Archive for the ‘Study Techniques’ Category

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Don’t strain your cerebral cortex: The importance of brain warm ups

March 12th, 2012 by Jane

My dad is 65 years old and he’s been running marathons for the last 4 years. Before a race he prepares himself mentally and physically by doing the following –

  • Getting a good night sleep (8 hours)
  • Having a healthy low GI breakfast
  • Stretching his muscles with a 500 metre jog

    • As a marathon runner he knows that to perform at his best he needs to prepare himself for the big event. Even with the best training, he knows that to run sleep deprived, in a low mood or without having warmed up would be a recipe for disaster.

    The importance of warming up seems obvious when we think of athletes, but what about for the rest of us? Do you mentally prepare yourself and warm up your brain before you start your work and study?

    Just as my dad and world class athletes prepare themselves for an event, if you have a project that you need to be able to really focus on then you’ll need to prepare yourself mentally and physically for it.

    How can you do this?

    Here is a list of 10 ways you can warm up your brain and mentally prepare for a big day at school or work.

    1. Get a good night sleep

    If you want to be able to concentrate on your work then you need to get a good night’s sleep (8.5 – 9.5 hours for adolescents, a little less for adults).

    If you’re averaging around 6 hours, that’s not enough. It’s highly likely that you will feel tired and sluggish and have great difficulty concentrating on your work.

    2. Drink plenty of water

    When you wake up have a glass of water. Why? Performance coach Harriet Griffey states -

    “Water makes up about 80% of the brain and is an essential element in neurological transmissions”.

    If you want to think better, then drink plenty of water. Often when you can’t concentrate or think properly it’s because you’re dehydrated. Have a bottle of water within arms reach when you work.

    3. Move your body

    Morning exercise can help clear and focus your mind. In addition, it can boost your endorphin levels which lifts your mood (thereby further enhancing your ability to concentrate on your work).

    4. Lift your mood and energy levels

    Think of a time when you felt stressed and irritable – how easy was it for you to concentrate? It’s tough work! On the other hand, when you feel calm and happy it’s significantly easier to concentrate.

    So if you find yourself in a negative mood, you need to find a way to stabilise your mood for the day ahead. Going for a quick 15 – 20 minute jog or taking 5 minutes to meditate may be all it takes.

    5. Do a brain dump

    When you wake up your mind can be full of different thoughts (e.g. “Why didn’t John respond to my text?”, “How am I going to get all my work done by Friday?” and “Must remember to buy milk”). If these thoughts just stay in your head they can often leave you feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelm = stress.

    So what’s the antidote? It’s simple – get the thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Spend 5 minutes writing down whatever thoughts come to mind. The act of writing them down will give you a greater sense of control.

    6. Sit still and focus on your breath for 5 minutes

    Find yourself a quiet place and sit upright. Close your eyes and focus on your breathe for 5 minutes. If a thought comes into your mind, acknowledge it and let it go, returning your focus to your breath.

    This simple exercise allows you to calm your mind and body for the day, helping you to focus and deal more effectively with what the day throws at you.

    7. Have a low GI healthy breakfast

    Low GI breakfasts, such as muesli with chopped fruit and wholemeal toast with baked beans, will give you the energy you need to get through the first part of the day and will allow you to concentrate better on your work.

    8. Spend 5 seconds de-cluttering

    A messy, disorganised environment can result in you being easily distracted from what you need to do. Spend 5 minutes cleaning your desk of anything that you won’t need to do the task at hand. If this means picking up all the papers and dumping them into a box behind you, then so be it. You can deal with them later.

    9. Get clear with lists

    Ask yourself the question -

    “What are the most important things I need to do today?”

    Start a list. Write down all the things, then cull that list back to 3 things to focus your mind on.

    10. Visualise yourself working with focus

    Visualisation is the act of mentally rehearsing something over and over in your minds eye. Athletes use this strategy to help them perfect executing certain moves. I have found this strategy to be particularly effective in helping me to prepare for engaging in work that I have a lot of mental resistance towards.

