3 ms·

The idea of using a timer and setting small goals is absolutely worth a try. Thank you

• TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Another thing I found it useful for: actually thinking things through. It's common for people to face a problem or a question, spend half a second considering it, and then decide that it's undoable / unsolvable / cannot be improved, etc. You'll ask them about it and they'll tell you, "yeah, I thought about it". The trick is to ask yourself - have you spent, like five minutes, honest-to-God, to the clock, thinking about it? If the issue really matters to you, it's pretty much the least you can do - pull out the timer, set it to 5 minutes, and start thinking, not stopping until the timer hits zero. I was surprised just how much one could figure out in 5 minutes of focused thinking / self-brainstorming. I try to apply this method more and more often, especially when I get stuck on some choice, or don't know how to proceed from the point I'm in. But also sometimes for totally random ideas - 5 minutes is enough to think about how to start tackling them, and whether it's worth your time.