Brain Training to Beat Procrastination with the World's Easiest Learning Technique | Barbara Oakley

Brain Training to Beat Procrastination with the World's Easiest Learning Technique

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This 25-minute learning technique is one of the simplest in the world. It's also one of the most effective, says professor of engineering Barbara Oakley.Learning is not always easy, and there may be a biological reason for that. Engineering professor Barbara Oakley teaches the world's largest online open class, commonly referred to as MOOCs. So you might be wondering what subject attracts more people than any other free online course? Learning to learn better is what Oakley teaches. One of the most effective techniques she knows of was created by an Italian named Francesco Cirillo, and you may have heard of it. It's called the Pomodoro Technique. What makes the technique so effective is that it trains your brain to concentrate for 25 minutes. What's so magical about 25 minutes? Research shows that your brain suffers for 20 minutes when you first try to concentrate, so outlasting that pain will help you get into a flow state of focus. You'll just need to summon the willpower to put your phone away. Barbara Oakley's most recent book is Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential, and you can find the Mindshift course here.
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BARBARA OAKLEY :

Barbara Oakley, PhD, is a professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning at McMaster University. Her research involves bioengineering with an emphasis on neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Alongside legendary neuroscientist Terrence Sejnowski, Dr. Oakley teaches two massive open online courses (MOOCs), 'Learning How to Learn,' the world's most popular course, and 'Mindshift,' the companion course to her most recent book of the same title.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Barbara Oakley: The Pomodoro technique is probably one of the most powerful techniques in all of learning. So I teach a course of learning how to learn that’s actually the world’s largest massive open online course. We have something like two million people. And the Pomodoro technique is the most popular technique; I hear from literally thousands of people. And I have to give credit to the creator, who was Francesco Cirillo. He developed this technique in the early 1980s. And it’s so simple that really anybody can do it.

So all you have to do is turn off all distractions. So no little ringy-dingys on your cell phone or anything like that; on your computer you want to turn off any kind of messages that might arise. Set a timer for 25 minutes, and then just focus as intently as you can for those 25 minutes.

Now if you’re like me, you’ll start focusing away and you’re working away, and then you look up at the timer and two minutes have passed. Then my brain goes, “I’ve only done two minutes? I can’t do another 23 minutes on this Pomodoro!” And I let the thought just go right on by, and I return my focus to whatever I’m working on. And when that 25 minutes is up I relax a little bit. I turn my attention to something else.

Now I will admit that if I really get into the flow of what I’m doing that I will continue sometimes. You might wonder why that 25 minutes is the magic number, and the reality is we don’t really know. There’s not a lot of research on the Pomodoro technique which is surprising because it’s so incredibly popular and people find it very useful.

But there’s an interesting tidbit related to the Pomodoro technique, and that is that: when you even just think about something that you don’t like very much it activates a portion of the brain that experiences pain. And so the brain naturally enough shifts its attention to something else, anything else, like Facebook or Twitter or something like that. And what you’ve just done is you’ve procrastinated.

And what the Pomodoro technique does, when you do it you’re setting that timer. You don’t want to sit there and think, “I am going to finish this homework set” or “I’m going to work on this problem and get it all finished.” You just want to think, “I’ve got 25 minutes where I just have to work on something.” Don’t even think about what that something is. What that does is it slips in under your brain’s radar. It doesn’t activate so much that pain in your brain; and then that pain in the brain, research has shown it lasts for 20 minutes.

So if you work for 25 minutes you will suddenly find yourself getting into the flow because you’ve gone past that painful period. So the Pomodoro technique is effective in many different some very subtle ways and so I highly recommend it.

[aurumtheend]

I am definitely not procrastinating by watching this video… yeah…

[criticalbil]

The Pomodoro technique is really effective. I think she missed one vital detail, an element that will really improve your time management.

Before you start your timer, figure out your goal or goals for that 25-minute period.

What do you think you ought be able to get done in that time? You can note down your intentions if you want, but you don't have to. Then: go!

Once the time reaches 25 minutes, stop working. Reflect: did you underestimate or overestimate the time those intended tasks would take? Or maybe you were accurate. In the early days, I tended to underestimate the tasks I'd chosen. You'll learn something from this.

Now decide what you're going to achieve in the next 25-minute period. Then start the timer again.

The periods of reflection and planning between the 25-minute work periods shouldn't take more than about ten minutes. You could set a timer for those too. I find them really helpful.

Most people agree that it's good to take a proper break after about four 25-minute Pomodoros.

See what works for you ☺️

[Thomas-pqys]

I'm ADD.... recently I wanted to build a dry stacked stone wall for terraces i dug with a borrowed backhoe (which was fun).

This dig produced a huge pile of stone... it sat for well over a year. It hit me that I wanted completion.

I began working. It was hard work, and I got sore. I then decided (without knowing the name) this technique. I set a kitchen timer for a half hour. I went at it daily.

As the days went by, I got into it, and often worked longer. I was seeing progress, and that was inspiring.

My soreness ceased, and I was working for over an hour at a time now. I completed the job. Finishing it was kind of meh.... like my brain was... "ok, what's next?"

Now I have a method to take on tasks I've been avoiding. Yaaayyyy!

[silvrblds]

I've tried this on my project that I procrastinated on for two months and I finished it in two days.

[AbudBakri]

I procastinate to procastinate, the ultimate procastineption

[ChaosmanOne]

I've inadvertently been doing this my entire life. I'll be doing something and suddenly be like, "Hey, why am I so hungry all of a sudden?" *Looks at time - 8 hours have passed* "OMG, I was supposed to go to work today!"

[RuslanaNess]

still watching youtube videos instead of studying for exams :(

[rainbowwaffles]

Thanks Barbara. Hope to hear more from you.

[mamig]

[insert ironic procrastination joke here]

[Fernando-ugf]

I already did this course some months ago and it's very effective

[Voidsworn]

I started doin the Pomodoro about a week or so ago after watching a video aimed at helping med students (I am studying for my electronics enginneering associates degree). So far, pretty damn good, works well. My classmates find it amusing as they get to hear my alarm go off every 25 min followed by me leaving the lab and then returning shortly.

[titogoongoonsmith]

3 minutes and 36 seconds of my life I'll never get back...

[esudo]

She has an amazing course on Coursera.

[ironstevie]

Ah! Another great video on my subs list! *Adds Video to watch-later-list*

[del--xuxk]

We should study the Pomodoro technique using neuroscience, psychology, and biometrics to find out how effective it really is.

[JorgeMacau]

I totally agree with everything you said, because your approach has a scientific foundation and you add some smart strategies to move our brain away from the "pain" it experiences whenever it deals with something not so pleasant to do.

[hobofuture]

What about the thing that cause pain? Where does that go? Does it get resolved via the subconscious or suppressed until a later date (or other)? I guess it would depend on a lot of variables such as what happened in your life afterwards. Chance might dictate that it would be resolved by a random encounter, correct?

[BrandonAngelDragon]

I've used it. It works. The problem with the technique is, not procrastinating on starting the clock. Admittedly once you do, you get things done. If you don't, well, procrastination I guess.

[CalvinHodgson]

Oh, my 5-minute pomo break is done... back to reading and quizzes.

[williamchamberlain]

There's that Japanese thing of starting a new practice/skill/habit with just one or two minutes each day, but _every_ day, to build it as a habit that's not an imposition on your mental schedule.