    An example of this was a 12,000 word essay I had to complete in my final year of studying psychology at university. Every morning I would imagine myself sitting at my laptop and my hands tapping away wildly at the keyboard. As simple as this may sound, this actually made it easier for me to get up and start writing my essay.

    In conclusion, we need to approach our work days as a marathon. In order for the day to go smoothly and effectively, it may help to do a brain warm up before you launch into your work. Without it, you’ll probably still be able to function at a reasonable level, but it may take you longer and be harder to get into the work you need to do. Try combining a few of the suggestions above and let me know how you go.

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    Your teacher says “It’s time to get serious”. But what does that mean?

    February 5th, 2012 by Jane

    At the beginning of the school year teachers attempt to get their students in the right frame of mind and motivate them for the year ahead.

    “It’s time to get serious” I’ve heard many teachers say in their pep talks to students.

    But as one student said to me earlier this week –

    “What do they mean by this? What do I need to do to get serious?”

    Firstly, here’s what I think your teachers mean when they say, “It’s time to get serious” –

    Upper school is different from your other years of school in the sense that what you do now impacts on your future career and education choices. Want to go to university? Then, it’s time to knuckle down (i.e. get serious).

    Bear in mind, even if you fail all your school subjects in Australia, there are other backdoor ways of getting into university and you can get a second chance (don’t expect many teachers to tell you this though).

    But here’s the thing, why waste 2 precious years of your life faffing around? Get on with things I say. Give it your best shot.

    This doesn’t mean that you need to walk around looking glum 24/7 with your head buried in a book. In fact, I firmly believe that you should have as much fun with your studies as possible. Why? It will make for an easier, more productive year and more effective learning.

    At the same time, concrete action is required to move you closer towards achieving the things you want in life. To put it simply, if you don’t take action then expect mediocre (if not poor) results.

    So if you want to get serious about your studies, here are 5 practical things you can start doing –

    1. Boost your productivity: no more multitasking

    Want to get more done in less time and boost your intelligence? Then focus on doing one thing at a time.

    If you have a tendency to do two or more things at the same time (e.g. homework, Facebook and television playing in the background) you’ll find yourself feeling frustrated and anxious. Research indicates that you may also be up to 40% slower to complete the task at hand. In addition, you can expect to experience a drop in IQ more than twice that found in people who are high on smoking marijuana.

    2. De-junk your environment

    Being disorganised and working in a messy, overly cluttered environment can cause unnecessary anxiety, tension and heightened levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Do yourself a favour, clear as much of your stuff off your desk as possible before you start your homework or study. This will allow you to focus intensely on what you need to do, which means you’ll be able to get your work done in less time.

    3. Invest in time management tools

    Managing your time more often than not involves managing yourself better. I highly recommend investing in the following 3 time/self management tools.

    a) A diary: A diary helps you to capture all the things you need to do and when you need to do them by before you forget them. Let’s face it, there are limits to our short term memory. Research tells us that we can only hold 7 (plus or minus 2 bits of information at a time) in our short term memories and we can only hold it there for an average of 20 seconds. So if you overload your brain with too much information or don’t write it down witin 20 seconds, chances are you won’t remember it.

    Have your diary (or a notepad) and pen close by so you can capture your ideas and the things you need to do when they come to mind.

    b) A wall planner: The beauty of a wall planner is that in one glance you can see what you need to do for the week, the month and year. For this reason, you’re able to plan ahead and be prepared for particularly busy periods and make the most of quieter periods. They only cost a few dollars and will help you feel more in control of your life.

    c) An electronic timer: These devices can help you track your time and allow you to easily work in focused sprints for set periods of time. If you tend to have trouble getting started with your work, use your timer to work in 8 minute power bursts. All this involves is setting your timer for 8 minutes, taking out your work and saying to yourself “I’m going to focus on doing this for 8 minutes. No distractions”. When the timer goes off you have two choices: 1) Go take a break (only if you’re really struggling though) or 2) Keep going. Most of the time you’ll want to keep going.

