Featured
Stories

Atakan Eligüzel (he/him/his), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

We live in a society obsessed with how to impress others with talent and possession, instead of pursuing a happy life. Hours spent working and studying mean more to people than what we have learned and done. 

When we say we go to the gym, others ask, “How often do you go to the gym?” or “How many hours do you spend doing cardio?” They never ask how you feel about it, or the changes it brings to your life. It is easier to compare hours and days than emotions and subtle internal changes.

From a very young age, we learn that people concentrate on numbers instead of quality. We start to undervalue the importance of what we have learned and how we have improved ourselves. As highly complex social animals, our sense of self-worth and confidence comes from how society sees us. It is no surprise that most of us tend to give greater importance to time management to boost our confidence.

Our obsession with time hurts our well-being by making us forgetful of how much we get from the time we spend. I’d like to share some insights about how we should treat learning and time management.

1. We Learn While Doing Nothing

It sounds crazy, I know, but your room wall is the best teacher when it comes to acquiring information and keeping it inside your brain. When we push out the urge to be productive and take time to internalize, we learn better and forget less. If you are reading a book, it is a good idea to take your time and reflect on it before starting to read another. What kind of message does the book try to convey? What is the main conflict? By doing that, you scratch the surface, get into the deeper layers, and find an immense opportunity to think beyond borders.

Sometimes, it is better to take a coffee and relax than to try watching educational videos that will slip away from your mind. 

2. Abusing Your Willpower Doesn’t Help

Just. Do. It. If you fail to do, that is your weakness. If you succeed, then it is your strength. As these motivational messages have made their place in our collective memory, we have developed an abusive relationship with our willpower. This attitude doesn’t help us to build long-time habits. You simply cannot make a decision overnight. Prior to that decisive moment, you need to have a good plan, understand your weaknesses and strengths, and internalize how your decision will help you. These cognitive processes take time. If you try to rush, you might fail to find the motivation you need to pursue your goals.

3. Don’t Think of a Pink Elephant

You look at the mirror and realize you are not content with your body shape. You try to lose some weight you gained last winter. And there is a chocolate bar left from your friend’s birthday inside the fridge. Your body is craving it. You cannot think of anything else but sweet sweet chocolate. 

But what if you are determined and don’t want to eat the chocolate? Throw it away or give it to your neighbor. The best way to avoid unnecessary cravings is to make the thing you are craving IMPOSSIBLE to satisfy. Since your brain thinks that going into a supermarket and buying the chocolate is too much of a hurdle, it will lose interest in the chocolate bar you were craving a minute ago. 

Imagine an independent “desire” calculator in your brain that evaluates the cost of the action in relation to the reward. If you want to avoid doing something, you have to either increase the cost of the action or decrease the reward.

—

Atakan Eligüzel is a writer who enjoys sharing his opinions and perspectives on various subjects and issues. He was born and has spent most of his life in Istanbul, and enjoys the privilege of knowing people from different backgrounds, who often have diverse perspectives.