The grocery shopper mentality (go away procrastination!)
by shiningsunnyday, Aug 6, 2017, 8:00 PM
You walk in to a grocery store. You have a rough idea of what you want - some coffee, hair spray, and something else you forgot - but more so you just want to shop around for things you may need. Your friend, on the other hand, has his Batman look on while holding on a pre-written shopping list: 6 ounces of cinnamon, 5 pounds of apple, two 8-oz cans of tuna, etc.
20 mins later, your friend is out and onto his next task of the day. You on the other hand, am still on the ice-cream section staring soulfully into the 1000-calorie pint of Haagen Dazs having an existential crisis.
That's the difference between the non-procrastinator and the procrastinator mentality.
Now, this post was inspired because I was that shopper, and also because yesterday something similar occurred.
As y'all know, I've dropped 12 kg this summer (and 15 kg since ISEF) when I got out of Ross. I'm not sure what my weight is now, but shouldn't have changed much. I would, however, still want to drop a few more kg, so I've been restricting my diet after Ross, during my stay at New Haven, and even now.
Yesterday, however, my dad and I had just finished our UPenn info session and campus tour and we got to his friend's house at 2 PM, who had on the table pizza, churros, and a whole chicken. I was already at 500 calories for the day from over-indulging on oatmeal at breakfast, so I knew I didn't have much to spare for lunch. Whatever the host offered me, I thought, I would cap the meal at 600 cals, I thought as I stepped through the door.
Once I saw the cheese-dripping pepperoni pizza and fresh-out-of-the-oven churros, however, everything changed. My mind literally screamed of joy, not for the food, but because I now have an excuse. After all, I can't reject food a host offers me, right?
One smell of the pizza and I was gone. An hour later, I had consumed 4 slices of the large pizza, 2 churros, 2 chicken drumsticks, and a bowl of sweet soup.
Worse, I adopted the mentality of a sinking ship - since I already broke the quota for the day, why not break it as much as I can while I can? 2 bags of chips, a cup of yoghurt, a sandwich and banana later, I dropped dead at the table. As my dad told it was time to leave, I told him to let me lie in the car for an hour - I felt my stomach pushing against my lungs, almost to the point I couldn't breathe.
Fortunately, I made it through the day alive.
As I reflected, the reason I couldn't control myself was because my logical brain found an excuse. That, I now realize, is the source of all sins relating to procrastination. Every human brain has the tendency to seek out the action of getting the most immediate form of reward, so when we hit it with a set of rules, disciplines, and quotas like those necessary for weight loss, math training, or whatever, it will find any possible way to find itself an excuse.
In essence, it was so easy for me to lose weight at Ross because the only food source available to me was the dining hall. After the first few days, I knew all the food options available so I always knew where the chicken breast, salad bar, etc. was. The other good thing is that I gathered all my food before settling down to eat. That way, I could estimate my calories and macros before even taking my first bite. It's the same way the professional grocery shopper goes in knowing exactly what he/she needs, nothing more.
I.e. before every meal, I knew exactly what I was going to eat and how much of each. Having that planted in my mind makes it hard to get anything extra.
And doing that everyday was how I dropped 12 kg in 6 weeks.
So to sum it up, the secret to any kind of long-term goal (from weight loss to grades) is discipline - planning every step along the way and setting up a good system that will avoid as many "surprises" as possible.
As for math training, however, it's a bit different.
If you truly love math, the premise for this advice post fails, for your brain will find math enjoyable and use any available free time to think about math and work subconsciously anyways.
This advice however can be valuable for those not at the level of their math journey where they love math genuinely for the sake of enjoyment, i.e. the first year or two where you have to force yourself to sit down to do math. Basically, the more discipline, the better.
Finally, an update: I'm currently visiting another family friend near Brown. I'll be at Boston tomorrow to visit MIT on Tues, and flying back to San Fran on Wed to see my mom while touring Stanford (again) and UCB. I'll be flying back to Shanghai on Friday.
I'll try my best to write a post on Ross (hopefully) soon as well as some other thoughts and college apps and stuff.
20 mins later, your friend is out and onto his next task of the day. You on the other hand, am still on the ice-cream section staring soulfully into the 1000-calorie pint of Haagen Dazs having an existential crisis.
That's the difference between the non-procrastinator and the procrastinator mentality.
Now, this post was inspired because I was that shopper, and also because yesterday something similar occurred.
As y'all know, I've dropped 12 kg this summer (and 15 kg since ISEF) when I got out of Ross. I'm not sure what my weight is now, but shouldn't have changed much. I would, however, still want to drop a few more kg, so I've been restricting my diet after Ross, during my stay at New Haven, and even now.
Yesterday, however, my dad and I had just finished our UPenn info session and campus tour and we got to his friend's house at 2 PM, who had on the table pizza, churros, and a whole chicken. I was already at 500 calories for the day from over-indulging on oatmeal at breakfast, so I knew I didn't have much to spare for lunch. Whatever the host offered me, I thought, I would cap the meal at 600 cals, I thought as I stepped through the door.
Once I saw the cheese-dripping pepperoni pizza and fresh-out-of-the-oven churros, however, everything changed. My mind literally screamed of joy, not for the food, but because I now have an excuse. After all, I can't reject food a host offers me, right?
One smell of the pizza and I was gone. An hour later, I had consumed 4 slices of the large pizza, 2 churros, 2 chicken drumsticks, and a bowl of sweet soup.
Worse, I adopted the mentality of a sinking ship - since I already broke the quota for the day, why not break it as much as I can while I can? 2 bags of chips, a cup of yoghurt, a sandwich and banana later, I dropped dead at the table. As my dad told it was time to leave, I told him to let me lie in the car for an hour - I felt my stomach pushing against my lungs, almost to the point I couldn't breathe.
Fortunately, I made it through the day alive.
As I reflected, the reason I couldn't control myself was because my logical brain found an excuse. That, I now realize, is the source of all sins relating to procrastination. Every human brain has the tendency to seek out the action of getting the most immediate form of reward, so when we hit it with a set of rules, disciplines, and quotas like those necessary for weight loss, math training, or whatever, it will find any possible way to find itself an excuse.
In essence, it was so easy for me to lose weight at Ross because the only food source available to me was the dining hall. After the first few days, I knew all the food options available so I always knew where the chicken breast, salad bar, etc. was. The other good thing is that I gathered all my food before settling down to eat. That way, I could estimate my calories and macros before even taking my first bite. It's the same way the professional grocery shopper goes in knowing exactly what he/she needs, nothing more.
I.e. before every meal, I knew exactly what I was going to eat and how much of each. Having that planted in my mind makes it hard to get anything extra.
And doing that everyday was how I dropped 12 kg in 6 weeks.
So to sum it up, the secret to any kind of long-term goal (from weight loss to grades) is discipline - planning every step along the way and setting up a good system that will avoid as many "surprises" as possible.
As for math training, however, it's a bit different.
If you truly love math, the premise for this advice post fails, for your brain will find math enjoyable and use any available free time to think about math and work subconsciously anyways.
This advice however can be valuable for those not at the level of their math journey where they love math genuinely for the sake of enjoyment, i.e. the first year or two where you have to force yourself to sit down to do math. Basically, the more discipline, the better.
Finally, an update: I'm currently visiting another family friend near Brown. I'll be at Boston tomorrow to visit MIT on Tues, and flying back to San Fran on Wed to see my mom while touring Stanford (again) and UCB. I'll be flying back to Shanghai on Friday.
I'll try my best to write a post on Ross (hopefully) soon as well as some other thoughts and college apps and stuff.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by shiningsunnyday, Aug 6, 2017, 8:02 PM
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