    4. Be kind to your mind and body

    If you don’t look after your mind and body, you won’t be able to study effectively. Being well rested with a good nights sleep (8.5 – 9.5 hours of sleep each night), having a good low GI breakfast and exercising to clear you mind and energise yourself are all pathways to study success.

    5. Develop true GRIT

    Grit is defined as the ability to persevere in the face of challenges and setbacks. In other words, it’s the ability to keep going when things get tough. Most of the time, when things get tough, what we tend to do is give up and do something easier and more enjoyable (e.g. go to the fridge to get a snack and log onto Facebook). However, if you have grit, you don’t do that. You feel the discomfort and you keep going. You push forward.

    Grit has been said to be one of the major factors of individuals success in a variety of fields (sports, academia, chess, etc). It’s been suggested that it’s more important than an individual’s level of intelligence.

    So want to become grittier? Practice working on a task with complete focus for 20 – 30 minutes (no distractions). When things get difficult, stay with the task. Don’t try to avoid it. Push through the discomfort. You may just find that after a short period of time, the discomfort subsides.

    So next time your teacher tells you it’s time to “get serious”, consider asking them exactly what they mean by this or what practical actions you would need to take to achieve this state. At the heart of it I believe they are trying to say that they want you to do your best by engaging in the things that matter most and will move you forward towards a positive, bright future.

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    Visual note-taking for people who think they can’t draw

    January 22nd, 2012 by Jane

    If I asked you to draw a picture of a chicken what would your reaction be? “No way, I can’t draw” or “Sure, no problem!”?

    Many people I work with have a black and white view when it comes to drawing. They think they either can or can’t draw.

    For this reason, teaching any form of visual note-taking to students, such as mind mapping, is often accompanied with loud groans and much resistance.

    “My teacher already taught me this”, “Oh no, anything but mind mapping!” and “I can’t draw for *#$%!” they say with distressed looks on their faces.

    What students often fail to realise is this – you don’t need to be good at drawing to take visual notes. All you can manage are stick figures? Stress less. This is actually a great place to start.

    Here’s the thing: any picture is better than no picture when it comes to taking notes. Why? Well, research demonstrates that students that draw pictures when they learn retain 30% more information than students that don’t draw pictures.

    So you can relax. Your pictures don’t need to be perfect. As long as you can understand them that’s all that matters.

    Which means that even simple, rough pictures are fine. But if you’re not satisfied with your stick figures, the good news is you can improve your drawings and it doesn’t have to take you years of hard work and practice.

    Don’t get me wrong, practice can make you really good at pretty much anything (drawing included). Take my friend Sharon for example. She’s been drawing since the age of 3 and slogged away at art school and as a children’s illustrator for many years. Now, she whips out fun, little drawings at amazing speeds with ease whilst watching television. She regularly reminds me –

    “The more you draw, the better you’ll get”.

    But let’s say you want to improve your drawing skills and don’t have years to devote to this activity like my friend Sharon did. How can you fast track your drawing skills and take them to the next level?

    There are some amazing resources out there that show you how to draw the basics and the basics are all you really need if your taking visual notes for subjects like law, psychology, environmental science or history.

    So if you’re keen to progress from drawing stick figures, I highly recommend exploring the following useful resources –

    Make a world by Ed Emberley: This classic book shows you how to draw almost anything in a number of simple steps. Ed Emberley states that if you can draw some basic shapes (e.g. a triangle, circle and square) then you have what it takes to draw all the pictures in his book (and there are dozens) – horses jumping, Vikings, pirate flags, camels, etc.

    Austin Kleon’s Blog: Austin Kleon is a poet with a difference (he takes newspaper articles and blacks out the words he doesn’t want with a thick black marker to create his poems). He’s also an awesome visual note taker to boot. He has taken visual notes for conferences and written several blog posts on visual note-taking. Check out a collection of his blog posts on this topic here.

    Visual Note Taking 101: A group of visual note-taking gurus (Austin Kleon, Mike Rohde, Sunni Brown and Dave Gray) spoke at a conference on the basics of visual note-taking. The audio was recorded, synced with the slides they used on the day and uploaded online. Whilst it’s a bit slow to get into and a fair bit is lost by not being able to see these people speak, there is gold in this 58 minute session. It’s well worth seeing samples of their visual notes and hearing their tips.

