Okay, if you haven't assumed this from my sporadic blog postings and recent 3 month hiatus, I procrastinate a lot. A LOT. It's an art form I perfected, somewhat accidentally, over the years. I can just waste time without realising it. Which is problematic considering this year, I'm trying to pass exams, go to university, train for my sport, write a 50,000 word novel in a month and maybe, just maybe, have a social life.
Fortunately, I've found a kind of helpful way to help me get some more work done. And, as you might be able to guess from the title, that involves that all-purpose answer: 42.
In more detail: I set my timer for 42 minutes exactly. I then spend 2-5 minutes messing around, trying to find my pencil, get my music sorted etc. I spend however long left doing work whilst listening to music before the timer goes off. I then spend 42 minutes (timed again) doing what I like. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
Why 42 though? It's not a neat number like 30 or 60 minutes. But I've figured out that neat doesn't work for me (if you've seen my bedroom, folder or locker, you would know I'm not neat...). 42 is more or less perfect.
30 minutes is too short: Spending 5 minutes looking for junk is 1/6th of the time, which seems like a much larger fraction than 5/42. 30 minutes is rarely enough to get 3 questions done, let a lone a whole sheet (A levels are ridiculously confusing). 30 minutes in and I'm still trying to work out what the hell a trigonometric identity is, let alone how to do an equation involving one.
Conversely, 60 minutes is too long: One hour sounds so long that I don't even start the timer, so sticking out the whole hour is out of the question. In being so long, I don't even start it (like essays. They are so long, I don't even make a start unless I really, really am forced to at the last minute). I have a limited attention span at the best time, so by 60 minutes I've generally resorted to playing with the mini mountain of rubber bits on the paper.
42 seems just right. It's more or less the midpoint between 30 and 60 minutes. It's roughly the length of a T.V. show without commercials (important for when I get my 42 minute long break). It's long enough for me to get into the flow of the work, so by the time the alarm goes off, I'm far enough through to think 'I can TOTALLY do this!' and enthusiastically complete the work. It's also enough so that generally, when I get a horrific piece of work that no one in the class can do, I've do just enough to have a made 'a reasonable start' and start asking friends to explain stuff to me, but it's not so long that I've lost all sanity and thrown the book out the window (I'm not even exaggerating, that's the worst bit...).
And best of all, 42 minutes is enough for me to check my Facebook, emails, mental_floss articles and then write and post a blog post, but not with enough time left that I feel obliged to proof read it (I hate proof reading, and besides, I'm going to claim the rambling 'adds character'). Give it a go maybe?
No comments:
Post a Comment