3 Thinking Myths: Thinking too much make you crazy

Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/willposh/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Using our brain to think, plan, and strategy is important. In the process of evolution, animals lose features that are not used. So why does human being carry around a huge brain? Why to use it, of course. Our brain is the nexus for our survival this cut-throat human civilization.

Those who are able to use their brain well will progress thru life. Those who does not will face extinction. However, there always about of people in this world who would discourage others from thinking. Or at least mislead them into thinking differently. Below are three common thinking myths:

#1. Thinking too much will makes you crazy.

As a kid, I used to hear that thinking too much will make you crazy. Crazy as in having mental illness and being confined in a mental institution. It's was hard for me to deny this belief especially when it came from my parents. It's really does discourage me from thinking.

But is thinking too much really does cause you to go crazy?

There are many causes to mental illness but thinking is not one of them. See WebMD LLC for more information. Link: http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/mental-health-causes-mental-illness

There is probably some basis in what my parents have advised me. Mental illness can be caused by anxiety, depression, paranoia and the inability to "move on" in your life. I rephrase what my parents have taught into:

"Thinking long and hard is okay as long as you have the capability to cope with traumatic and abusive past or current experiences in your life."

#2. Thinking doesn't consume much energy

As a kid (again), I heard from one of my teachers that thinking consume little to no energy at all. If Albert Einstein were to go to work, where he would think all day long, the amount of energy he needs can be replenish by eating a small bean.

This is utterly not true. When idle, our brain consume 20% of our energy while only consist of 2% of our weight. When we think, our brain consume much more energy.

There is such thing as mental exhaustion. Our brain is a muscle and just like any other muscle in our body, sufficient rest is need in order for our brain to perform in peak condition.

Therefore, when you in an intensive thinking session, take short intermission of rest. Clear your mind and meditate. This greatly prolong your thinking session.

#3. You only uses 10% of your brain. Genius uses up to 100% of their brain.

While studying, I attended a motivational course where the instructor for that course states that only 10% of our brain is being used. That is like using only 1 out of 10 of our fingers. The rest of the motivational course is about learning how to tap into our sub-conscious and unconscious mind in order to maximize our brain usage.

Firstly, the fact is, we utilize our entire brain. We just don't use 100% of it at any given time. The fact that we only use 10% of it doesn't have anything to do with our mental capacity. Remember where I talk about our brain using 20% of our energy while idle? If we were to use 50% of our brain cells, we probably deprive of energy to the rest of the body.

Then, there is the issue of all those heat generated. The reason why there is massive amount of blood flowing into our head is not just to transfer oxygen for the brain. Our blood also transfer head from our brain. Clearly, there is a physically limit to how many percentage of our brain that we can utilize at any given time.

End Note

There are a lot of other brain myth that I don't talk about. However, I am only interested in those myth that prevent us from thinking hard and strategizing like our very life depends on it. I hope this article helps you to understand more about your thinking capability.

Do you have any thinking myth you will like to share?

 
Read more...

The Principle of Least Important

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/amirjina/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done has a good idea. According to him, you should separate your collect from your process, and action. That pretty much sums up his book. I find that idea to be very true and had applied it ever since.

Wait a minute, what do you mean, that’s it? David Allen initiated the productivity revolution, no? He inspired countless of productivity blogs, productivity book, and productivity Moleskine. Shouldn’t I give more credit to the David Allen, the foremost authority in Productivity? Shouldn’t I give more credit to the book of the 21st century?

Sorry, but Dave’s book ain’t no book of the century. I hate to break your heart, but Dave only has one good idea. A year after I read the book, I’ve forgotten most of the content in his book. The truth is, the purported “system” peddled in the book are either common enough to be found in other books or doesn’t work. Do you know why it doesn’t work? It’s because Dave left out the-principle-of-least-important.

The-principle-of-least-important states that the least important task in your life does not get done. Never! Don’t even be mistaken that I am saying that a least-important-task should be put into your on-hold bin until there is a time where you are free to complete that task. That task should not be complete, ever, in this lifetime, if there are more important tasks in your hand.

Importance is Subjective

What matters more is subjective. Deciding how important a task is can be sometimes difficult. It depends on how critical is the task to your strategy, the task urgency level, and the current situation.

Criticalness

Some tasks are so important that they need to be done or else dire consequences will follow. These are the critical task. There is no way of avoiding these task which out suffering huge losses in life.

Strategy

All tasks that you choose to do should provide some sort of benefit. Thus, all tasks that you do are important. Even the most trivial task like brushing your teeth and washing your hands can have greater impact to your life than your vocation.

You must be aware of how each and every task that you do provides benefit that contributes to your goal. Some task provides more benefit thus more impact, others less.
Only then will you be able to determine which is more important.

Urgency

Some tasks have to be done right away as soon as those tasks appear. However, not all urgent tasks are critical. Some urgent tasks can be ignored without suffering any noticeable consequences. Some can be delegated or delayed without jeopardizing any good will. Other urgent task can be simply completed with lower quality, saving us time and effort, without impacting our long-term goals.

Situation

Things change. What is not important now can suddenly be more important. Datelines can suddenly be cut short, opportunities can suddenly becomes scare. You must revise your strategy and change the importance of your task according to your situation. The key to success is objectivity, adaption, and improvisation.

 

Simplified Priority level

In electronics, all requests that is made into the microprocessor have priority levels. The priority levels are clear-cut. There is no confusion. Request with Level 1 priority beats requests Level 2 priority. We will categorize our tasks priority into clear cut manner.

The priority levels are as below:

H – High
M1 – Medium High
M2 – Medium Medium
M3 – Medium Low
L –Low

You might be asking why there is no H1, H2, H3, L1, L2, or L3. Well, I am keeping the priorities level simple. All high priorities task needs to be completed so there is no point putting additional level for high priorities. All low priorities task are too trivial. It doesn’t matter much which task you complete. If you have the time but can’t decide, just simply grab one.

Stop Doing the Least Important Task When Interrupted

One of the productivity pitfalls that people felt into happens when they are interrupted. Especially when we are interrupted contacting by trivial issues. We stop doing our current task and instead focus our attention on the new task without giving a hoot on whether it is important or not!? This habit is like a plague. It does not make sense at all once you realize how illogical the situation.

Follow the process flow below if you wish to redeem your productive self.

End note

The-principle-of-least-important states that the least important task in your life does not get done. You will need to be able to determine the importance of your task according to your long-term strategy, the task criticalness and urgency, and the current situation. Lastly, do not let the less important task interrupt your more important task
Read more...