Page 96 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

3. The Reward: This can sometimes require investigation. Why are you
procrastinating? Can you substitute in an emotional payoff? A feeling of

pride for accomplishing something, even if it is small? A sense of
satisfaction? Can you win a small internal bet or contest in something
you’ve turned into a personal game? Allow yourself to indulge in a latte
or read a favorite website? Provide yourself with an evening of
mindless television or web surfing without guilt? And will you give

yourself a bigger reward for a bigger achievement—movie tickets, a
sweater, or an utterly frivolous purchase?

“My boyfriend and I love movies, so as a reward for completing specific tasks on certain
days, he takes me to the movies. This not only is motivation to study or get homework
done, but also has led me to develop new habits of studying by reinforcing the
cue/routine/reward system.”
—Charlene Brisson, psychology major, accelerated second-degree nursing program

Remember, habits are powerful because they create neurological
cravings. It helps to add a new reward if you want to overcome your
previous cravings. Only once your brain starts expecting the reward will
the important rewiring take place that will allow you to create new
habits.
It’s particularly important to realize that giving yourself even a small
“attaboy” or “attagirl” jump-starts the process of rewiring your brain.

This rewiring, sometimes called learned industriousness, helps brighten
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tasks you once thought were boring and uninteresting. As you will
find, simply getting into the flow of your work can become its own
reward, giving you a sense of productiveness you might not have
imagined was possible when you first sat down to begin working. Many
people find that setting a reward at a specific time—for example,

breaking for lunch with a friend at the deli at noon, or stopping the main
tasks at five P.M., gives a solid mini-deadline that can help spur work.
Don’t feel bad if you find that you have trouble getting into a “flow”
state at first. I sometimes find it takes a few days of drudgery through a
few cycles of the Pomodoro technique before flow begins to unfold and