    Whether it was a teacher or a school student that told you couldn’t draw, you shouldn’t let those conversations stop you from taking visual notes in your classes. It’s actually a lot of fun. And what we know from the psychology of learning is that:

    Fun = Greater understanding + retention of information = Better grades

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    Developing Razor Sharp Focus with Zen Habits Blogger, Leo Babauta

    July 22nd, 2011 by Jane

    If you’ve just logged into Facebook or your email for the 10th time today or find yourself thinking in Facebook statuses throughout the day, it may be time to read Leo Babauta’s eBook “Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction”.

    This free eBook contains dozens of practical suggestions to help you enjoy life more, enhance your creativity and get things done.

    If there ever was an equivalent of steroids for focus, this book is it – it’s a great tool to help anyone develop razor sharp focus and churn out quality work.

    After reading this book, I made a number of changes that dramatically sharpened my focus. I have summarised a number of the strategies in the mind map below.

    Create Focus Rituals/Habits: Babauta defines a ritual as a set of actions you repeat habitually.

    He argues that rituals can help us to get into a focused mindset and suggests a number of rituals for the morning, before you begin your work, to help you refocus on your work and for the end of the day. For instance, my morning ritual involves having a shower, eating a bowl of healthy muesli with fresh fruit and 10 minutes of meditation. Nowadays, I resist the urge to check my email and Facebook in the morning.

    Managing Email: A lecturer once told me “You’ll get 10% more done in the day if you don’t check your email first thing in the morning”.

    She was partly right. A more accurate assessment would have been 30%!

    I’ve noticed that when I check my email first thing in the morning I feel slightly out of control for rest of the day. In reactive, agitated mode. Far from proactive, productive and peaceful.

    Babauta states –

    “Have a disconnect time each day. It’s like setting office hours if you’re a professor – you set the times that work best for you, and you can even let people know about these times”.

    Set your office “disconnection” hours and be strict with them (8am – 10am is what works best for me). It’s highly likely that you’ll get the majority of work done for the day during these distraction free hours.

    Take Time to Reflect and Review: Babauta recommends that we create a simplified list of the top three things we need to do in the day and then complete task number 1 before checking email, Facebook, etc.

    Sometimes it’s really tempting to want to check your email before completing the first task. But Babauta states -

    “If you feel the urge to check your email or switch to another task, stop yourself. Breathe deeply. Re-focus yourself. Get back to the task at hand”.


    Help for Addicts:     Don’t kid yourself, Facebook and email is highly addictive. Behavioural psychologist B.F Skinner’s experiments with rats in the skinner boxes illustrated just how addictive unpredictable rewards can be. The reality is Facebook is designed to be addictive. It’s full of unpredictable rewards.

    So let’s face it, some of us need help when it comes to controlling the number of times we log into these sites. That’s where blocker programs come in – they either lock you out of the Internet entirely or certain sites that you specify.

    When it comes to writing on the computer, some of us are easily distracted. Writing programs, such as Write Room and Typewriter, clear away all distractions and take up the whole screen on your computer. Some programs even make the sound of a typewriter as you write (but a word of warning, this gets kind of annoying after awhile!).

    It’s important to note that these applications won’t miraculously solve your problem of getting easily distracted. They are just tools. They will help you sharpen your focus but only if you’re committed and disciplined enough to use them in the first place.

    Take a Digital Detox: We need time away from the Internet, television, video games, etc. Time when we disconnect from these digital devices and immerse ourselves in other creative pursuits that will help us to grow. It’s also important for us to take time to reflect on our lives (when was the last time you sat back and thought, “Am I really doing what I want to be doing with my life?”)

    Babauta suggests –

    “Go on a mini cleanse. Start with something that’s not so scary: perhaps a day, or even half a day. Do this once a week. Later, as you get used to this, try a 2-3 day cleanse and maybe even work your way up to a week.”

