Winston Churchill famously said, “Fail to plan, plan to fail.” This is a highly simplistic maxim that contains a surprising amount of truth. During my time at university, one of the most common things people would say to me upon hearing I studied maths was, “I could never do maths; I hate exams too much.” I was confused by this for a long time, for I’d never found anything particularly objectionable about them. In fact, when presented with a series of straightforward questions to which I could rattle off the answers, I found them oddly satisfying. Looking back, however, I see that my agreeable experience was purely down to the many hours I’d spent poring over textbooks and working through scores of past papers in preparation. Had I failed to practice as I did, I expect I would have been expressing the same contempt for exams as my classmates. Clearly then, the role that effective planning plays in exams is vital, but its function extends far beyond the more trivial case of an exam. The purpose of this post is to show you how getting organised and learning to enjoy planning can make your life more stress-free and fulfilling, as well as free up more time for you to do the things you love.
Modern Science details two contrasting states of mind; the mind-wandering state and the central executive state. The first is widely considered the default or resting mode of the mind. If ever you’ve spent a long relaxing day on a beach or lost track of time on a much-needed rest day, you will likely relate to this. On the other hand, when the central executive state is active, we are in a stay-on-task mode whereby we are heavily focused on what we’re doing. As Daniel Levitin points out in his book The Organised Mind, the term “paying attention” is highly appropriate as it reflects the idea that we are dipping into a limited pool of concentration. When this resource is depleted, we have spent all our powers of attention and find ourselves unable to focus. These two distinct states of mind are mutually exclusive and in opposition, the battle between them being responsible for the difficulty we often experience settling into a mindset conducive to working or studying.
While this mind-wandering state is often associated with reverie and high levels of creativity, it does come with a flip side. The daydreaming mode is also responsible for the various unwelcome reminders we receive regarding things that need to be done and significant decisions that need to be made, impeding our ability to focus fully on what we’re doing at present. These prompts can be unrelenting and are often accompanied by anxiety-inducing stories forecasting how things might end in disaster if we make poor decisions or keep postponing them. Due to the incessant nature of these thought patterns, psychologists refer to them as “rehearsal loops.” Clearly, these loops serve an essential purpose as they remind us to act on things we perceive on some level to be urgent. Yet they can torment us when we try to focus our attention elsewhere, such as on tasks that require the executive function, on enjoying a social occasion, or on trying to get to sleep. From a mindfulness point of view, these repetitive thought patterns prevent us from being fully present and experiencing life as it manifests from moment to moment. Mindfulness practitioners therefore seek to bring awareness to these thoughts and recognise them for what they are — simply, appearances in consciousness. By noticing thoughts as they arise, we can stop identifying with them, thereby undermining their ability to hijack our minds and negatively affect our emotional state.
While I’m not suggesting you drop everything you’re doing and attempt to eliminate thought entirely, I will give you some convenient strategies to use to reduce the anxiety induced by the mind-wandering state. The first of these requires you to keep a set of plain cards small enough to fit in your pocket. As you go about your day, jot down noteworthy thoughts as they occur, storing them in a safe place for later review. I suggest you do this on cards rather than on your phone because the inevitable distractions caused by your phone will be counterproductive. Such notes could relate to an email you need to write, a birthday to remember, or a revelatory million-pound idea you’ve had (just make sure you don’t drop this card for a passing opportunist to stumble upon!). You’ll then want to allocate some time to organise your cards depending on the manner or urgency of their contents. Furthermore, I would recommend you set aside a small amount of time to do this every day. While daily maintenance undoubtedly requires discipline, regular attendance to tasks prevents them from accumulating to the point at which you’re too afraid to so much as glance in the direction of your unending to-do list. The technique outlined above works by appeasing the mind-wandering part of your brain as it assures it that you will eventually deal with the concerns with which it’s bombarding you.
When it comes to time management, using a calendar is crucial (either a physical or online one will do). The first thing I would recommend is to enter all your deadlines into the calendar so that you absolutely can’t miss them. Next, make a to-do list for each day, categorise and colour-code your tasks logically, and then time-block them into your calendar with their respective colours. By introducing colour to our calendars, the entries are more distinctive, allowing us to process the information faster and with a lower risk of misinterpretation. It’s tempting to fill up your whole working day with assignments, but it’s important to leave time to transition between them. Furthermore, leave some white space every day to deal with anything unexpected that might arise. Failing to account for the unpredictable can lead to frustration as it prevents us from completing everything we had intended to do. The last thing to bear in mind when time-blocking is how long you can realistically expect to focus. If your concentration power is low, you might want to consider breaking your time up into smaller chunks using an approach such as the Pomodoro Method. On the other hand, if you find yourself able to focus for long periods at a time, doing so may be preferable, as this way, you will maximise the time spent in deep concentration.
