The working week
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| schedule | 时间表 | shí jiān biǎo |
| to-do list | 待办清单 | dài bàn qīng dān |
| attention | 注意力 | zhù yì lì |
| procrastination | 拖延 | tuō yán |
A list is not a schedule
- A to-do list 待办清单 records tasks. A schedule 时间表 gives each one a time and a place.
- A list without a schedule is a wish, and it grows faster than you can work.
- The week is where a semester plan either happens or does not.
Work in blocks with an end
- A block of 40 minutes with a real break after it beats three unfocused hours.
- Attention 注意力, not time, is the scarce resource. Protect it by ending blocks before it runs out.
- Put the hardest task in your best block of the day, not in the leftovers.
Three unbroken hours of study is more productive than three 40-minute blocks with breaks.
Attention, not time, is the scarce resource. Blocks end before attention does.
Procrastination is not laziness
- Procrastination 拖延 is usually avoidance of an unclear first step.
- Make the first step small and specific: open the paper and write the question in my own words.
- Once the first step is done, the task has a shape, and the shape is what was missing.
You keep putting off an essay. What is the most likely cause?
Avoidance is usually about an undefined first action. Define it small and specific, and the task starts.
Write a first step for "prepare the group presentation" that is small enough to start in two minutes.
Example: "Open a blank slide deck and write the three section titles." Small, specific, startable now.
Two ways to write the same task in a schedule.
Wish: "Work on the science report."
Schedule: "Tuesday 19:00–19:40, at the library desk: write the method section from the lab notes."
The second names the time, the place, and the first action. There is nothing left to decide at 19:00, and deciding is what you were avoiding.
Which entry is a schedule rather than a wish?
Time, place and first action. Nothing is left to decide when the slot arrives.
Schedule the start, not the finish. "Finish the essay" is a hope you do not control. "Start the essay at seven, for forty minutes" is entirely within your control, and it is the only part that ever needed a plan.
Put a study block in the order that protects attention.
Stopping mid-sentence is deliberate: it makes restarting easy, because the next action is already obvious.
Do not schedule study immediately after a long class without a break. The block will be spent recovering, and you will conclude that the technique does not work rather than that the slot was wrong.