    Managing Your Space: Remove 95% of all the posters and bits of paper stuck to your office wall (all I have is a Gantt chart and colourful picture of a Hindu goddess). A clear wall means you have less stuff to be distracted by.

    You may also want to consider investing in a pair of comfortable headphones. Headphones serve two functions – firstly, they block out the noise made by others so you have more attentional resources available. Secondly, they signal to others that you’re deep in thought and don’t want to be disturbed.

    How to Work: Work in focused bursts for 50 minutes (no distractions) and then take a 20-minute break. In your break get away from technological devices. Go for a walk, do some stretches, etc.

    When you work it can also help to get away from your computer and work with just a notepad and pen. Again, it’s most likely that you’ll feel the urge to want to go online when you do this for the first time. If this is the case, take a deep breath and refocus.

    All in all, I really enjoyed reading “Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction”. It was easy to read and written in a clear and focused way. Babauta provides a lot of valuable information and strategies that can easily be incorporated into one’s life.

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    How television commercials can help you learn

    March 24th, 2011 by Jane

    Most of us don’t like them, we tend to ignore them but television commercials can be extremelly clever and tell us a lot about how to learn and memorise information effectively.

    You see advertisers and marketing agencies have a whole range of strategies they use to hook you in and make their clients products memorable. Why do they try so hard to do this? So we buy the products!

    That’s the aim of the advertising game: make mundane, useless products appear so incredibly exciting and memorable that naturally you feel compelled to buy them. Advertisers also want you to think that the product will make you happier. And let’s face it, many advertisers are great at doing this.

    A friend recently posted to Facebook a hilarious ad that I’m sure many of you are familiar with. It’s the Cadbury chocolate ad featuring two children moving their eyebrows wildly.

    As I watched this ad, initially I just laughed and thought ‘How random’. But then I realised the advertisers were onto something which many of us tend to overlook when it comes to learning – advertisers know how to make ideas stick. They make the mundane memorable.

    Since we are bombarded with so much information on a daily basis, advertisers need to find more and more creative ways to get your attention. Bizzare and ridiculous seems to work.

    When it comes to your studies (particularly studying dry, boring subjects) you want to use the tricks of the advertising trade to retain information at a deep level.

    Below I list three different strategies you can use –

    1. Exaggerate the mundane

    So the first thing we can learn from television commercials about effective study is this – exaggerate everything! What we know about learning is that if we visualise or draw out new information in a crazy and exaggerated way it’s more likely that the information will stay in our minds and we’ll be able to recall it far more easily.

    2. Use colour to your advantage

    Have you ever noticed that many fast food company logos are very similar colours – yellows, reds and oranges? The reason for this is that advertisers know that warm colours tend to boost your mood and appetite.

    This brings me to explain the next strategy – use lots of colour when taking notes. Don’t just settle for black pen on white paper. Get out your coloured pens, pencils or crayons and start using them to stimulate your mind, seperate out your ideas and group together similar ideas.

    3. Evoke emotions

    Television ads can also be extremelly emotive. They can make you feel happy and excited or slightly depressed and insecure. We know from academic research that boring, abstract facts don’t tend to stick with us, but powerful emotions do. We always remember the way something made us feel.

    How can we use emotions to learn new information?

    When learning new content, draw people and create an emotive story involving characters. Have you ever noticed someone doodling little people and you couldn’t help but look at what they were drawing? Humans are naturally drawn to quirky characters displaying different emotions. So draw lots of little people on your pages of notes!

    To sum up, you want to bring all of these elements (e.g. emotions, quirkiness/absurdity, colour, and humour) to your studies. You can’t do that by just reading your books and notes over and over and over. Or writing out boring linear style notes.

    But you can do it through visual note taking. Below are some examples of visual notes I created recently whilst working on my PhD (click on images to enlarge):

    You’ll notice my visual notes contain humorous pictures, little people with different facial expressions and a bit of colour. I do this for several reasons. Firstly, taking notes this way is actually fun. All of my brain (not just the left hemisphere) is fully engaged in the learning process.