While some people might associate an organised life with one lacking spontaneity and excitement, I would argue that effective organisation allows you to work through your less attractive tasks more efficiently, leaving you more time at the end of the day to do the things that genuinely excite you. Furthermore, the mental clutter eliminated by effective organisation frees up mental space for greater clarity of thought and increased creativity, making your work tasks more pleasurable. As a result, your ability to complete all your work (and to a high standard) will increase your enjoyment of leisure and social activities as you no longer find yourself perturbed by nagging rehearsal loops. An organised life will thus reduce background anxiety, an effect that will be felt not just by you but also by those around you. While implementing an organisational system doesn’t go without effort, neither does attempting to store vast amounts of information in your head. Moreover, the question of which approach provides more impressive long-term results seems a no-brainer to me.
Now, you may be wondering what the implications of these ideas are for education and accelerating the academic development of adolescents. Well, here it is: While many students can get through school with satisfactory grades on little more than innate capability, it’s unlikely this will continue as they progress through the education system and academic expectation grows more demanding. Furthermore, there is a considerable difference between excelling and getting by with the minimum effort necessary. It’s worth bearing in mind also that the effect high achievement can have on a student’s confidence is hard to understate. Getting organised is one of the best ways a student can seek to improve their school performance as it helps them stay on top of their workload, prepare appropriately for tests using the methods outlined above, and act on feedback provided to them by teachers and peers. These factors can drastically reduce anxiety in adolescents — particularly those who experience it most acutely — for it reduces the number of unknowns in their life and allows them to feel more in control. It also allows them to engage the central executive mode more frequently, a state of mind less susceptible to potentially destabilising rehearsal loops.
When a student becomes more organised, they require less supervision to complete their work. This greater level of independence is highly desirable since too much parental wheedling leaves the child with the impression that the point of their work is to appease others, rather than take advantage of a valuable learning opportunity. In addition, these interactions can be subtly harmful to the parent-child relationship, particularly when they occur over a long time. Having fewer of these exchanges will therefore result in a more harmonious home life for all. It’s also important to recognise that the quality of an assignment produced by a student who requires constant nagging will be far lower than that of a student who’s undertaken it of their own volition. Now, all this is not to say that teenagers should be left entirely to their own devices (especially not technological ones!), but simply that responsibility should be handed over at an appropriate rate. While teenagers can initially be resistant to adopting responsibility, the change seen in them when they inevitably assume it is profound. They become more resourceful and whole, empowered by the realisation that the capacity to shape their future lies in their own hands. This acknowledgement is a fundamental and necessary milestone in their maturation process, and every time I see a student reach this turning point I’m reminded afresh of what makes working with young people so rewarding.
Since organisation is a skill, it requires time and effort to develop an effective approach to it. So, if a student hopes to be competent at managing their time and working efficiently by the time they reach A-levels (which is certainly advisable), it’s crucial they already have some practice under their belt. Moreover, different approaches work better for some than others, so it’s important they experiment with these methods sooner rather than later. Failing to investigate will leave them blind to a wealth of valuable information, and sometimes, just the discovery of a simple trick can have a drastic effect on the way we go about our work.
In summary, successfully harnessing organisational techniques can significantly benefit our lives and those of the people around us. The capability to proficiently handle ourselves minimises unnecessary stress and anxiety in our lives and makes us easier to work and live with. Having outsourced as much mental clutter as possible to the external world, we can bring more attention to our inner world, becoming more present and focused on everything we do. Furthermore, by passing on these skills to the upcoming generations, we help them become more independent, confident, and resourceful young people, setting them up properly for the many opportunities and challenges they’ll be presented with. If you want to impact your child or a loved one and you’re not sure where to start, start with yourself. By committing to living a better life, you will lead by example and others will soon follow suit. So, if you haven’t got an organisational system that works for you, find one, stick to it, and see what happens. It’s time to get organised.
Sam Richardson
Founder
My Maths Coach