Hey guys 👋 how's it going, and Welcome to my blog!
(FYI: I also have a facebook page Freedom By Discipline if you'd go give it a "Like" and help it grow!)
Today I'm going to touch on chunking, as its called. Chunking is when a large goal or target is divvied up into a bunch of smaller pieces, or, chunks -- This can convince the brain that a certain activity is more doable since instead of say, going up 10 flights of stairs, a person could instead focus on completing the next flight of stairs, or even just the next 10 steps. It can be very very useful, but sadly, it seems to be used more often for frivolous activities 😒 (guilty)
Lets look at an obviously good example of chunking real quick: Say you had to study for a test that's coming up. The test is over the last 6 chapters that your Econ. teacher went over. Unfortunately for you, that comes to about 200 pages. At face value, that seems like a pretty horrendous amount of work, and your brain isn't going to be ecstatic about the prospect of being bored and dopamine-deprived for that long. But with chunking, you could simply resolve to do at least 10 pages worth of studying right now. You'll find that this takes much less motivation, and once you've done those 10 pages, you can simply resolve to do another 10 pages. Its kind of similar to going to the gym. The hardest part about deciding to go to the gym is getting into the car and starting the engine. After that, its easy, and doing an extra rep or even a couple extra sets is easy since you're already "in the zone." This is especially useful for me with reading. I always forget how fun it is until I sit down and start, then my original goal of just 30 minutes turns into 2 hours and I've got to catch up on my other duties!
Noooow lets look at an example where chunking isn't so great with a personal example from me: Its 8:15 pm, I have 30 minutes until I'm supposed to turn off my computer and start planning out my next day, before reading for an hour and going to sleep. But I just got home and I never got a chance to play my Total War game, so I decide I'll "just play for 30 minutes" and then I'll turn off my computer. But at 8:50, just as I'm totally about to exit out of the game, I get attacked and "need" to fight a battle. That's okay, it'll only take me like 15 minutes. Now its 9:20 and I'm right in the middle of a new thing somehow, so I decide that in another half hour I'll go to bed. Now its 10:00 and the game bugs right at the end of a battle, and I have to freaking re-fight the entire battle. "Ah, its already 10:00, I'll just wrap this up and..." Finally I've shut off my computer and I stare at my watch in astonishment -- its 12:18... My Gosh, what have I done??? True story... smh lol.
I didn't realize this fully until I came across an excellent video done by Improvement Pill (a YouTube channel with 1.1 million subscribers -- I sub'd when he was only at 1 million so you could say I knew him before he became big...) Check it out here ---> 5 Life Hacks for Motivation!
In conclusion, chunking is a pretty powerful tool, but as the saying goes, its a Great Servant, but a Poor Master. So if you take extra notice, you'll be able to prevent yourself from going down the rabbit-hole of wasting time doing useless things, while using chunking instead to quit bad habits (one day, week, or month at a time), preventing procrastination, and taking up good habits like reading, working out, or learning a skill.
Thanks for your time, and remember to "Like" my facebook page Freedom By Discipline
Hello! I just read your blog and its wonderfull! Im currently doing a research paper on chunking method but unfortunately i have very limited access to the sources of chunking methods. Do you have any recommendation of chunking theory resources that i can use? Thank you!
ReplyDelete