    In fact, research has found that people who doodle (i.e. draw pictures) while they hear or read information appear to retain approximately 30% more information than non doodlers.

    For far too long the majority of students have been taking boring notes and hoping they’re going to be able to magically retain and recall large amounts of information. Well, in the same way that a boring television ad fails to engage us or be memorable, boring linear style notes won’t be able to do it either.

    It’s time for a visual note revolution in schools and the workplace. Get out some blank white paper, dust off your coloured pens and start doodling!

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    5 strategies to help you write an assignment, thesis or book

    August 1st, 2010 by Jane

    The thought of starting any new writing task (whether it be a blog post, an assignment or a book) can be a daunting one.

    With only ideas in your head and nothing on paper or typed up on your computer, the sight of a blank sheet of paper or empty word document can be paralysing for many of us.

    “Where do I start?” you may ask in an overwhelmed state. You may think to yourself “Ahh, stuff it. Let’s just see what’s happening on Facebook”, “I might just check my email” or “I’ll feel like writing tomorrow, it will be easier tomorrow…hey, I’ll start tomorrow!”

    Ever had an experience like this before?

    I took part in a fantastic course recently called “Turbocharging your writing” run by Hugh Kearns from ithinkwell.com. Although the course was created for university academics and PhD students, the writing techniques are useful for all students (in High school, TAFE or university) and any working professional who needs to write as part of their job.

    Below is a list of a several strategies Hugh shared to help you get into the groove of writing.

    1. Write even when you don’t feel like writing

    Let’s be honest with ourselves, many of us are waiting for the right moment to start writing. Perhaps we think we will be ready after we finish reading a certain article or maybe we think one day we will wake up and feel inspired to write!

    Unfortunately, the movie portrayal of the inspired, passionate writer who locks themselves away for days on end in a cabin to write the perfect bestselling novel has led many of us to believe that one must feel in the right mood to write.

    The reality is you may never feel ready or inspired to write. So what should you do? Hugh Kearns suggests – start writing anyway.

    If we start writing (even if we don’t feel like it) we may find that after 30 minutes or so, as we start to make progress, that we suddenly feel slightly inspired. This in turn makes us want to keep writing.

    2. Make writing a daily habit – Two golden hours worth

    If you look at the lives of great writers like Stephen King and Bryce Courtney, what you’ll notice is that these people write daily. It’s an ingrained habit.

    Woody Allen famously said -

    “90% of success is just showing up”.

    Apparently, the same philosophy applies to writing – 90% of success at writing is just turning up to write!

    In the “Turbocharging your writing” seminar, the facilitator talked about the idea of “assuming the position” to write. By this, he meant sitting down either at your computer or with a pen/pencil in your hand, ready to write. That’s the first step to getting any writing done – you’re just turning up to start the writing process (and my sense is that often this can be the hardest part).

    Hugh then talked about the idea of nailing your feet to the floor to force yourself to write for “Two Golden hours”. He then warned us that during the first 45 minutes of this process, most people experience some level of anxiety and discomfort. It’s common to have thoughts such as “I can’t write this”, “I rather be doing something else” or “This is really hard…”.

    This is completely normal but often what happens is people think that something is wrong when they experience this anxiety. They think that because they’re finding it hard to write, perhaps they should stop and often that’s exactly what they do. Big mistake. “If you just hang in there, the anxiety will eventually disappear” said Hugh Kearns.

    3. Writing is not a linear process

    It’s a myth to think you need to start at the very beginning of your piece of writing and perfect the first sentence before you go on to write the rest.

    Forget the first sentence. That will come in time. I recommend putting all your ideas down on paper and work with that to begin with.

    If you need to have some kind of structure in place before you begin the writing process, try jotting down your ideas on a mind map or writing each idea on post it notes so you can shuffle them around to create a structure. Once you’ve done this, don’t think you need to start writing your introduction or the first paragraph of your essay. Start with the idea you feel most comfortable with and go from there.


    4. Use writing as a form of thinking

    If you’re feeling stuck, write about what you are feeling stuck about. Set your alarm for 5 or 10 minutes time and whatever comes to mind, put it down on paper.

