Page 99 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

Practicing Your Zombie Wrangling

Do you like to check your e-mail or Facebook right when you wake up in the morning? Set
a timer for ten minutes of work first thing instead—then reward yourself with online time.
You will be surprised to see that this tiny exercise in self-control will help empower you
over your zombies through the day.
Warning: When you first sit down to try this, some of your zombies will scream as if they
want to eat your brain. Tune them out! Part of the point of this exercise is learning to laugh
at your zombies’ antics as they predictably tell you, “Just this once it’s okay to check
Facebook right now.”

Get into the Flow by Focusing on Process, Not Product

If you find yourself avoiding certain tasks because they make you
uncomfortable, there is a great way to reframe things: Learn to focus on process,

not product.
Process means the flow of time and the habits and actions associated with
that flow of time—as in, “I’m going to spend twenty minutes working.” Product
is an outcome—for example, a homework assignment that you need to finish.
To prevent procrastination, you want to avoid concentrating on product.
Instead, your attention should be on building processes—habits—that
coincidentally allow you to do the unpleasant tasks that need to be done.

For example, let’s say you don’t like doing your math homework. So you
put off working on the homework. It’s only five problems, you think. How hard
could that be?
Deep down, you realize that solving five problems could be a daunting task.
It’s easier to live in a fantasy world where the five homework problems (or the

twenty-page report, or whatever) can be done at the last minute.
Your challenge here is to avoid focusing on the product—the solved
homework problems. The product is what triggers the pain that causes you to
procrastinate. Instead, you need to focus on the process, the small chunks of
time you need over days or weeks, to solve the homework problems or prepare
for tests. Who cares whether you finished the homework or grasped key
concepts in any one session? The whole point instead is that you calmly put forth

your best effort for a short period—the process.
The essential idea here is that the zombie, habitual part of your brain likes