of
pimples he had!
Roberts had stumbled across a finding that would take medicine another
decade to discover—that seemingly powerful tetracycline, which has unsafe side
effects, doesn’t necessarily work on acne. On the other hand, benzoyl peroxide
cream did work, contrary to what Roberts had originally thought. As Roberts

noted, “From my acne research I learned that self-experimentation can be used
by non-experts to (a) see if the experts are right and (b) learn something they
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don’t know. I hadn’t realized such things were possible.” Over the years,
Roberts has used his self-experimentation efforts to study his mood, control his
weight, and to see the effects of omega-3 on how well his brain functioned.
Overall, Roberts has found that self-experimentation is extremely helpful in

testing ideas as well as in generating and developing new hypotheses. As he
notes: “By its nature, self-experimentation involves making sharp changes in
your life: you don’t do X for several weeks, then you do X for several weeks.
This, plus the fact that we monitor ourselves in a hundred ways, makes it easy
for self-experimentation to reveal unexpected side effects. . . . Moreover, daily
measurements of acne, sleep, or anything else, supply a baseline that makes it
even easier to see unexpected changes.” 7

Your own self-experimentation, at least to begin with, should be on
procrastination. Keep notes on when you don’t complete what you had intended
to complete, what the cues are, and your zombie-mode habitual reaction to
procrastination cues. By logging your reaction, you can apply the subtle pressure
you need to change your response to your procrastination cues and gradually

improve your working habits. In his excellent book The Now Habit, author Neil
Fiore suggests keeping a detailed daily schedule of your activities for a week or
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two to get a handle on where your problem areas are for procrastination. There
are many different ways to monitor your behavior. The most important idea here
is that keeping a written history over several weeks appears to be critical in
helping you make changes. Also, different people function better in certain
environments—some need a busy coffee shop, while others need a quiet library.

You need to figure out what’s best for you.

ISOLATION VERSUS GROUP WORK—TREATING PROCRASTINATION
DIFFERENTLY THAN SIMPLY STRUGGLING TO UNDERSTAND