    The key is to keep your hand moving. Don’t stop writing until the alarm goes off.

    Try this out and I bet you’ll be surprised with what kind of insights and creative solutions you come up with.

    5. Write when you are most alert

    If you are trying to make writing a daily habit, then you want to foster positive experiences writing. A few weeks ago, I tried writing at 9pm on a Friday night when I felt exhausted. How do you think I went? It was a horrible experience which ended in tears. Consequently, I didn’t pick up a pen to write for days.

    The fact of the matter is writing is a complicated and mentally exhausting task. For this reason, it doesn’t make sense to do write when you’re tired. Write when you feel most alert and have the energy to do so.

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    The myth and madness of multitasking

    July 9th, 2010 by Jane

    An old Psychology Professor told me recently how he had to write his PhD thesis by hand and paid a lady with a typewriter to type it up for him. Paying typists and drawing graphs by hand was the done thing in academia only a few decades ago.

    How times have changed!

    One could argue that thanks to word processors, the Internet and online journals, today’s students are able to research and write assignments with relative ease. Checking spelling, getting definitions of certain words and gathering information can be done within a matter of minutes, even seconds (depending of course on the speed of your computer and Internet connection).

    Despite these incredible technological advancements, are students today any more productive than people were in the past?

    I don’t think so.

    21st century students face new challenges to getting their work done – overcoming distractions and not succumbing to the myth of multitasking.

    Instead of wasting hours writing up neat notes for a typist, nowadays it’s highly likely that we will waste our time surfing the net, chatting online to our friends, looking at photos on Facebook and reading blogposts (Don’t feel guilty, keep reading!).

    When was the last time you checked your email, had the television on, burned a CD for a friend and received a text message all at once? It seems to have become the norm for many of us to do several things at the same time.

    Once we distracted ourselves with Spider Solitaire but now when we are bored we find ourselves being lured by sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and/or we feel the need to text message a friend or two.

    A Kaiser family foundation study found that young people (8-18 year olds) are now spending an average of more than 7.5 hours a day, seven days a week consuming media (e.g. watching movies and television, surfing the net and playing video games).

    Without a doubt such a sedentary lifestyle is likely to negatively impact on our physical health. Research indicates that since 1985 the rate of obesity in boys has doubled and the rate for girls has tripled in Western Australia. According to the Premier’s Physical Activity Taskforce, one quarter of all Western Australian children are overweight or obese.

    Whilst the physical impacts are obvious and have been for some time, until relatively recently there has been little discussion on the psychological and intellectual impacts of living primarily in virtual worlds and distracting ourselves with online sites, video games and other gadgets as we work.

    A study conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London found that people who were distracted by email and phone calls suffered a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers.

    Another study at the University of California found that workers took an average of 25 minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering email and return to their original task.

    So whilst you may feel like your being efficient as you type up that email and chat to your friend on the phone at the same time (Aren’t you so great? You’re doing all these things at once!), don’t be fooled. You’re actually being less efficient in the long run. In fact, researchers have found that you can be up to 40% slower to complete something when you multitask.

    In addition, it has been found that multitasking prompts the release of stress hormones which can lead to us feeling frustrated, more aggressive and impulsive.

    Professor of Psychology and Neurobiology, Russell Poldrack states -

    “There is a cost to the way that our society is changing. Humans are not built to work this way [multitask]. We’re really built to focus.”

    Some researchers have even gone as far as saying that constant engagement with sites such as Twitter, Bebo and Facebook may be causing changes in our brains that result in humans being more self centrered with shorter attention spans.

    “We know how small babies need constant reassurance that they exist…My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment” states Baroness Susan Greenfield (British Scientist).

    The good news is that you can change the way you work. Just like some people choose to give up smoking, drinking and eating junk food after becoming more aware of the physical and mental health effects, you may now feel compelled to practice focusing on one task at a time and spend less time online.

    Recently, I’ve been testing out various strategies and programs to help me practice the art of focus and kick the habit of distracting myself with Facebook, etc. I’ll share more about these strategies in my next blog post.

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    How to Mind Map for Legal Tests and Exams

    November 13th, 2009 by Jane

    pens-small2A few months ago I finished my double degree in Law and Psychology (with First Class Honours). Don’t think for a second that it was easy for me to do – it took me 8 years and every assignment/exam was difficult. Every step of the way was a challenge.

    When I received my graduation certificate I thought to myself “How did I do it? What helped me get through the past 8 years of study?”

    One thing automatically sprung to my mind: Mind Maps.

    Anything that I was required to learn at university, I had to mind map. Why? Because rote learning no longer worked at Law school. For my legal units I had to really understand the information and mind mapping it all out allowed me to do this.

    Interestingly, a few weeks ago someone sent me this question:

    “I know the mind maps with a main idea on each branch can give a great review of the most essential ideas but the point is that law is full of data, definitions and I’m not sure how to present them….
    So could you share with us some of your legal masterpieces?”

    I would hardly call my mind maps ‘legal masterpieces’ but I’m happy to share them with everyone if it will help to break the illusion that legal mind maps need to be works of art or look a certain way.

    Unlike my legal mind maps, the mind maps on this site (under the resources section) contain very few words. Ideally this is how you want your mind maps to be. Tony Buzan states in his book ‘How to Mind Map’:

    “Use one key word per line. Why? Because single key words give your mind map more power and flexibility. Each single word or image is like a multiplier, generating its own special array of associations and connections…Phrases or sentences dampen this triggering effect.”

    In theory, I really like this idea, but when it comes to the reality of studying several subjects at University and having a heavy workload, I just don’t think many of us would feel totally confident creating mind maps with only one keyword word per line. Speaking for myself, there is this fear that when it comes time to revise these mind maps just before exams, there may not be much triggering action taking place (and instead just a whole heap of confusion and stress).

    How to Mind Map Legal Subjects

    Let me show you one of the mind maps I did for my favourite unit, International Environmental Law (click on image to enlarge).

    enviro-law-small

    You’ll notice I haven’t stuck strictly to Tony Buzan’s advice of writing one key word per line. Based on my experience, I believe that for subjects that require you to learn large amounts of complex information in a short space of time you want to put down important points of law (in more than one word) and perhaps even write whole definitions. If you feel the need to write out a definition on your mind map, make sure that you break it down into pictures (the more personalised, humorous and exaggerated the better).

    Create a Simplified Mind Map of your Mind Maps

    Once you’ve done your detailed mind maps, it’s a good idea to create an overarching mind map that contains significantly less text. You want to do this on one big piece of paper to bring together all the information and clarify things for yourself.

    Mind Mapping Legislation

    Mind maps will be your savior when it comes to understanding confusing and/or complex legislation. Often statutory laws are worded in convoluted ways and have a lot of exceptions. In order to fully understand these laws, I found I had to break down each law into different parts using pictures and coloured pens.

    SGA-SMALL

    For example, section 48(1) of the Sale of Goods Act 1895 states:

    48 Action for price
    (1) Where, under a contract of sale, the property in the goods has passed to the buyer, and the buyer wrongfully neglects or refuses to pay for the goods according to the terms of the contract, the seller may maintain an action against him for the price of the goods.

    This is how I broke down section 48(1) using pictures and different coloured pens:

    s48-small


    Breaking Down Tough Assignments

    It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by hypothetical legal problems that our lecturers throw at us. In order to decrease my stress levels and get clear on the facts of the scenario, I would always mind map out my assignment questions.

    fact-scenario-mindmap-small

    Not Sure How to Mind Map?

    If you are new to mind mapping and not so sure how to go about creating mind maps, I recommend that you read my blog post on How to mind map for study success and also try to get a copy of Tony Buzan’s brilliant little book ‘How to mind map’. Tony Buzan has written several books on mind mapping (some of which are incredibly thick and contain a bit too much waffle). In my opinion ‘How to mind map’ is his best book by far as it is a simple, easy read and gets to the heart of mind mapping (it took me about 30 minutes to read).

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